ONSLAUGHT (2026)

Studio:   A24
Director: Adam Wingard
Writer:   Simon Barrett
Producer: Simon Barrett, Alexander Black, Adam Wingard, Jeremy Platt, Aaron Ryder, Andrew Swett
Stars:    Adria Arjona, Dan Stevens, Eric Wareheim, Reginald VelJohnson, Michael Biehn, Blake Kennedy, Alex Pereira, Drew Starkey, Rebecca Hall

Review Score:

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Summary:

A military veteran fights to protect her daughter when a trio of superhuman soldiers goes on a killing spree in a trailer park.

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Synopsis:     Show/Hide Spoilers

Working for a private military contractor at a secret facility hidden in the desert outside the small town of Moriarity, New Mexico, former Nazi scientist Dr. Hans Kammler conducts classified experiments to create superhuman soldiers as deadly killing machines. Based on the traits they exhibited during their previous military service, the three super-soldiers produced are nicknamed Crybaby, The Cockroach, and The Butcher.

Representing “The Board” of the company they work for, an agent named Baylor arrives at the facility with a small squad of military men to test the super-soldiers. Crybaby, Cockroach, and Butcher brutally and robotically slaughter all of the armed men in the test chamber during the exercise.

Unexpectedly, all three super-soldiers seemingly drop dead almost simultaneously. When Dr. Kammler’s medical team enters the chamber to collect their bodies, however, the super-soldiers suddenly reanimate. They then kill Kammler, Baylor, and everyone else in the facility before escaping into the desert.

Celeste, a former Army sniper and gun enthusiast with PTSD, interacts with several neighbors at the nearby Windy Oasis Trailer Park, for which she is the onsite manager. Celeste’s ex-husband Griffin arrives to drop off their young daughter Daisy, which Celeste was not expecting. An argument ensues regarding custody of Daisy and upcoming divorce proceedings.

Later that evening, Crybaby, Cockroach, and Butcher make their way to a truck stop shortly after Celeste leaves the same location with her daughter. The super-soldiers kill everyone inside the truck stop, including several of Celeste’s neighbors.

In response to a distress code triggered by the secret facility’s destruction, “The Board” summons an agent named Cyrus as the closest available operative to clean up and conceal the incident in the desert. When he arrives at the destroyed bunker and inspects the bodies, Cyrus recognizes Dr. Kammler as a war criminal believed to be dead. Aware of the horrific experiments Kammler was known for, Cyrus contacts Kammler’s wife Hanna. Hanna confirms they were developing a military faction without conscience to be deployed against the domestic populace. She also warns Cyrus not to engage the super-soldiers and to instead observe them in a civilian environment to see how they perform.

Acting as though engaging in a coordinated operation, Crybaby, Cockroach, and Butcher assault the trailer park, killing residents in various ways. The gunfire alerts Celeste, who arms herself to investigate the commotion. Celeste immediately retreats to her trailer to protect her daughter after suffering a gruesome eye injury while engaging one of the soldiers.

One of Celeste’s neighbors, military veteran Josiah, provides cover fire so Celeste and Daisy can escape to his trailer. Celeste calms her daughter by telling a story about a fellow soldier she outsmarted in a fight, but they were unable to have a rematch because she saw him die in combat. Meanwhile, Cyrus executes a clerk who had survived the truck stop massacre.

Crybaby, Cockroach, and Butcher assault Josiah’s trailer with tear gas. Josiah holds off the super-soldiers while Celeste and Daisy escape to a trailer belonging to police officer Kovacks. Injured, Josiah soon joins them.

Inside Celeste’s trailer, Butcher observes photos on the wall from Celeste’s time in the Army. Butcher recognizes himself alongside Celeste in one of the photos.

Kovacks makes a run for his patrol car while Crybaby pursues him with a chainsaw. Celeste uses her sniper skills to put a bullet through Crybaby’s head. Crybaby falls on his chainsaw, which mutilates him to death.

After recovering his vehicle, Kovacks races back to his trailer to collect the other survivors. Josiah falls unconscious from his injuries, forcing Celeste and Daisy to leave him behind. Celeste and Daisy make it inside the car, but Cockroach tears off the door and repeatedly stabs Kovacks to death. The car violently crashes, launching Cockroach through the windshield and killing him.

Butcher pursues Daisy after she and her mother escape the wrecked vehicle. Celeste recovers Crybaby’s chainsaw to confront Butcher. Butcher pulls down his face mask to reveal he is the same soldier from the story Celeste told her daughter. Armed with an ax and cleaver, Butcher charges toward Celeste. Celeste dismembers Butcher with the chainsaw.

In the morning, Celeste and Daisy reunite with Josiah. Cyrus arrives at the trailer park with his team. Celeste confirms she, Daisy, and Josiah are the only survivors. Claiming to represent the government, Cyrus offers to relocate everyone, although that would require their complete silence about what happened. He also implies that noncompliance would necessitate their executions to complete the coverup. Hanna Kammler soon arrives, and she advises Cyrus to put the survivors somewhere where they can be continually monitored.

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Review:

After playing with big budgets, big studios, and big monsters by directing the big blockbusters “Godzilla vs. Kong” (review here) and “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire” (review here), “Onslaught” sees Adam Wingard returning to his B-movie roots for a smaller-scale slaughter spectacle once again written by his frequent collaborator Simon Barrett. “Onslaught” also comes billed as “from the world of ‘The Guest’ (review here),” although it’s not crystal clear how the two films connect. The likeliest link appears to be that “The Guest’s” David, played by Dan Stevens, is probably affiliated with the same shadowy private military contractor that weaponizes super-soldiers in “Onslaught.” Other than that, the only thing that directly carries over is the overall aesthetic.

This time though, that aesthetic runs harder and faster at the end goal of emulating VHS-era action. Credits are in John Carpenter’s signature font. Composer Matthew Pusti’s synth-heavy score pulses with Casio keyboard sounds. The camera can’t help but intermittently slip in a slow zoom or a sudden zoom. Ear-piercing audio stings accompany jump scares. Inessential T&A helps establish someone’s vague villainy. ‘80s staples Michael Biehn and Reginald VelJohnson also appear in supporting roles, furthering the feel of a film that would be right at home on the rental shelf alongside “Commando” and “American Ninja.”

“Onslaught’s” tone is a touch tighter, too. “The Guest” rides an undercurrent of dark humor that sometimes spatters its style with silliness. By no means does “Onslaught” treat itself with strict seriousness, but glibness doesn’t directly interfere with nastiness, either.

As evidence of how “Onslaught” prioritizes escapism over realism, look no further than Dan Stevens’s weirdo new character: Nazi scientist Dr. Hans Kammler. Starting with a prosthetic bald cap and white-haired wig that makes him look like Riff Raff from “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” Kammler gets an additional accent from a diseased eye. Then he’s outfitted in a white cape to complete the silhouette of someone heading to a meeting with Destro and Cobra Commander. The only thing missing is a distinct scar on his face. Maybe the filmmakers thought that would be too much. Then again, they didn’t think it was too much to introduce Kammler by having him crawl on the floor to hungrily lick his wife’s high-heeled shoes like a starving man slurping up chowder.

Being an exiled Nazi scientist working for a clandestine PMC, Dr. Kammler is of course up to something evil in a secret military compound hidden in the New Mexico desert. His experiments have engineered three new Captain Americas, except instead of Army heroes, these robotic supermen are pure murder machines intended for deployment on the domestic populace. And getting deployed on the domestic populace is exactly what happens, albeit inadvertently, when these superhuman weapons unexpectedly kill all of the scientists and soldiers, destroy the facility, and take their vicious brutality spree to a nearby truck stop and trailer park.

The film’s first half hour or so flips back and forth between various threads that put the main pieces in play. One of these threads establishes Celeste, a former Army sniper turned gun enthusiast, who manages a trailer park populated by a motley assortment of working-class folks. It’s bad enough Celeste has to pull teeth to collect this month’s rent. Adding to her stress is her ex-husband dropping off their daughter Daisy for a surprise visit. With three super-soldiers soon set to lay waste to everything in sight, could the timing be any worse?

Around the halfway point, “Onslaught” essentially goes into full siege movie mode as the terrible trio, individually named The Crybaby, The Cockroach, and The Butcher, systematically slashes their way toward Celeste, who tries to survive with her daughter and a few other resourceful neighbors. Bullets are fired. Blood sprays. Limbs are severed. How much mileage any individual viewer gets out of all this massacring comes down to how much they enjoy uber-violence with no nobler intention than having fun with midnight movie carnage. This is Wingard and Barrett plotting only enough story, and populating it with a pinch of quirk to avoid being plain, so they can let loose with squibs, stunts, and gnarliness like they did in their indie days.

As Celeste, Adria Arjona holds her own as the movie’s hero. She doesn’t possess the same level of onscreen charisma that Dan Stevens brought to “The Guest,” nor does her cranky character have the same heft. But fans of “The Guest” get Dan Stevens in a different role here anyway. And in thinking how similar the two movies are with their violent vibes, it seems like the sensible thing to do is award “Onslaught” the same score as “The Guest” since in some ways it’s more of the same. I can’t see owning it on physical media and ever being like, “Let’s watch ‘Onslaught’ again tonight!” But for casual throwback thrills, “Onslaught” works well as a one-and-done watch.

Review Score: 65

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