Adam Wingard made a name for himself in genre filmmaking with his feature You’re Next and followed up with the also enjoyable The Guest. The director took on a few more movies before tackling a franchise feature, Godzilla vs. Kong, and then Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. Though Wingard cut his teeth making genre horror and thriller movies, he chose to tackle a few IP-related properties, but it remains clear that this director plays by his own rules. Onslaught is definitely a return to form for the filmmaker, but his latest, more personal project may suffer from his experience working with big studios and big-name characters. Onslaught feels more like Adam Wingard’s jam, but it also comes across as something from a director who seems out of practice.
According to the director, Onslaught takes place within the same universe as his previous movies, You’re Next and The Guest. It follows Celeste (Adria Arjona), a war veteran and skilled sniper. After serving as a soldier, Celeste finds herself in a desert trailer park, where she “enjoys” a quieter, boring life as a divorcee. One weekend, her ex-husband shows up with their daughter and leaves her with Celeste, even though it isn’t her time to take care of her. Though she craves an uneventful existence and often reflects on the trauma she experienced, her skills are demanded when a crazy military experiment goes wrong.
Written by Simon Barrett and Adam Wingard, Wingard’s Onslaught comes across as a grindhouse, home invasion story that has some fun and exciting action, along with some wild and crazy ideas that Barrett and Wingard could come up with. I mostly enjoyed what unfolds, but I feel Wingard and Barrett could have done a little better. I am a huge fan of You’re Next and a moderate celebrant of The Guest, but I feel that Onslaught falls somewhat short in originality and killing power that these previous movies deliver.
One problem is its lack of something dynamically new. There are lots of home-invasion and bunker movies that are so similar, but do it so well. You’re Next is one of my favorite modern takes on the subgenre, but Onslaught falls a bit short in comparison. Some directorial and writing choices fail to deliver the same level of fun, tension, and excitement Wingard offered in his other films. I nevertheless still had fun.
After all, this is a grindhouse movie, so you should expect some weaknesses. I enjoyed the action and the characters’ craziness, along with the violence, though those scenes could have been presented better. I also feel a bit slighted by the big climax, which is supposed to deliver an obvious twist between two characters.
The acting is fine and solid, and it works well enough to keep the movie grounded, but it doesn’t make its actors stand out. I would say that Onslaught is not Wingard’s best within his personal trilogy, but it is still a fun, silly time as his most B-movie.