Onslaught (2026):

Director: Adam Wingard
Screenwriter: Simon Barrett & Adam Wingard
Starring: Adria Arjona, Blake Kennedy, Reginald VelJohnson, Drew Starkey, Dan Stevens

The Plot: Three genetically engineered super soldiers escape from a secret government facility in the desert. Their programming tells them to kill anything in their path, which in this case includes the residents of Windy Oasis trailer park. Bitter army vet Celeste (Aria Arjona) will need to call on her old skills if she wants to survive the night and protect her daughter (Blake Kennedy).

It’s nice to see Adam Wingard cut loose again. Onslaught marks the director’s return to original, mid-budget horror after a decade toiling in the IP (intellectual property) mines*. This film feels of a piece with his earlier work; off-kilter horror movies like The Guest and You’re Next. His newest film is taut, violent, and often darkly funny. It is this last element that keeps Onslaught from feeling like just another John Carpenter homage. The masked killers and synth-heavy score are balanced by moments of unexpected weirdness like an FBI agent getting called into work while coming down from an MDMA high or Dan Stevens and Rebecca Hall as a weirdo Nazi scientist and his icy domme wife.

Adria Arjona makes for a very compelling lead, prickly without being unlikable. She’s believably tough and plays her moments of vulnerability—hands shaking on the battlefield, a look of shame when she realizes that her young daughter has done her dishes—with a natural understatement. It helps that Arjona has believable chemistry with Blake Kennedy as her daughter, and that she has an excellent scene partner in Reginald VelJohnson as a neighbor and fellow veteran. The older actor brings a down to earth, seen-it-all quality that pairs well with Celeste’s anger and rising panic.

The screenplay, by Wingard and his longtime writing partner Simon Barrett, doesn’t get bogged down in exposition or backstories. Information is revealed efficiently and sparingly. It’s an old school approach, trusting audiences to pay attention and come along for the ride**. Believe me when I say this is high praise: Onslaught is a tight 90 minutes and knows exactly what kind of movie it wants to be.

Admittedly, the first half is tighter than the second half. The build-up is very effective; composer Matthew Pusti’s bruising electronic score and Wingard’s brisk pacing create a sense of urgency. The action cuts back and forth between Celeste’s messy life at the trailer park and the sinister experiments at the government compound. Inter-titles offer a countdown to an unnamed event. When we finally do meet the trio of killers, they’re suitably imposing. Hulking and silent, they have a tangible physicality that is present in all the best slasher villains. Like Carpenter’s infamous Halloween killer Michael Meyers, the super soldiers benefit from solid filmmaking. Onslaught has great lighting and propulsive editing. It’s the product of a vision rather than an algorithm.

The film loses a little momentum once the killers reach the trailer park and it becomes a home invasion thriller, but only a little. There’s enough variety in the action and the scares that these scenes never become repetitive. Onslaught does leave some threads underdeveloped, to the point where I was almost expecting another 15-20 minutes of additional climax. However, the movie is better for having some restraint and ending when it does. Wingard doesn’t overstay his welcome.

I was tempted to save Onslaught for this year’s Octoberween, but I honestly think it’s worth seeing on the big screen if you get the chance. If not, definitely keep an eye out for when it hits streaming. Fans of John Carpenter or 80s action and horror in general who want to see something fresh won’t be disappointed.

*Two Godzilla movies of middling quality (call me a snob, but the Japanese ones just have something the American films are missing), a much-reviled Death Note adaptation for Netflix, and a Blair Witch sequel.
**I suppose the “new school” approach would be the Netflix mandate to have characters periodically summarize the plot so people looking at their phones while the movie plays in the background can follow along.