Weapons: Creepy Unlisted YouTube Video Shows 2 Hours of Children Running Through the Night

Warner Bros. is going the creepy viral route to promote Weapons, the new child horror film from Barbarian writer-director Zack Cregger: A new two-hour, unlisted video features two hours of supposed surveillance video, mostly of children running through the night.

The innocuously jarring title is simply "2025_?_?_06:17AM.mov."

It's a wonderful bit of mystery, sure to raise interest in what's already one of the most-anticipated horror films of the summer. The new poster for the film explains its concept: "Last night at 2:17 am, every child from Mrs. Gandy's class woke up, got out of bed, went downstairs, opened the front door, walked into the dark... and never came back."

That summary raises a lot of questions: Does every single kid in Mrs, Gandy's house have at least a two-story house? But we guess the more important question, which we hope the film will answer, is where all those children went. Also: What or who are the weapons in Weapons?

Spend a while watching the Weapons video — sorry, we mean "2025_?_?_06:17AM.mov" — and you start to notice some extremely jarring things (or cool things, if you love horror.) Among them is the fact that one of the monitors we're seeing appears to feature the reflected, emotionless face of a middle-aged man. Who is he? Why is he watching? What does he want?

Weapons stars Julia Garner, Josh Brolin, June Diane Raphael, Toby Huss, and Benedict Wong, among others. We don't think any of them appear in "2025_?_?_06:17AM.mov," but who knows? (The middle aged man just might be Huss.)

Also Read: The 11 Most Nightmare Inducing Horror Villains

Additional marketing materials for the film note that 17 children run away in all. And while the poster says it happens at 2:17 am — and time stamps on some of the assembled surveillance footage say 2:17 — the title of the video includes the time stamp 6:17 am. So maybe something is happening with the number 17?

We already love this movie.

Zack Cregger and the Campaigns for Weapons and Barbarian

The Weapons unlisted video continues a long run of cool viral Warner Bros. immersive marketing campaigns: 2008's Christopher Nolan Batman film The Dark Knight, for example, fascinated fans with an interactive website, not clearly identified as promotional, to drop hints about Heath Ledger's bold take on The Joker. Such campaigns have since become a frequent part of the rollout for hotly anticipated films.

Cregger's Barbarian, released in 2022 by 20th Century Fox, benefitted from a similarly jolting campaign. A trailer for the film promoted it pleasantly as "Justin Long's New Movie," and featured Long's character driving along Pacific Coast Highway in a convertible, as cheery music plays.

"From the Producers of the Lego Movie," the trailer brightly misdirects, before adding more bona fides: "The studio that brought you Alvin and the Chipmunks."

But around the one-minute mark, things take a dark turn. Long's character realizes one of his Michigan properties has an unwanted visitor. There's a thud. The cheery music drops out. And the trailer drops a hammer: "From the Producer of It."

With Weapons, the scares are right up front: two hours of creepy images, accompanied by static-y, disorienting sound. What's discombobulating this time is the medium: As with The Dark Knight campaign, we don't even know what we're seeing has anything to do with a movie. If you missed the name Warner Bros., you might think you were just seeing some very alarming footage, from Ring cameras, dash cams, and whatever else is surveilling the suburban streets.

Barbarian went on to be one of the most unexpected breakthroughs of 2022, earning more than $45 million against a low production budget of just $4.5 million. Hopes are even higher for Weapons.

Weapons arrives in theaters on August 8, from Warner Bros. Pictures.

Main image: Children running in the night in 2025_?_?_06:17AM.mov to promote Weapons. Courtesy of Warner Bros.