Zach Cregger’s latest horror film, “Weapons,” opens with a chilling premise: at 2:17 a.m. on a school night, 17 children from a sleepy suburban community vanish simultaneously. They leave their beds, run out into the night with outstretched arms, and disappear, leaving behind only one bewildered third-grade student named Alex. This intriguing start sets the stage for a horror movie made unconventional by Cregger’s choice to let a local girl narrate the ostensibly supernatural events, immediately priming the audience for a mystery that will remain, at least partially, unexplained. This embrace of ambiguity aligns with a successful horror subgenre seen in films like “Hereditary” and “Longlegs.”

Building on the success of his brilliantly deranged 2022 film “Barbarian,” Cregger significantly expands his sinister powers of suggestion in “Weapons.” He excels at revealing the threats lurking behind seemingly innocuous environments, here, a Pennsylvania town called Maybrook. The mass disappearance quickly turns mild-mannered parents into an angry mob, reminiscent of a Stephen King novel in its close-to-home setting and flawed, relatable characters. The unaccounted-for children allow for diverse interpretations, from QAnon-style child predator conspiracies, echoing Denis Villeneuve’s “Prisoners,” to the painful aftermath of a school shooting, as parents desperately seek answers, consolation, and blame.

The narrative splinters the mystery among six distinct characters, with the story rewinding in each new chapter to replay key scenes from a different perspective, offering fresh insights. These include Justine Gandy (Julia Garner), the stressed teacher whose class vanished; Archer Graff (Josh Brolin), a hot-tempered father whose son Matt is missing, demanding answers from Justine; a troubled cop (Alden Ehrenreich); a school administrator (Benedict Wong); and two others whose identities are best left undisclosed. The pieces of this expertly designed puzzle click into place, from the identity of the person who scrawled “WITCH” on Justine’s car to the reason a scuzzy junkie (Austin Abrams) approaches the police station.

For more than an hour, the film maintains a grimly self-serious tone, reinforced by Larkin Seiple’s steady camerawork and a bone-vibrating score. However, an unexpected campy turn arrives with the appearance of Amy Madigan’s Aunt Gladys, an interloper with smeared, clown-like makeup, whose unsettling presence is both humorous and repulsive. Gladys enters as Cregger ups the ante, introducing an adult turned homicidal by the same suggestive force that compelled the children to flee. As the audience begins to understand the ‘why,’ the runaway ideas that Cregger’s concept initially unleashed start to narrow into an inevitably limiting explanation. The violence escalates in the home stretch, revealing the film’s title’s meaning: the community is comprised of targets and weapons, where anything, from an impressionable child to a vegetable peeler, can become dangerous.

“Weapons” has received strong critical acclaim, earning a four-star rating, praised for its intriguing narrative up to the very end. Its release was an unexpected smash, achieving $148 million to date, making it August’s savior in what is typically a quiet period for the box office. This success, alongside other original R-rated horror films like “Sinners,” signals that audiences are willing to take chances on new ideas from exciting directors, upending conventional box office wisdom. Regardless of how one feels about the film’s darkly comic finale, Cregger has crafted something remarkable: a cruel and twisted bedtime story akin to the Brothers Grimm, where characters kill on command and audiences find sleep difficult afterward.