Adam Wingard has worked across many different edges of filmmaking. He started in mumblecore, found his footing in indie horror films, and eventually made giant monster blockbusters, with successes and softer landings at every level.
Onslaught marks his return to indie horror and slasher territory. But it also shows how far he has come through the way it brings together his personal filmmaking instincts and the polish he has developed through mainstream filmmaking.
The film shares a world with You’re Next and The Guest. Celeste, played by Adria Arjona, is a former soldier whose military trauma has left her stuck. She manages a trailer park called Windy Oasis in remote New Mexico, where her daughter has been dropped off with an impending custody dispute that threatens to separate them.
Just some distance away from her park, a military experiment goes wrong, allowing genetically modified supersoldiers to escape from a facility. The murderous soldiers begin tearing through everything in their path, with their unstoppable course leading them straight to Celeste and her daughter.
What Works ✅
PTSD as Character Thread: Trauma runs quietly through the film, showing in Celeste, who has been frozen since her time in the military and is now stuck at the edge of nowhere. Her pain and struggle are rarely shown through words but through a twitch, a hobby, or the reason behind her choices and the way she holds herself.
On the other side are the supersoldiers, whose own trauma has been stripped out and weaponized, making them what they are. Without making it a statement or a central theme, the film simply weaves this into the visual details and attitudes of both Celeste and older neighbor, Josiah.
Reginald VelJohnson’s Josiah has retreated into his own damage in retirement. His scenes draw a few quiet laughs while using PTSD as the centre of some of them although they still subtly come from the same place as Celeste’s wounds.
The way this thread is woven in rather than being outrightly stated makes up for the characters not being as deeply written as one might expect from a slasher thriller while still allowing them to feel like real people with real histories.
Visual Style and Sound Design: The film has a distinct look and sound that recalls 1980s horror slashers, but instead of copying that era, Wingard reworks it into something that feels like his own.
The score blends keyboard synths with rock music. It moves from short and rhythmic pulses to long and sustained sounds that serve as cues that shapes how the audience feels while making what might have otherwise been ordinary moments feel charged.
The film also works with music and sounds that come from within the scenes themselves, mixing them with the natural sounds characters make to build a texture that reflects who these people are and the feelings in the scenes.
The camera work frames some characters in a dark style with hints of neon while sometimes dropping into a first-person view and at other times zooming closely into the characters while they are mid-action.
In particular scenes containing the supersoldiers the editing cuts like comic book panels, and when they assemble, move, and strike, the cuts and framing match the sound. This gives the film a strong, choreographed look that stays engaging even if the story might not have.
What Doesn’t Work ❌
Underdeveloped Twist and Ignored Characters: The film opens as a clean, mysterious slasher thriller, with the supersoldiers kept unknown and their buildup designed to make them feel unstoppable. Then close to the end, a twist connects them to a specific part of Celeste’s past. This twist is intended to feel like a reckoning but it does not.
Alex Pereira, makes his acting debut here in a central role, yet we barely see him because his face is covered for most of the film. What is shown instead are slow-motion black-and-white flashbacks without dialogues. When his connection to Celeste is revealed, there is nothing to support it, making response the twist reaches for feel forced.
Drew Starkey’s character faces the same thing. Starkey’s Cyrus is a capable operative sent to contain the supersoldiers’ escape. An early detail shows that he is running the mission while on MDMA, which should be funny and hints at something strange and interesting but the film barely uses it.
Cyrus spends most of his screen time looking unwell and arriving after the action has already finished. Even after taking up considerable screen time the character ends the film feeling pointless.
The Weapon of Choice and the Kills: The film works hard to establish that the soldiers are fearsome. From Dan Stevens’ German doctor setting up their capabilities early and a voice warning trained fighters to expect serious injury from engaging them. After their onslaught begins it does not hit as hard as promised.
Most of the deaths involve guns that makes the kills pass without leaving much impact. There are moments when weapons like cleavers, chainsaws, and axes show up but the soldiers use them with a slow, trudging and heavy manner that leaves little menace in their movements.
A lot of blood is seen onscreen but these shocking scenes mostly happen either off screen or behind set pieces. From their escape, the soldiers are established as cunning and intelligent but very few of the kills use that intelligence.
The Tones of Individual Storylines: Even with a brief runtime of 92 minutes, the film still drags in some places. The first half moves between Celeste’s life and the secret military operation with regular hour countdowns appearing on screen.
The two halves of the story have different energies, and when the film switches between them, those energies push against each other, knocking each other off balance instead of building together.
When the onslaught finally begins, the momentum does not hold, as the full-scale attack fails to match the sharp, focused energy of the isolated supersoldier scenes earlier in the film. Until the last few scenes of the soldiers’ attack on Celeste, the pace rises and drops rather than pressing forward.
⚖️ Verdict 3/5
Onslaught is part action film, part slasher, part horror, and part mother-daughter story, but it does not fully commit to any of them. Although none of these leave a strong and lasting impression, It is still an enjoyable watch while it lasts.
It sets up expectations that it then pulls back from. The film falls short of what its R-rating promises, instead Wingard wraps the it in a look and a sound that works by freshening up the things that made 1980s action slashers fun.
