Nobody likes a killjoy yet I've found myself falling into that role over and over and over again when it's come (mostly) to horror movies in 2025; I just haven't been on consensus this year. God forbid. But it seems to've been my review of writer-director Zach Cregger's Weapons, which stormed the box office this past weekend, which seems to've annoyed people the most... even though I gave the movie a mostly good review! I gave it a fresh Red Apple on that dastardly Tomatometer! I just have several nits to pick with the film that seem to really be killing people's joy, if the comments on said post are to be believed, and there's one I really want to address since it's a subject I've spent most of my writing career (lol "career") contemplating.
Annoyed at the should-know-better homosexual’s comment on my review saying we fought for the equality to be played as weirdo jokes and get murdered in horror movies so I’ll probably go off on that at MNPP tomorrow, stay tuned!
— Jason Adams (@jamnpp.bsky.social) August 10, 2025 at 10:05 AM
Yeah that's the one. Specifically people seem annoyed with the following passage from my review (and yes I'm diving head-first into SPOILERS at this point so beware if you haven't seen the movie and care):
"And oh right lest we forget there’s the homophobic portion of our evening’s entertainment, the chapter involving Marcus (Benedict Wong, great and not in the least at fault for the way these scenes are framed). He’s the school’s gay principal and he’s who, along with his hissing stereotype of a partner (they love weiners and have Mickey and Minnie t-shirts, haha!), the film really relishes giving a heftily violent what-for. Killing your gays is so in y’all."
Marcus' partner is named Terry and I honestly don't know if I'll see a more offensive-to-me image in the movies this year than the one of Terry mincingly holding up two boxes of Fruity Pebbles in the grocery store. And that really has nothing to do with the "killing your gays" trope -- although yes I'll get to that -- it has to do with it feeling as if Weapons is actively laughing at these characters for being gay. It's not that I mind "sissies" in real life -- nobody's ever mistaken me for the captain of the football team y'all. It's that the movie thinks these gigantic queens are weird and hilarious and so fucking gay -- aren't they so fucking gay??? So many weiners! Plates and plates of weiners! High-larious!
And yes I will admit I've lost some of my humor here in 2025 on this subject. But I feel as if any sane fucking queer person should be right there alongside me in the same humorless goddamned boat. Look around. Our rights are being ripped away. Marriage Equality is probably going to be gone in the next year. Trans service members are being ripped out of service and denied retirement benefits right now, right this second, and it'll be the rest of the rainbow next. They are coming for us all with terrifying methodical swiftness and all of our systems of defense are failing.
So yeah ten years ago I also might've been making the case, as has been made in the comments on my review, that some modern version of cinematic equality sees gays getting to die in horror movies just like straight characters do. And sure, okay -- in a utopia there's something to that. Maybe just don't turn them into cartoonish stereotypes before that? Maybe we can be main characters once in awhile? And maybe don't have it be the gay characters love for one another that becomes what kills them. Weapons gives us no reason to give a shit about Marcus & Terry's relationship before Marcus is forced to murder Terry by smashing their faces together over and over again, which -- it's not a fucking stretch to see this as "men kissing men" weaponized.
So yes -- we argued that we gays should be able to die in horror movies just like straights. It's just -- JFC did the storytellers immediately take us up on that offer, like gangbusters. In the past month I've seen (SPOILER for The Gilded Age ahead) a gay dude trampled by horses in front of his lover on The Gilded Age. I've seen a gay couple in the horror movie Together (SPOILER for Together ahead) turn out to be the weirdo freak cult leaders who've come to pervert the straight couple and turn them into non-binary monsters. And now I have seen this sequence -- in a movie I mostly liked otherwise! -- and... I dunno. I'm just pretty tired y'all. So cut me some slack if I kind of come off like this most of the time:
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19 comments:
Well, I wasn't going to see this until it hit streaming as is, but now after reading this, I feel validated in making that decision.
Between this and the use of the f slur in the director's previous film Barbarian, starting to think there's something Zack Cregger needs to tell us...
Few episodes behind and thanks for the spoiler warning on Together which I have no intention of seeing, and not that massive Gilded Age spoiler.
Sorry about that -- too late for you now I acknowledge, but I did go and add a spoiler warning for that now. I was furiously pounding this post out and am not surprised I missed some stuff.
It does seem like in the current hellscape we live in, movies are getting more open with their homophobia. I found Anora and Gladiator 2 to be pretty homophobic and no mainstream reviews/press really called them out. Hopefully lazy and bigoted writing like this starts getting addressed openly
Thanks for saying this. The other characters, even when made fun of, had a certain dignity (cop's gf seemed to be a joke then gets a nice scene later that rounds her out a bit). But sissy husband is just that, sissy husband. Bummed me out in such a fun movie.
For what it’s worth, the hotdog thing is a callback to Trevor Moore, a deceased member of Zach Creggar’s Whitest Kids U'Know comedy troupe.
https://x.com/Lulamaybelle/status/1954981757561999558
I discovered the "accident" on the Gilded Age the day after the episode aired through social media; I had not watched that episode. I have not watched that episode and will not watch that or any others. A viewer lost because Fellowes' needed to "bury the gays".
I didn't care to watch it but now I know I would have avoided it anyways. Thanks!
I’m really not ever one to be offended by movies and TV shows—really, really I’m not—but I totally agree with you about this. And it speaks to why I didn’t like the movie in general; it’s arch and jokey rather than genuinely scary or disturbing. All of the characters are ciphers and stereotypes. It’s constantly letting the audience off the hook.
Thank you for validating me on this. I left the theatre with a bad taste in my mouth last night, and over the past day its only gotten worse. It also frustrates me that the gay characters in this got the MOST gruesome deaths in the film. I'm a queer horror writer and believe that EVERYONE'S lives should be on the line, and some/most of them are going to die in a horror film, that includes gay people. But this just AGGRESSIVELY felt like overkill.
As a gay, I didn't think the movie was making fun of them AT ALL. They were just regular gay folks living their homebody life - they reminded me a lot of me and my husband actually. Arguably the comment about "Do you have AIDS" could be considered more problematic but even then - I think it's a natural human reaction.And to reply to Baylee directly - their deaths were gruesome yes, but Gayle's death was so much worse!
I thought the movie was a 9/10
Wow that movie sucked. I shouldn't be surprised, as I thought Barbarians was overrated, but holy shit did Weapons suck. Boring, not scary at all. Incomprehensible.
Cregger seems pretty queer coded to me. I am old enough to remember when he did comedy. He seems gay, but allegedly not. Triggers are tricky. If I hear the n word, triggered. If I see a woman punched in the face, triggered. Rape? Forget about it. Triggered. I get it. It takes you out of what you're watching.
While I agree with some points of what you're saying (the fruity pebbles, etc etc) maybe what's worth considering is that there some intentionality behind propping up this most obviously queer couple who were the most innocent and kind people in the film. Suffer potentially the worst fate while the person who committed it was just looking away the entire time washing her literal hands of the act and turning up her nose? Maybe it was a metaphor for the things you're saying?? And shoving the fact that these two very clearly gay men would be the ones most at risk by that sort of negligence/numbness that our society is trending towards. I think it's hard to assign just one particular motive to someone's art and it's up for anyone's interpretation, but I do think it's worth considering others views to reevaluate because I ,as a...reasonable sensible intelligent gay man...didn't consider what you're saying until I read this review.
Sorry have been reading on here a long time, but not sure how to comment lol. Didn't mean to put in the replies 🤡
I think what really seals the deal on the homophobia is the message of the film that addiction is a parasite. And everyone who dies in the film is an addict of some form. So the two gay men who die… their addiction is hotdogs or something? Being gay is a parasitic addiction? It’s maybe not the best faith read, but I cant unsee it.
Doesn’t help that they were changed from a straight couple to a gay couple so his death could be more violent. Originally the principal character choked his wife to death.
It’s not just about someone’s “intention” though, is it? As a sensitive, intelligent gay man myself, I found several scenes in this film incredibly uncomfortable. In a cinema room, alone, I feel completely safe and myself, despite sharing the room with most likely stereotypical cishet people. I was enjoying this film, smiling, until Paul asked “do you have AIDS?” after being pricked by the needle. That made people in the cinema room laugh out loud, while I was gobsmacked. While I have room for a character being misinformed, that wasn’t the effect it gave. It made people laugh.
Then came the fruity pebbles. People laughed. Then came the repeated smashing of a gay man’s partner’s head. People laughed. And I suddenly felt like I was sat in a room full of people who either hate gay people or just have no idea what we’ve been through or what we’re going through right now. I’ve been going to the cinema alone for a year now, and not one film has made me feel so singled out and attacked like this one did.
So, again, I really don’t care what the intentions were (although they honestly seem intentionally homophobic), the people behind this film made conscious decisions to include these, and it has clearly had an effect on many of us. That is valid. Let’s talk about it. It’s disappointing and dangerous.
Thank you for this, couldn’t agree more and talking with my straight “allies” I thought I was going insane
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