Zach Cregger's Weapons and Ari Aster's Hereditary- Five similarities I found between both the horror films

When I watched Zach Cregger’s Weapons, I walked out feeling like I’d been haunted by something familiar. The film’s fractured storytelling, its eerie small-town paranoia, the way it let grief drip through every frame it was like someone had slipped me back into the nightmare Ari Aster crafted with Hereditary. But both are nightmares with the same heartbeat: they treat horror as a mirror for pain, for silence, for the ugly way tragedy burrows under the skin.

As I went digging through, what kept jumping out at me was how both directors reach for horror not as spectacle, but as truth. Their scares linger not because something jumps from the shadows, but because the shadows themselves feel alive, shaped by grief and guilt. Watching Weapons and Hereditary side by side, I realized they’re almost in conversation with each other. Here are five similarities that reveal just how deeply they echo one another.

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Weapons and Hereditary both play familial trauma as one of the biggest factors of horror

Zach Cregger’s Weapons and Ari Aster’s Hereditary hit with the same brutal truth: trauma doesn’t just sit quietly in the background, it becomes the villain that shapes the entire story. These films take grief, guilt, and denial and twist them until they’re as terrifying as any ghost or curse.

In Hereditary, the Graham family deals with the death of their matriarch and the haunting legacy she has left behind. As chaos ensue, sinister things start happening, we slowly come to realisation of the curse the Graham family is under. The cult, the coven and the worshipping of Paimon. The way Ellen's death falls upon the Graham family, even as they were unaffected by her presence when she was alive, is deeply similar to Aunt Gladys' influence in the Lilly's lives.

Gladys was a family member who had no association with the Lillys. Even as the family readies up to welcome her, Mrs Lilly mentions that they haven't seen her in fifteen years. However, once she enters the household, she slowly spreads her doom around it. The house gets darker, windows get covered and she puts the parents in a catatonic position, feeding off them.

In both the films, this theme runs deep. How Aunt Gladys and Ellen Leigh, both provoked themselves on a distant, regular family and used it to fulfill their own witchful, evil aspirations.

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Both Hereditary and Weapons utilize less jump scares

A refreshing aspect of both the films is that they rely less and less on any cheap jump scares. There are minimal shots of unexpected corpses, or creaking doors or objects moving. In fact both the films largely depend on a more humane horror.

The parts that are scary are what the characters are going through. You're scared of Peter dealing with Charlie's death. You're scared of Alex living in a house with a witch and a set of parents who are anything but alive. You're scared of Justine running for her life across a departmental store. You're scared for Annie and how the realization of her mother slowly seeps in.

The lack of jump scares gives the films more space to breathe. So much that when the horror actually makes to your screen, it lasts more than just four seconds- unlike most jump scares.

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There are no actual ghosts in both of the movies

Weapons and Hereditary both revolve around realistic, supernatural occurences. There aren't any whispering spirits lurking around the bedroom. Or a blanket being pulled from under the bed- that sort of ghostly premise. Both the films have almost human antagonists- if you can even call it that.

In Hereditary, the horror is the cult and the psychological trauma they are enduring after the deaths of Ellen and Charlie. In Weapons, the horror is Gladys as a witch, and how she is taking away the consciousness of the people around her. In a way, this is what makes both the films all the more scarier. Because as the story progresses and the credits roll, it makes you realise that these are actual things that can happen and have their roots in reality.

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The gore in both the films is revolting

Yes, there are less jump scares in both the films but Aster and Cregger make sure to make it up for that with intense gore. In Hereditary, we quite literally see Charlie's getting decapitated as her head hits a telephone pole and her headless body sits in the backseat of Peter's car. Moving over, there are numerous appearances of decapitation and headless corpses. There's the bee scene, there's Peter's hurting scenes- Hereditary is booming with gore.

Cregger turns the dial a little higher. The gore in Weapons is sickening, but in a way you cannot even pull your eyes away. The death of Marcus' husband, and then minutes later Marcus' death as his brains splatter across the road, the Lillys piercing their faces with forks, and the most satisfying of all, Gladys' death as she gets torn to pieces by seventeen cursed children. Gore is the weapon both the films use to make the audience even more uncomfortable.

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Weapons and Hereditary both end with space for a sequel

Hereditary ends with Peter finally being crowned as a king as Paimon possesses him completely. As many have noted, this would make for a pretty interesting sequel, as a potential film could explore what the cult has done to the family and what Peter being crowned as the king of the cult could mean. Although Aster has talked about having ideas for a sequel, nothing is confirmed as of now.

Weapons end with the kids being released and Gladys dying, but we don't really know what happened to the kids later. The narrator tells us that some kids started talking but what else? What is Gladys' origins? Is she actually a relative of the Lillys'? Why does she choose this particular time to return to her 'family'? All of these answers can make way for a juicy sequel.

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Weapons is now in theaters. Hereditary is available to stream on Prime Video.