Last Podcast On The Left - Weapons: An Interview with Zach Cregger

Episode Date: August 18, 2025

Henry & Eddie sit down with writer and director of the new film Weapons, Zach Cregger joins the show to break down his latest horror masterpiece. Zach reveals how Henry helped him find the voice of "The Mother" in Barbarian, the boys discuss taking the leap from Improv to Horror, what's to come in Zach's Resident Evil, and much, much more! For Live Shows, Merch, and More Visit: www.LastPodcastOnTheLeft.comKevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 Licensehttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of Last Podcast on the Left ad-free, plus get Friday episodes a whole week early. Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus. 

First of all, before we even begin today, I want to apologize for having an iPad here. Yes. Because this is... You look sad. You look pathetic. I feel emasculated. You look weak. I hate my iPad.

I hate having a little iPad. Yeah. My MacBook is broken. That is an excuse that I'm using. And so I just want to apologize to you, sir, first of all. He's a newly powerful man. I know. And I've arrived.

with an iPad like I'm a boomer in Europe I use my iPad 70% of the time so I feel I feel insulted by how ashamed you are because if you ever gone to a meeting have you when you pitched

when you went into pitch Resident Evil did you did it with a fucking iPad in front of you no I did not exactly yeah yeah yeah unbelievable you don't look like a pussy I mean it's like no no he doesn't Eddie and you're right

So welcome to last podcast and left, and we have a very special person on this guy. Honestly, what's funny about this man is that not only is he on his way to becoming an extremely powerful man in Hollywood, and is he becoming a legitimate and crazy director. This man started from the humble, humble beginnings of sketch comedy. Oh, don't say it. Just like us. Just like our shit-filled lives. He pulled himself up from the swamp

And he made it to the big time Well, you think you're better than me Yeah He's talking you fucking tough He fucking done You think you're no nice with your fancy Clear glasses This is the director

Of the new hit Weapons And the former hit Current hit Barbarian And one of the Lord Creatorses of Whites Kids you know Zach Cricker Thank you for being here

I'm so thrilled to be here I love the show, and it's a treat. Thank you so much. Henry, have you talked about how you came in to help me with Barbarian? Is that been discussed? Only little, little pieces is that I came in and I, because I didn't even know the full extent of my voice was used. Well, sadly, it wasn't used.

God, it's fine. Oh, okay, okay. It's fine, though. But I was, it was very kind of you to help, though, because what was going on was I was trying to get the scream down for the mother, and I just could not get the scream. and I was listening to your podcast and you were doing some fucking character

and you just like very casually and then they go like and you did this like amazing blood-curdling shriek and I was like that's what I want I was like in the car and I was like he did it and so I got a hold of you and you were so kind to come in

and I made you scream for 20 minutes it was awesome and it was fun it was my pleasure yes it was my pleasure no it was so much fun I actually it's a good bring up. So, like, we know each other from way back in the day. Why

this kids was always held as like this wonderful esteem, because when we the goal. The goal. I'm sure you hated us, just like every other sketch group hated us. You know what, dude? What's nice is that you guys were awesome. Each one of you was extremely sweet to us. You never made us

feel stupid. We were told because we were the only other independent sketch comedy group. When we arrived, we were like a part of a pastiche of independent sketch comedy groups. And, like, you were, like, kind of the bastion. You guys were the light on the hill that, like, oh, if you just, if you're just funny and you're right place, right time, they give you a television show.

And then you sealed up the door behind you. You really did. Well, that was part of our deal. We were like, close the door. Yeah. But the part of sketch comedy, I feel like now we're seeing. We even had Biederman trying to help us for a hot second. He couldn't do shit.

Yeah, he couldn't do shit with us. He was so great. We were a fucking disaster, though. We were hammered. We were disgusting. That was the problem. think we weren't hammered? Are you kidding? God damn it!

But a lot of people now, like, you know, Jordan Peel, a lot of people are seeing this connection between horror and comedy, and I think it's getting kind of like, everybody's saying sort of the same thing, right? Where that comedy hinges on timing and visceral response, which is very similar to humor, but I think it's deeper than that. Oh, tell me, tell me. Well, no, I wanted to ask you if you felt. that exercising dark ideas through sketch comedy actually creates a darker vision for, like, the world in general.

What an amazing question that I have never really considered. And I think you could be right. And here's why I'm going to go with you on this journey here is because all the brainstorming that we would do to sit down and just start like, okay, sketch ideas, sketch ideas. You know, because we've all been there like, what would be crazy? You just start pushing your brain to think of like what's an extreme situation. And I did that all day, every day for, I don't know how many fucking years. I committed all of myself to why just kids, basically a decade, honestly, you know? Same.

So I think like if there's a gym, you know, like a mental gym, I was working out the muscle group that was like, how far can I go? You know, how can I go left when I should go right? you know so maybe that's maybe that's in there maybe so i feel like movies are almost like a series of sketches like getting you from scene to scene in a weird way do you think that horror movies like comedies hinge on pivotal scenes or versus entire arcs well that's a great question too i think look a horror movie must have scenes that scare you right if you watch a horror movie and you're never actually scared but it's telling a great story it doesn't mean it's a bad movie just means it's probably not really a horror movie you know what i mean so yeah or or

mystery, it's a thrill, whatever it is, you know? I don't know. But I mean, the best horror movies will have those, but they'll still, like, you could take the scares out and it would still tell a compelling story. Like, The Shining is still a fascinating story, even if it wasn't, you know, as viscerally terrifying as it is. Because I want to know, I want to track this guy's decline, and I want to watch how his family has to, has to react. I think that's a really engaging story. So I'm trying to think of, like, a terrifying horror movie where if you took all the scares out, it would be, like, let's examine Terrifier 2.

Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah. Terrifier 2, which is like, for me, I view that even closer to like a comedy in terms of you have set pieces. Like, Terrifier 2 has set pieces that the movie's sort of moving towards that allow these things to collide. Where, like, you did that

so well in weapons with the kind of way you told the story where you set four lines out at each other and then they all collide together but Terrifier 2 is a much more deeply simplified version of what you did.

You know like it's a much more simplified, it's much more direct and obviously it's like we got to kill a bunch of people like you know like Terrifier 2 you know the idea is to get just piles of guts. Yeah yeah yeah that is it's just kill kill

kill kill kill you know. By the way I really like Terrifier 2 When I went to Fright Fest in 2022, the only movie, I was like, I got to clear my schedule to go see Terrifier 2. Because I had been, I loved Terrifier 1. And I was like, I can't believe I had to wait like this many years to see this fucking thing. I am, I am ready. I was really happy. I'm into it.

I outlined all of them at once just because I was literally scared to see him. Yeah, yeah, because I just like, I'm like, I don't know if I can handle all this core. And then so I was just like, then we interviewed David Howard Thornton. So I just watched all three, like, right in a row. And that was fucking, that's the way to do it. And he's the simplest little cow poke, Southern boy. Have you ever talked to him? No.

He's all like, well, gee, golly, I don't even know how all this happened. I'm just a theater boy, and I just, I love musicals. And it's amazing, honestly. Last night, I had the pleasure of seeing weapons in a packed theater. Wednesday night, packed theater. Tuesday night I saw it in a pack theater and not just that it was playing in multiple theaters at once

and it was like everyone was going to see weapons it was fucking awesome. That's wild. But the reaction, there was a part in this that I wondered people were talking in the lobby. Oh yes, everybody was hanging out of the lobby. You have such a great like when you were making, when you were making this movie, you ever see Exorcist 3? Did you

put Exorcist 3 in this? Of course I've seen Exorcist 3. I think it's amazing. Did you were you inspired at all by Exorcist 3 because I think you have one of the best jump scares that I've seeing in a fucking minute dead dead in the right you're talking about the ceiling yes yes i mean that's got to come from exorcist three but that's kind of a combination of three jump scares obviously the exorcist three ceiling gag is not a jump scare it's just deeply off putting yes you know it's it's it's and it's great it's mesmerizing and i love it the exorcist three

jump scare which is to my for my money in the top five of all time is the hallway crash zoom on that fucking lady with the cleat with the scissors that to me i i i I'm getting the hair on my neck is standing up right now. Just thinking about that scare, it's so good. I don't know how it. It freaked me out so much the first time I saw it. And it's one of those scares where I could still put it on right now and it would still kind of get me.

You know, I love it so much. The other one, and this is a little less like hip cred here, but the conjuring, dude, the Bathsheba on top of the armoire. When it tilted up and she jumps, I was not ready for that, dude. That annihilated me in the theater. Dude, the first conjuring fucked me up. It was the best. Dude, the clapping sequence, it's ruthless.

I always think of insidious, too, though, which is my other big commercial one where I almost killed my mother because I knew it was coming. I knew we saw it with my mom and I knew the devil, the fire devil scene was coming. And so I crawled. It's like over the shoulder? Yes, I crawled behind the chair that she was sitting in.

I pretended to go to the bathroom and I crawled behind the chair and as it popped up. I almost fucking killed her straight. Man, it was so worth it. But I do. believe that's an insidious one if I'm not mistaken. Yes, insidious. That's my other favorite jump scare. But like when you're thinking about the movie, when you're writing it

like, do you think about it in that way, like for those jump scares, for stuff like that, like, because in weapons it came at a very specific moment, obvious, it felt like you were like, it almost felt like the movie kicks in hard, like you were watching

and all of a sudden it was like the movie changed. Is that you, is that on purpose? to a degree yeah so my writing process is usually very stream of consciousness i don't outline i don't know where i'm going to go so like i remember the first pass i did at that point in justine's chapter i actually didn't really know where the kids went i didn't know what was behind them running away so i was kind of like just like improvising and and so i don't think i put that ceiling scene nightmare in because i didn't know that gladys existed yeah and so when did gladys show up for you i think in the

in the cop stuff when I was getting into Paul and the cop and the junkies when I kind of figured it out. Like I think by the time I wrote James' chapter, I had that idea. I was like, the kids were in the basement. Why, though? Like, why would the kids be in Alex's basement? It's just felt like it's where they had to be. And then I just kind of had this idea of like,

this is going to sound really woo-woo, and I really don't like to talk about the meaning of the movie. But I have said this before, so I guess I can let this much out of the bag because it's already out. But, like, the Gladys and Alex chapter to me is just about living with an alcoholic parent. I grew up in an alcoholic household. My dad died of cirrhosis, you know, and it's a terrible thing that comes into a family dynamic, and it changes everything.

And so, you know, I had a happy house, and then something came into my house, and it turned my dad into a scary person, and I'd go to school, and everything's cool, and I'd go home, and I'd have a scary house with a scary dad, you know? And so, like, that to me felt so interesting. interesting. And this is such a personal movie. So it's like it. Yeah. There's no overarching like lesson in this movie. This is not like I have nothing to say with this movie. I'm not, I have no pretense of like this is a treatise or anything like that. It's just a diary entry for me. And it just felt good to kind of have this dynamic at the core of it. That is something that I feel really a personal connection to that had a ripple effect out into this town. And so that's all that is. I got to say, because that came all. of the movie like watching it i did not read any of your interviews leading up to it i had no i didn't even see a trailer i didn't even i didn't know what the movie was about it's the best way to go it it's my favorite and so i win watched it and the first thing that one of my first reactions that came off when i when i saw it was there's so many allegorical layers within this story that can be

applied that you wonder if it came from such a if it came from something personal like it felt like it because it definitely feels like they're all like it feels like there's a lesson to be learned here but we have no idea what it is and everybody that's a responsible person inside of the movie is also like there's a lesson to be learned here

what's the fucking lesson and they can't figure it out they all do what they think is right and it just doesn't work out man it's fucking weird yeah yeah I've definitely been kind of cognizant of some of the there's a lot of theories out there about what this movie's

trying to say. Oh yeah, sure. That's the best part. And, you know, yeah. Yeah, what's her to the AK-47? Can I ask? What's with the A-K? Was it just elemental? Like, is it just a...

If I gave you the answer, I would be robbing something precious. Great. And it's like, you know what I mean? So it's like... Dude, you're crushing it, man. That's what I was saying. It's like, I think that's the idea is that that's what we liked about

David Lynch is the fact that he didn't give a fuck about answering the question. He doesn't care to answer the question. That's exactly what Julie and I, my wife and I said, as soon as we left. It's like, I hate when fucking movies, especially our movies sit there and they kind of over-explain everything. Let my brain torture

itself. And it was amazing. Some things in this movie, I don't know why they're in the movie. I genuinely don't understand them. But because I read David Lynch's book Catching the Big Fish, right? Which is about Transcendental Meditation as a creative tool. Ever since I read that book, I

incorporated Transcendental Meditation into my writing process. I wrote Barbarian that way. I wrote weapons that way. And part of the deal for me is if that's going to be my process, I want to go, I want to like do it all the way. And so there's things that come into my writing that I don't quite get, but I love them. And maybe I love them because I don't quite get them. And sometimes I'll write shit in and it'll be like a couple of years go by.

And then I'll actually realize what it means. And it's like, maybe I must have known it all along, but I didn't quite crack the code until later. And to me, that is like so, I just think that's so wonderful. It's just such a fun part of being a creative person is to just like, like, tap into something outside of yourself and try and be a conduit, you know, whether it's real or not, or I'm just diluting myself, isn't even important to me. But the idea of like feeling like an antenna is, is wonderful. Check off. Kind of, that was his thing. He would give that advice to actors. He'd be like, creativity and good ideas don't come from you. They come from outside. And your only job is to like tap into the

frequency and receive them from without and I just think that like why why can't that be the case you know I like to pretend that that's the way and it's also about experiencing maybe I don't know if it's just getting older in a way sometimes too I wonder if it's being able to accept almost accept the mystery of yourself yeah I mean David Lynch went a step further he said that ideas are out there waiting to be caught and if you don't catch it somebody else will And that's a really fascinating thing Where it's like these And I like to think of it

Like he says catching the big fish I like to think you go down Under the ocean And there are these big fish Swimming around And I can hook them But if I don't That story's gonna get told

One way or another You know Like time Time comes for these things You know That's why sometimes we get a lot Of similar things That all seem to kind

of come out at the same time So right now You're in Prague Shooting Resident Evil How's the human trafficking Going by the way Yeah It's been okay

I could use more Yeah I understand. Same. Same. Also, it's here. It's not bumper to bumper. No, no. Not there. No, my question is that, but now you're shooting, so speaking of process, so you go from this smaller process with, obviously you got a little bit more money with weapons, but it was like, it's still all you, and it's an independent movie, and it allows for that.

With something like Resident Evil, when you're handed something that is this, like, kind of a blanket IP, do they give you that same level of trust or, like, like, Like, is it a whole different way of making movies? I'm in a very fortunate position with this movie where I have, I have the same amount of control that I had for weapons. Really? It's pretty cool. Yeah, I have Final Cut, you know.

I wrote the script, and this is the movie I'm making, and everyone is in. So it's a very, very fortunate position to be in. Did you have to change your brain? and how you write movies in terms of, like, is it a different type of movie than what you've made already? Okay, so, well, it's a totally different type of movie,

but I wrote it, like, way before I went and did weapons. So, and it was funny, because I wrote it kind of, like, carelessly because I was like, I'm never going to direct Resident Evil. So I'm just going to fucking write, like, I'm just going to have fucking fun. I'm just going to, like, play around and just be like, what if this happened? Oh, my God, they'll never let me.

What if this happened? And by the time I finished, I was, like, oh my God, I fucking love it. You know, and by the way, I think that is the other real special key to creativity is to be careless and to, like, have no regard for the result and play like a little kid colors with crayons, right? You can always edit later. If you do that with like, yeah, exactly.

Like, Kurt Vonnegut has that amazing lesson. He's like, dude, he, you know, Kurt Vonnegut, how he always starts everything, like, yo, dude. Yeah, yeah, hey, bro, let's go, let's go, listen, check it, check it. No, but he would say, you know, write three sentences on a piece of paper. and know that as soon as you're done, you're going to burn the paper. And I promise you, you will fall in love with what you write. And that is because there is no result expectation.

And so it's just this pure thing. And so if you're able to get yourself in a position where you can write from a place of joy and of fun and of carelessness, then that's when the best stuff comes out. And so because I already knew I was going to make weapons and I didn't really give a shit about, you know, Resident Evil I thought at the time, I was able to just write just from a pure, like this would be. So fun. And then I ended up with something I was like in love with. So now I get to go make another movie that I think is going to be like such a blast. So it's cool. Are you working with the original writers of Resident Evil or how do they feel about it? No. Do they even know what

you're doing? I don't know. Hell yeah. Yeah, no, you can't be saddled with that. He can't be afraid of what the video game people are going to do video game. By the way, I love those games. I love Resident Evil games. Obviously, you wrote the thing for fun. You know, of course you love it. Yeah. Yeah. So like Resident Evil 4, I've probably put like 7,000 fucking hours into just that game alone. It's like embarrassing.

So, I mean, I'm writing this as a true fan and I wanted to feel like the way that I feel when I play those games. Do you go back and literally play Resident Evil like in your room? Like, will you go to your room and play it and then go back? Yeah, my PS5 comes with me wherever I go. I'm not joking. And I play every day. Of course. I don't play Resident Evil every day.

but I play, you know, I'm a big video game guy. It's kind of, it's my only vice, really. Yeah, what are you playing right now? Right now I'm playing two things. I'm playing the new mafia game that came out this week, which is mafia, the old country, which is, yeah, it's cool. And I'm playing, I'm replaying for like the fifth time Tiny Teen is Wonderland because I'm so excited for Borderlands 4 to come out next month.

That's amazing. Wow, that's right. You see this is good to peek inside. I love you going, I love you working at the idea of you making Resident Evil and going back to your hotel room and playing more resident. an evil. Yeah, I do it. When I was a cook, I used to go home and play burger time.

You know, so I was like, it's like, so I understand. Hell yeah, dude. Do we want to ask any, do we want to do a little, let me do a spoil. You want to do any spoiler questions? Yeah, yeah. All right, sure, sure, unless there's any other like generals before we get in there. Because that's my problem. We have so many questions about weapons.

Yes. But I don't want people to, we've got to go see weapons. Man, first off, before. Dude, it's so funny, I was trying to get you guys to come over to my house to watch. I know, we couldn't. I know. I know you couldn't make it. I know, but it's just like, by the way, my wife and I are both such huge fans.

So the idea that, like, you guys would come over and watch it, like, I would never offer anybody that. But Sarah and I were just like, and they'll come and we'll make it real nice. We were very excited too. We were doing the same way. We worked the same. But Henry's dad had to fucking die. Yeah, my father had to kick the fucking asshole. It's all right, dude.

No, he ruined that. everything. One more. One more. Fuck. It did actually hurt my summer schedule. And I did talk with my father's ghost. It's going to destroy. Well, Barbarian first off, before we go any further onto weapons, Barbarian like blew me away. I didn't

know it was you when I went and saw it. I went and saw it back. I was like, I'll check out this weird movie, you know? And I fucking lost my mind. I was like cheering. I was like, Barbarian and weapons, like, when I walked out of there, I was like, jealous. you know i was one of those i was like god damn fucking did it piece of shit

it was so good man i really loved it i was rewatching it last night before i came here and i just love we were talking about this how you just like blow up everything constantly yeah your endings just blow the fuck up and it just makes me so happy man it's like it's like oh you want a sequel fuck yourself you know like but um thank you I just wanted to gush about Barbarian for two seconds. I'll take it. I'd love to hear it.

What is happening? You know what's great? Because I feel like we're finally entering the world of modern horror movies where people aren't writing it from the aspect of like cell phones and the internet are a fad. I feel like you're finally embracing this. We were like, my wife and I were talking about last night about the idea of like an almost like an urban fairy tale. Where it's like it's taking place within a believable environment. Like when you were working on Barbarian, Detroit obviously had a lot to do with the movie.

When you were shooting this movie on weapons, it feels like, I've heard several critics already say the idea of Stephen King like, right? You've seen the Stephen King like. And both Natalie and I both said the same thing, oddly enough, as soon as I was watching. And I was like, that's where Pennywise lives. Like as soon as I saw that bridge, I was like, that's where Pennywise lives. 217 is all in the Stephen King world. And then is that overt or is that subtle?

Is that like on the inside? It's not intentionally. But, you know, I don't think you could be our age and grow up in America and have an interest in horror and not be totally baked by Stephen King. You know, it's just like it's unavoidable. So I loved, you know, I read it in junior high and I fucking loved it. So yeah, it's, I'd be a total liar if I was like, no, man, there's no Stephen King in this. Because it's like the Beatles.

It's like, yeah, it's, it's everywhere. Well, there's Beatles in it, too. Right up, right up top, man. Yeah, dude. How'd you get the George Harrison song? Oh, oh, yeah. Oh, look at your shirt. Oh, fuck yeah, dude.

Yeah, dude. How did I get that song? What a great moment, dude. I was so happy. I was just singing. I was like, piece. I was like, I ate a little mushroom pill. I was like, yeah, I love that fucking song.

That song is so good, dude. I mean, we got it. We just had to pay for it. Yeah, yeah. Dude, I've been listening to All Things Must Pass ever since I saw the movie, just over and over. Perfect album. Also, the music is, it was, how specific

and how involved were you in choosing the music for the movie? Because, I mean, he wrote a bunch of it. Yeah. I scored it with my two, like, best friends. Yeah, the Halliday Brothers or something? The Holiday Brothers, yeah, yeah. Ryan and Hayes, they're like two dudes. I grew up with an Arlington, Virginia. We were in a band in

college, and they're really talented musicians, and we just share a musical mind because we've made music together for so long. And when I was doing Barbarian, I was just kind of like, I just realized, like, if I could do this with Ryan and Hayes, it would just be so, like, psychic, you know, mind melt easy. And so on this one, they had never scored a movie before. I'd never scored a movie before, but I was just like, I want to just try this. And the studio was cool. And so, yeah, I just brought my, like, my best buds to New York, and we just did it.

It was great. What is that process like, honestly, like, when do you, is the movie already cut and finalized by the time you're doing that? We did it weird because we, before I went to Atlanta and shot the movie, I got together with Ryan and Hayes, and we went through the script, and we scored the movie. So, like, we wrote, like, all this music, like, for each scene. And so when I was shooting, I kind of had an idea of, like, you know, how it was going to feel, which was really helpful. And then when I was editing it, they came out, and a lot of that stuff didn't make it

in the movie, but some of it did. And I didn't temp anything. So they were just there. And as I'm cutting the movie together, I cut. with my editor. I'd go in the room with them and then we'd start doing the music and I'd go back with my editor and do some cutting. And so we were able to just kind of stitch the picture cut and the score together simultaneously. So I never, you know, they kind of informed each other. It was really cool. But also the music, the song choices were all like elementally in the same, like it was a very

specific vibe. Like it was like that. Yeah. Like it's like aware of darkness and the Percy Sledge are in the script. I knew I wanted the handsome family song like while we were shooting. And then that MGMT song at the very end, I knew I wanted, I knew I wanted that like, like from the very beginning. I love that band. I never heard that song before. It was, it's a perfect. They're live at the Guggenheim album is amazing.

And it is just as good as some of their studio album. So I highly recommend it. I feel like that's one of those things that also just either raises a movie up or destroys it. Yeah. Is the, the soundscape in that way of like choosing because it really, there's something about your song choices that made it. feel like the suburbs you mean it feel like a place that's safe

you know what I mean like a place that you're in a safe place you're being held by this like warm understanding music but it's obviously an extremely unpredictable world yeah yeah I just love to fucking great work bro yeah oh thank you so much also

also totally dug the steamboat Willie you know usage oh yeah that's crazy right because this is the year that like Steamboat Willie came up for public domain. And so my costume designer was like, we can do this. And it won't be like totally played out. And I was like, let's

fucking go. Yeah, fuck out. It was awesome, man. Just watching him go around, fucking covered in blood. Dude, all right. So, spoiler zone, I guess. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's just like, so you know, we're going to ask some specific question about weapons. Just go see fucking weapons. Yes. Please go see this movie. I had so much fun.

The whole, people were cheering and clapping during the movie. Dude, I will say this is the biggest, one of the biggest kudos I can give to the movie. We were sitting next to two teenagers that were trying to fucking have sex with each other the entire time. I could definitely. They were hammered and they were trying to have sex with each other. They stopped to watch the movie.

Wow. It doesn't get better than that. Yeah. That is as good as it gets. Only half penetration, man. They couldn't go all the way. And then I was like, let me show you. Hey, hey, let me show you what to do.

This is what my father did for me. Oh, man. All right. So Benedict Wong was fucking awesome. It was a great choice having him in the movie. the eyeballs how the hell did you do the eyeballs was that cg i or was that makeup yeah it's vFX it's vFX man i thought he could do that that's great i'm glad you thought that no it looked real as hell yeah it's crazy because

what we did is like so you know they scan his face and then they build his face in the computer right it's like these artists like meticulously build it and then they they basically create this like system where I could go in and look at the cut and then they had a little slider that would just do the bulge and the size of the eyeball so they could just go like all the way up and it looked like fucking insane Roger Rabbit or like back down

and so it was really fun to kind of like you know let's try it to 5.2 that's crazy let's try to 6.1 you know it's really wild it was so fun that's awesome dude when it came to the magical practices of your is it fair to say you could maybe call weapons

almost like a witch movie. Yeah. Oh yeah. Of course. Yes. And when you built out her specific, because also Amy Madigan. Amazing. Terrified. Terrified. She's fucked up. She's got to get her teeth.

Yeah, she's got her therapy. She's all fucked up. But like, when she was making her the magical practices and all the stuff that she was doing, are you, like, did you have a firm idea of what it was that she was doing? Did you and Amy have a long conversation? Or was that like,

just kind of like let's play it like a was like you know like you know but nobody else has to know you mean in terms of the rituals that she was doing yes yes no no that i worked out way in advance and that was actually pretty complicated to try and get it because it has to like serve different functions and different scenes but it has to stay consistent so that was something i worked on with my production court my production designer tom hammock and i we really kind of like ironed out together how the ritual would go and that that was fun to kind of create your own magic rituals. There's a MECONs. You know, there's this punk band, the MECONs. And they have this song called Dancing in the Head. And it's just about, it's instructions on how to create a zombie

using like voodoo. And it's fucking awesome. And I was going to call the movie Dancing in the Head at one point. And it, and it's just the idea of like soak a dollar pill and rum and then light it on fire and have four windows that aim at the four corners of the earth. I just love that kind of stuff. And there's this great book called Serpent in the Rainbow, which is a true, it's like a nonfiction book about, you know, Haitian magic and stuff like that. Great movie, too. Anyway, I haven't, I haven't, I didn't want to use real stuff, but it was such a fun opportunity to create my own, you know, rituals. So, like, I invented that tree and the idea of, like, you know, it's all kind of adjacent to existing magic practices, but, but it's, it's fake, you know.

No, I recognized it, honestly, and I really appreciated it. She was never related to them, was she? I don't know Come on fuck yourself but you think it's fascinating that the way she describes her relationship

is different from the way that Whitmer Thomas describes the relationship Exactly So we saw her one time when she 15 years ago And then the other one was like I don't know if I've ever met her

I was just like That's fun That was a great When it came to Gladys's look Was that a long conversation Was that a conversation Between you and Amy And the production

Or was that Does Amy just Did you have to like convince Amy to to not look like that. She just arrive like that. She's dead. No, no, no.

Yeah. I was like, Amy, can we kind of like dial it down a little bit? She's like, nope, in for a penny. In for a pound. So, yeah, her look is based off of in Twin Peaks, Firewalk with me when he gets out of the plane and there's that woman on the tarmac.

That scared the fucking shit out of it. Yeah. Scared me so bad. So I was just like, that is always kind of in my mind. And then the photographer, Cindy Sherman, who I've always adored. I don't know if you're familiar with her, but she does these self-portraits, and she uses prosthetics to create this, like, uncanny valley asymmetrical look.

And she's always, like, photographing herself looking grotesque. And it's awesome. So I knew I wanted to incorporate some of that. And then there's just like that Boca Raton, old retiree kind of fashion sense that I just think is so great. And so Trish Somerville, who is my costume designer and Jason Collins, my makeup designer. we had a wonderful time figuring out how to like build gladys it was great i love it because it's obvious gladys is trying to figure out how to fit in right yeah yeah i kind of yeah i like the idea like

anton shigur you know like how he's like he's just kind of impersonating what he sees around him so he's got that fucking stupid haircut and his clothes are too clean it's like he went into a western store and just like didn't look too hard and he's just kind of like he's impersonating something Yeah, he's a hitman, but he's also a demon. I'm not saying that Gladys is a demon, but I like the idea that it's just like, it's just off, you know, and that's what's so fun. Did you get any trouble from the Nerudo people?

I'm in litigation now with that, but it's very obvious. Is there any, how is that going? Because it's hard. I do understand, especially after the Area 51, incident people get pretty, pretty sensitive. about running styles I was like obviously that was pretty

fucking off that's like what a great visual when you're when you're writing it like is that one of those things that you just kind of saw immediately like the way that they were like the way because they're fleeing like

almost like birds they're running like it's such a beautiful picture and in the script I think what I wrote I know was they run like the the way that it's a terrible image but that little girl

in that famous Vietnamese wore a photograph with the napalm that's no but that's a that's really that cements it though it's like the worst image I've ever seen and it really fucked me up a bit and so I get you know I don't think yeah so I think that was in there

dude that it just because it really it serves it serves it serves the work like it's really amazing just hearing you talk about how much was both happenstance and mixed with planning and stuff like it really shows that like movies are little miracles they are absolutely little miracles

every single one of them is you know like the fact that you could put it all together the fact that all of these things happen and they all like but i think that partially it's because you're it's also you're you delivered a great lesson to our audience about the idea of getting out of your own way and just making it like playing it as it lays you're going to make it as it comes out i think i think that's a really healthy practice you know and and it's it's that David Lynch thing. It's like you go, you go inside of yourself to receive something from outside of yourself. You know, it's like counterintuitive, but I think, I think it's, I think it's a, it's a real thing. And, um, because you aren't like an autocratic monster on set. You're not all

like, I don't think so. That's in the goddamn movie. I don't care. Like, is it one of those words? Yeah. Yeah. No, no. I try not to me. I mean, I want everyone to have a better idea than me because then the movie gets that much better. You know what I mean? So, yeah. One thing I really Doug was, like, the tiny details that kind of, like, were Mr. X, you know, you, like, you think it really, to me anyway, I, maybe I'm an idiot, and I, it didn't mean something and I didn't think it did, but like, like, like, the people drinking and stuff, you think, like, you know, the relationship between the cop and, uh, and, uh, Julia Gardner, you know, like, I love all that stuff and they kind of just like, and then it just becomes,

like, at the end of the movie, none of it matters. And I thought it was, I've heard that worded as a as a criticism of the movie what you just said. I appreciate that for you that's a good thing but no it's one of the things people don't like it fucks up my brain like because I'm going one way and then all of a sudden it's like oh shit it's this you know and it's like I like that

no it's about how everybody in the movie is willing to blame anybody else but the actual problem like that's how it feels everybody's looking for a very simplified answer to a more than an answer to a question that literally there is no

answer to. Yeah. Yeah. So that's how I viewed it where it's like you have all these people that desperately want to help. The cop wants to help. You know, like Julie wants to help. They want to help. They're like, even the, even Josh Boland, what is it like working

with a movie star like that? It's wild because like Josh is, first of all, he's very cool. Like he's a very chill, like disarming, funny, kind of, he's a good hang, you know? So I'd kind of gotten to know him a bit before we started shooting.

So, you know, I was Star-Stark when I first met him because it's like Josh fucking Brolin, like, no country for old men, like, what, I don't even know what to say. Yeah. But, you know, he's, he's very, very good at quickly kind of disarming you. And so by the time, you know, we were like having our first day on set, I didn't, you know, he's just Josh, you know, it's like, it's easy. But I remember, I'm looking at the monitor and he's. stepped in front of the camera and I'm watching it on screen and I had like a real like

holy shit it's Josh Brolin you know it's like it's a moment and uh I felt like like so fortunate in that in that moment to like I could just have this for the whole fucking movie all the time crazy what is that difference because I see me on camera I'm like oh god but then when you see a like um that like what makes a movie star like what is it about it's a big head first of all. He's got to have a big head. A big head helps. Josh has a big head. Jack Black literally has the largest dome I've ever seen on a person. Humphrey Bogart. He was like half head.

I have no idea what it is, but it's like every angle, there's just something that you're interested in. You know, there's something you can't quite figure it out, but you're just drawn in. I don't know what it is, dude. And maybe it's just saying that's a real thing, though. And that mystery is what sometimes turn, I guess turns them into like weird when they turn into like, you know, like weird magad dudes? Is that what happens to, like the older movie guys sometimes? Because they're like, they're like, I used to be interesting.

I think they were always evil. Yeah, John Void. Yeah, John Void, James Woods. I used to make love to my daughter every day. I think there's a reason they were such good bad guys all the time, you know? Like, they were bad men. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But Josh Brolin, I love how in the movie, like, they all, like, they were against each other.

And then it just shows in society, you just need that one thing to happen. And then all of a sudden we're on the same team. And like, all you need is a bulging-eyed zombie man to physically attack a woman. And then you're willing to jump right in. Yes, a common enemy is usually an attack is what'll do it, right? All right. So at the risk of, uh, we in asking this for, because I don't want you to like, you know, do it. What did Josh Brolin do as a producer?

I noticed he was a producer. What is that? Is that, you know, like, I'm just curious. That's a little bit of movie magic. It's a little bit of movie magic. You know, like, he was, he was helpful with. like helping with some schedule stuff and he's helpful in like helping us like

make sure that we had the other cast that we needed. Season four for your pretty face is going to hell when I did the adult swim show they gave me my producer credit and I legitimately felt like they just gave me a sash and then I sat in a chair like I sat in a chair

I had my own like my own ear set but that's like all it was I was like I'm a producer they're like yeah that's definitely so funny dude oh my God Dude, thank you so fucking much for taking time out of your busy. I know you're working like a goddamn maniac right now.

Thank you so much for talking to us. You guys, this was so fun. I'm so happy to do it. I've been really looking forward to this. Just go get your ass to weapons. Go see this movie in the theater. It has to be seen in the theater with a crowd. You're going to have the best.

time checking this movie out. Bring a crew, bring your friends. You're all going to talk about this movie forever. Old-fashioned gasps and laughter in a film. Yeah, I can't. Great fashion, man. Like, people screaming. Like, literally, dude, people screaming. Yeah. It's awesome. You got that jump scare. I literally went, oh, oh, I went like, oh, like, oh, like I yelled. You know what sucks? I'm in fucking Prague, dude, and Prague is beautiful and wonderful, but like, I, I wasn't in America for the release of the movie. And I went to go see it, opening weekend in Prague at some, at a mall near here, and it was fucking

empty. I was just like, God, man. I feel like something cool is happening right now. You should just be barking outside the theater. Just be like, hey, one day, it's my god be a movie. Well, don't worry. I'm out here telling people I'm you. And celebrating your success.

Don't worry. I'm the director of this film. I say that it's quite often. I'm used to saying that. Zach Kregger, thank you so much And fucking good luck on Resident Evil Yeah, man, go rip the cock off a zombie for us today Yeah, go punch Andrew Tate's cousin for me Okay

Can we do this again when when Rez is done? Can we do this again? Of course. Anything. I just want to hang, be honest. Yeah, we'll hang out to it. We'll just do look at actual social. Can we be friends?