A new horror movie starring Josh Brolin will make up for Netflix cancellingThe Society. Released in 2019, theNetflix showfocuses on a group of teenagers who discover that everyone in their town has disappeared. They have no contact with any outside world and a seemingly endless forest now surrounds them, leaving the teens with no choice but to create their own society.The Society’s cast included Kathryn Newton and Natasha Liu Bordizzo, who have since gone on to play the respective roles of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Cassie Lang andStar Wars' Sabine Wren.
With an 86% critical score onRotten Tomatoes, the Netflix series was generally well-received, and was renewed for season 2. However, in August 2020,The Societywas cancelleddue to the Covid-19 pandemic. While many shows get cancelled,The Society’s fate was particularly frustrating since the show had already been renewed, and it ended on a major cliffhanger that offered a glimpse at the adults and younger children who had seemingly disappeared. Five years after Netflix’s disappointing update, a2025 horror movieis now poised to be a worthy successor.
Josh Brolin’s Weapons Movie From Zach Cregger Shares Similarities With Netflix’s The Society
Weapons Includes The Mass Disappearance Of A Group Of Children
TheCinemaCon footage ofWeaponsteases significant parallels toThe Society. Directed byBarbarian’s Zach Cregger, and with a cast that includes Brolin, Julia Garner, Alden Ehrenreich, Benedict Wong, and June Diane Raphael, the upcoming movie’s release was moved up to August 8 after being previously scheduled for January 2026. The footage shows a teacher entering her classroom, only to see that all of her students are absent. A voice-over explains that the children woke up at 2:17 in the morning, walked outside into the dark, and disappeared.
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At a later point, a teacher returns to her classroom, and sees that the disappeared children have returned, but they all have their heads down on their desks in the dark.The mass disappearances are most reminiscent ofThe Society, but the footage also includes shots of people screaming, stabbing themselves, a clown waving to someone in the woods, and a child saying,“This is where the story really starts.”
How Weapons Can Make Up For The Society’s Cancellation
It Can Show Both Sides Of The Story In A Way The Society Never Could
The portion of the footage focused on the children’s disappearance and return sounds like a scarier version ofThe Societythat shows both sides of the story. UntilThe Societyseason 1’s ending, the series only showed what was happening to the teenagers. The final scene teased that season 2 would more fully explore what was happening with the adults and younger children, but this exploration of both sides never came to fruition due to the show’s cancellation.
The overarching similarities mean thatWeaponscan finish the storyThe Societydid not get to tell in its entirety.
Weaponscan make up for this by showing what happens to the adults who are left behind when the children disappear, along with what happens from the children’s perspectives. These children sound like they might be possessed by a sinister force and that this is the cause of their mass disappearance and return.The Society’s teenagers were not possessed, and it was hinted that they were stuck in a parallel universe. Nevertheless, the overarching similarities mean thatWeaponscan finish the storyThe Societydid not get to tell in its entirety.
The Society
Cast
One day in West Ham, Connecticut, the students of the local high school return from a field trip to find the rest of the town’s population gone. With a dense forest surrounding the town and no way to contact the outside world via phone or internet, the teenagers must formulate their own rules to maintain their own society and survival.
