Weapons Director Explains Aunt Gladys' Origin in Horror Movie
Weapons dropped in theaters on August 8, 2025, and reportedly collected $43 million in its opening weekend. Thus, making it one of the biggest hits this year. At the time of writing, Cregger's horror masterpiece has surpassed $80 million at the worldwide box office.
Zack Cregger on Aunt Gladys' origin story in Weapons
Director Zach Cregger recently opened up about the origin of Weapons' terrifying villain, Aunt Gladys (Amy Madigan). Madigan plays Aunt Gladys, who seems like a normal person, but is portrayed as a witch preying on the life forces of the missing kids to heal herself. However, her age has not been confirmed in the movie.
She introduced herself as the aunt of Alex Lily's mother and made his house her lair to execute her plans. Gladys put Alex's parents under a magic spell and kept them in a zombie state while she used the boy to abduct the children.
Speaking of Gladys' origin, Cregger told Vanity Fair that he 'presented Amy with two options of her origin story.' He said, 'I was like, 'You can pick one of these two.'' The first origin story stated that Gladys was just a normal person using dark magic to cure her disease.
Speaking about this, Cregger said, 'She had to adopt this methodology that she uses out of a place of emergency to keep herself alive. I won't say any more than that.' The second origin story showcased Gladys as a non-human creature who used her bizarre makeup and red wig to mimic humans, but she doesn't execute it well. Cregger noted, 'That's an interesting way to think about it. I like that a lot.'
Furthermore, he compared Gladys and her magic with alcoholism and addiction and stated, 'This foreign substance comes in and it changes everyone's behavior. The house becomes a scary place. You can go to school and act like everything's cool, and then you come home and you hide from a zombie parent. That felt so real to me.'
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