Weapons Director Zach Cregger Made Us a Horrifying Playlist

Photo courtesy of Zach Cregger.

Welcome to SOUND ADVICE, Interview’s weekly destination for playlists curated by our friends, enemies, and lovers. In recent weeks, we’ve featured playlists from Adéla, Jim-E Stack, and PinkPantheress. This week’s installment comes from Hollywood’s hottest horror auteur Zach Cregger, whose batshit crazy thriller Weapons has now grossed over $150 million worldwide. It’s so batshit crazy, in fact, that Jordan Peele reportedly fired his managers after his production company lost a bidding war over the movie. Now that it’s inspiring fear in the hearts of moviegoers everywhere, we asked the 44-year-old comedian-turned-director to curate a playlist of songs that inspired his twisted tale about a group of third graders who vanish under the cover of night—all at the exact same time. Then we had Cregger answer our questionnaire, where he revealed his all-time favorite horror movie and the song that takes him back to third grade.

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Where do you dance? Sadly, I don’t. Weddings if I must.

What song on this playlist do you wish that you wrote? “I’m A Mother” So perfect, so creepy, so beautiful.

What song on this playlist makes you cry? Anything by William Basinski gives me the feels.

What’s your weapon of choice? I lived in Fiji and I bought a tribal Fijian war club that I keep under my bed. It’s beautiful and it can also double as an oar but I bought it to hit people in the head with.

All-time favorite movie soundtrack: Cocktail (1988)

The world is ending. What are you wearing? A Dixie cup and a lot of duct tape.

What does your notes app look like? It’s mostly grocery lists and then a little bit of half-cooked story ideas.

What song makes you feel like you’re in third grade again? When I was in third grade, I was obsessed with The Beach Boys.

What’s your favorite horror movie of all time? The Shining (1980)

You founded the comedy troupe “Whitest Kids U Know.” What’s the whitest song on this playlist? I think every song on this playlist is embarrassingly white.