A woman defends her daughter and her neighbors from a trio of supersoldiers in Adam Wingard’s entertaining but slightly lacking grindhouse throwback, Onslaught.
After the double-fisted monster mashes of big-budget extravaganzas, Adam Wingard returns to his roots with the exploitation throwback Onslaught. I was iffy on the Godzilla/Kong duology (Vs. and The New Empire), although I appreciated the efforts, and, like Mike Dougherty before him, I’m glad to see a small horror director get handed the keys to a giant franchise. So, it’s cool to get Wingard back to where he’s most comfortable: low-budget, tighter, violent films of limited locations and plenty of horror-action. Well, Blair Witch, which I know I’m in the minority of really liking, isn’t quite action, but let’s look at The Guest and You’re Next, two other turns of the home invasion, not unlike this film. (The less we mention Death Note, the better; V/H/S portions are mostly solid). I just wish I liked it more. As it is, it almost works, with plenty to get it going, but ultimately falls short when it needs to pull it all together, leaving it lightly sketched and underwhelming.
Onslaught, written by Simon Barrett like most of Wingard’s work from a story by both Barret & Wingard, starts appropriately, with Celeste, a 2000s-era war vet played with a screen burning exploitation heroine ferocity by Andor’s Adria Arjona (short version: she’s freakin’ awesome), working through her anger, disgust, and PTSD while blasting pumpkins with a variety of weapons, explording them into the explotiation title and a fitting onslaught (heh) of 80 years of violence and war over the credits. Intense and tone-setting, this will be a violent and war-filled film. As she makes work of the targets, a timer appears: “11 hours [and more time] to the incident”. What incident? Perhaps that might have to do with whatever the hell Dan Stevens is up to. Stevens, who chilled our hearts in The Guest and brought chaotic bi-energy to Godzilla x Kong) brings his best Dan Stevensness as Dr. Hans Kammler, a heavily made-up old German scientist. A descendant of Operation Paperclip imports, he’s never let go of his Teutonic heritage, now with his dominating, leather-bound wife of Rebecca Hall ready to get her stilettos licked. He’s working for Michael Biehn’s Baylor, returning a trio of dead soldiers to life to be unstoppable killing machines with no soul or self-thought. Hulking monstrosities, they’re basically Universal Soldiers crossed with Jason Voorhees. Well, things come ot things, and soon they’re out of containment and making a trail of carnage across the New Mexico desert. Guess where they’re heading? Yup, right to the trailer park Celeste manages with a series of ne’er-do-wells and veterans, including a welcome Reginald VelJohnson of Family Matters, Die Hard, and Ghostbusters!, Eric Wareheim (the Eric of Tim & Eric), some cannon fodder, and her 8-year-old daughter.
That’s the basics of set-up, made with an exploitative zeal. I love the way Wingard shoots Stevens, along with everything Stevens is doing. Every time he’s on screen, it’s pure 42nd Street. Wish we had more time with Stevens, but when don’t we. When Stevens is in the film, it gets bumped up a notch. But if we lack him, there is a Dan Stevens II, played by Outer Banks’s Drew Starkey, as another government operative to give the film life. Overall, Wingard and cinematographer Oren Soffer land the tone in the look. The hulking soldiers are often backlit, imposing as black masses with glowing night-vision eyes. And hell yes to the synth-heavy John Carpenter-esque score. That score was my life.
The problem is when it comes time to act on anything set up, especially the soldiers arriving at the park, along with the action beats leading to it, fall short: too quick, easy, and empty. The film is all set-up, a modicum of payoff, done blandly. Like the day came and it was “aw fuck, we forgot to hire a fight coordinator!… again, since this is the fourth action scene!” Excitement builds to a “that’s it?” Now, in moments, a few of those action beats are pretty cool, and tension can run high in siege conditions, but they mostly fail to carry weight.
In setup, it’s vibrant and thrilling; in action, the film doesn’t quite gain its footing. It’s a missed opportunity, half-full in a way that doesn’t get the fullness of You’re Next or The Guest. I appreciate what Wingard was going for, and I love the “I did a few for you, this is for me” nature, and I hope he keeps making what his and Barrett’s twisted little hearts want to make. I’m all for it, even if this didn’t quite work for me. It almost works, which is more frustrating than a full failure.
However, the positives outweigh the negatives, resulting in an entertaining yet underwhelming feature. Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett know exactly what they’re doing, so I’m a bit surprised by the lacking qualities, but there’s more than enough to recommend to those who seem like they’ll dig it. Loved Dan Stevens, and Adria Arjona is everything. There’s a fierceness in the grindhouse exploitation; just temper expectations of payoffs.