By John Corrado
Onslaught is director Adam Wingard’s return to the horror-thriller genre following his forays into monster movie blockbusters with Godzilla vs. Kong and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.
In fact, Onslaught is such a return to form for Wingard that he has said it takes place in the same universe as his 2014 thriller The Guest, and serves as an unofficial sequel of sorts, expanding the super soldier backstory. And, even if this fairly basic shoot ’em up thriller doesn’t quite reach those heights, it certainly plays in the same spirit as The Guest.
Our heroine this time around is Celeste (Adria Arjona), an Army sniper and single mom living in a trailer park. She is a single mother to six-year-old daughter Daisy (Blake Kennedy), who gets unexpectedly dropped off by her ex-husband in the morning.
We first meet Celeste shooting Jack-O-Lanterns for target practise in the middle of the New Mexico desert. This cache of guns will provide a means for her to protect herself and her daughter when a trio of genetically enhanced super soldiers programmed only to kill get loose from a secret military base nearby, and descend upon the trailer park.
The title of Onslaught ends up feeling very fitting; right from the fast-paced opening credits sequence, which links a flurry of historical events together through various quick-cut images, the film moves at pretty much breakneck speed. The first half is setup, and the second half is all payoff. There’s even an onscreen countdown clock, ticking down to when all hell will break loose.
The film feels short at barely ninety minutes, and arguably could’ve had more aspects of it fleshed out (such as the vague connections linking this all to Operation Paperclip). But the fairly basic get-in, get-out nature of Onslaught is also part of the appeal. The screenplay by Wingard’s frequent collaborator Simon Barrett provides just enough backstory to not feel like a complete waste of time, and to help us sympathize with the plight of Arjona’s Celeste as she goes mama bear mode taking on the bad guys.
Wingard’s The Guest star Dan Stevens also appears in a totally different role as Dr. Hans Kammler, the eccentric German scientist (and foot fetishist) behind the super soldier program. Stevens is nearly unrecognizable under a balding wig and makeup, and the role basically just lets him do weird things and speak with a funny accent. Rebecca Hall, reuniting with Wingard from the Godzilla films, delivers an equally campy performance as Kammler’s domineering partner Hanna.
Their performances add to the feeling that the film isn’t meant to be taken overly seriously (let alone make any sort of idealogical statements). It’s just meant to be fun. And, for the most part, Onslaught is pretty fun while it’s on. The stylish look of the film also adds to the appeal, right down to Oren Soffer’s cinematography and the techno score by Matt Pusti. It’s punctuated by action sequences that include moments of gnarly, very bloody violence.
This feels like a throwback to a B-movie from the 1980s or ’90s that would’ve become a popular rental on VHS or DVD back in the day, and that should be taken as a compliment. The slightly trashy nature of it all (including a sequence at a strip club with lots of gratuitous nudity, just because), is a feature, not a bug. Sure, it can feel like the cinematic equivalent of a fast food meal, but the hit that Onslaught provides can still be pretty satisfying.
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