*Spoilers ahead for Together and Weapons*
“What’s your favorite scary movie?” is an iconic line in the 1996 slasher Scream. 2025 releases Together and Weapons might just be the answer to that question, as both films have a unique combination of humor and horror, providing viewers a unique viewing experience.
Together follows couple Millie and Tim (played by real couple Alison Brie and Dave Franco) as they encounter supernatural forces with extreme effects after they “take the plunge” and buy a house in the countryside — leaving behind their city lifestyle. The primary themes of the movie play off of romantic sweet nothings like “you complete me,” taking them a step further.Â
Not to fully discredit the horror elements of Together, there were genuinely scary scenes. An early scene in the film shows Tim’s recently deceased parents in bed, his mother smiling at the camera next to the decaying body of his father. Tim gets hung up on this detail of his parents death (for obvious reasons), but it’s also significant because it shows his mother’s loyalty to her relationship and her companion, a theme that will be explored with Tim and Millie throughout the film’s runtime.Â
The film uses body horror to explore the idea of two people *really* completing one another. As the supernatural forces at play become stronger, Millie and Tim find it harder to control their bodies’ compulsions towards one another, eventually surrendering and letting the forces combine them into a singular being.Â
The humor in Together, though, comes from its ridiculousness. As Tim and Millie’s bodies become more and more drawn to one another, and their autonomy and control slips away, they use Tim’s prescribed muscle relaxants in a last ditch effort to slow their bodies trajectories. The final transformation scene is accompanied by the song “2 Become 1” by the Spice Girls, an amusing song choice to wrap up the film.Â
These elements work in conjunction to take this movie and make it memorable, by giving it a self-awareness that it’s a bit ridiculous, but still terrifying where it wants to be. It employs traditional horror elements, like jumpscares and gore, where it’s needed, but adds humor where it wants to stand out. Having the film led by actors like Brie and Franco, who both have backgrounds in comedy, with Brie starring on Community and Franco being in films like 21 Jump Street and Neighbors, gives them the opportunity to really make the humorous elements shine.Â
Another summer horror release, Weapons, also uses humor to elevate its story. Weapons follows the fallout of 17 kids who ran out of their homes in the middle of the night, going missing. All of the kids were students in the same class at school, and all but one, Alex, have disappeared. The film was written and directed by Zach Cregger who began his career as a comedian, giving him an advantage in adding the comedic edge to Weapons.Â
The comedy of Weapons comes from a few elements, like the distinguishable run — arms down and straight out, fingers pointing to the ground. The run, which Cregger says doesn’t really have a purpose other than to be intriguing, is so weird that it’s funny. The run itself is funny, but what happens after the run is where the real terror starts.
Interestingly, the reveal of the force at work in Weapons is another point of comedy in the film. The 17 students went missing as a result of a witch (Alex’s great aunt Gladys) who has possessed them to sustain herself. Gladys’s character design is a comedic focal point of the film. She wears a bright red wig (styled into a bob with microbangs), giant circular sunglasses, and white face makeup with bright red lipstick. Put together, she looks like a bad clown impersonator.Â
However, this humorous appearance contradicts her actions: taking the “life” out of Alex’s parents and leaving him with catatonic parents, possessing 17 children, forcing Alex to keep quiet during all of this whilst going on a rampage of terror as a means to stay alive when people begin to prod. A distinction between the Aunt Gladys and the witch personas are made. When Gladys is in the home and performing many of her actions, she’s without her “armor,” sitting makeup-free, frail, and hairless. In these moments, she looks like a textbook witch. These physical distinctions show the seriousness of the situation when the humor is peeled back: a home with 17 kidnapped children in the basement and two catatonic victims, and a helpless, terrified child caught in the crossfire.Â
Cregger’s strength in writing gives him a chance to make a new take on the “evil witch” trope when combined with his comedic expertise, which makes for a memorable horror film found in Weapons.Â
Both Together and Weapons are funny (but still scary) horror films that appeal to viewers who may not typically gravitate towards the genre, a perfect choice for movie nights or those beginning to explore the horror genre.