It’s good to see Adam Wingard back making movies like The Guest again. After taking respites making franchise Godzilla movies, Wingard is back in his 80s homage bag. Onslaught is Wingard’s attempt to explain why The Terminator was such a big deal in 1984, for 2026 audiences. I don’t think they’ll fully get it after this one, but at least a young impressionable movie goer or two are gonna look up those 80s classics, and have their mind blown like Wingard’s definitely was.
The Onslaught in this case is from a genetics experiment gone wrong. Dr. Hans Kammler (Dan Stevens) underestimates the 3 super soldiers he creates: The Butcher, The Cockroach, and The Crybaby. They tactically break contain and murder everyone at a secret private contractor facility. Their mission: kill everyone, not great for the residents at a local trailer park like sullen unhappy cop Kovacks (Eric Wareheim), Vietnam vet Josiah (Reginald VelJohnson), and Celeste (Adria Arjona), a paranoid over prepared military vet herself, pulling single mother duties for daughter Daisy (Blake Kennedy) this weekend. In addition, this containment breach triggers government protocols, activating handler Cyrus (Drew Starkey) to clean up and cover up Kammler’s mistakes.
Why do I think Wingard is homaging The Terminator and 80s action movies? Reginald VelJohnson and Michel Biehn’s certainly gives the game away a little bit. Wingard’s aiming for the grittier, handmade style: brutal, visceral, and hopefully hella cool. Onslaught is definitely those things: the minute the 3 soldiers break contain the movie lets the blood fly early and often. The murders feel intimate and cold at the same time, like those 80s movies that have malevolent forces attacking innocent bystanders not ready to deal with them. Wingard nails the fear elements chillingly. The shots of those 3 motionless soldiers with overly brightly lit up pupils will haunt my dreams for the next couple weeks. We lose the guns quickly in favor of more horrifying weaponry, like say, an 80s classic the chainsaw? Nice job Adam/Simon Barrett the writer. And when things get just up to the “too gross” line, in swoops Drew Starkey and his kinky sexual fantasies, not too mention a very humorous runner where he’s dealing with MDMA effects while trying to investigate the problem he’s been activated for. You can feel Wingard and Barrettt got their chance to make the movie they wanted on their terms, accomplishing at least the good nostalgia movie cool points they wanted to earn.
As a story though, Onslaught sacrifices cohesion for brevity. Each individual piece: the science experiments, the raid on the trailer park, and the fixer, could have been their own 90 minute adventures. Instead, Wingard tries to cram all 3 into one movie. Meaning, all those cool points he earns with the fun setups lose a few in the execution. I totally dug all the derange antics of Dan Stevens and Rebecca Hall in their section of the movie, but because it’s not as action focused, it’s relegated to the side plot. That tale wraps up way too fast, leaving us with more questions but not in a good way. Cyrus the fixer is fine as a cut to character, but I was hoping for a little more Sam Loomis like intersection with the soldiers or Celeste, so Cyrus doesn’t feel completely off to the side untethered by Onslaught’s more tense other tale. At least the trailer park sections are balls to the wall, with each of the cast having a great time cosplaying as either their 80s selves or 80s archetypes, especially the hard as nails Adria Arjona, badass incarnate. That story is rushed too, but at least feels complete, making me think Wingard shot that stuff first and built the other two stories around it to get Onslaught to 90 minutes maybe?
Either way, welcome back Adam and Simon! The gritty synthy 80s are where your heart lies, so I hope you keep getting to make as many of them as you want. I also welcome the Rebecca Hall/Dan Stevens psychotic workplace movie, darkly conducting experiments in labs and in the bedroom, as deviant and depraved as you make them feel here. What happened to me?