Adam Wingard is back with a madcap movie that combines action, horror, science fiction, and creature feature elements. Onslaught follows Celeste, an Army sniper who has left her military career behind to raise her young daughter. Her quiet life is shattered when a rogue squad of genetically engineered super soldiers escapes from a secret military facility. With the dangerous experiments now loose in the desert and threatening her family, Celeste is forced to unleash the skills she thought she had left behind.
The official synopsis reads: “When a rogue squad of genetically engineered super soldiers break loose in the desert, a badass Army sniper must unleash hell to protect her young daughter.”
Onslaught has recently just screened for an early audience and now they’re heading over to social media to share their early impressions. So, what are the reactions saying? Jack Kennedy, host of Project Big Screen, called it a throwback to grindhouse movies, saying, “I enjoyed ONSLAUGHT! Very old school grindhouse, over-the-top action horror. Interesting villains obsessed with aura farming, funny side characters and solid kills. A few too many moving parts make the third act rough but this is a good movie for a crowd.”
However, critic Sean Boelman felt the exact opposite and was not a fan in the slightest, saying, “ONSLAUGHT is one of the most irresponsible movies I’ve seen in a minute. But beyond that, it’s just bad. Lacking in set pieces. No momentum. A huge waste of time and potential.”
Jacob Ethington of the Austin Film Critics Association experienced both positives and negatives from the film, saying, “Onslaught is pretty uneven on the whole, but is stylish to the nines in a way that’s exceptional for a B-movie homage. There’s some inspired performances in here (Reginald VelJohnson *rocks*), yet, somehow, this over-the-top romp feels leashed rather than what its title suggests.”
Eric Francisco of Esquire raved about the film, but wanted it to be longer for it to truly be great. He stated, “#Onslaught is a badass flick that’s 20 minutes too short and two or three more set-pieces shy of greatness. It’s a muscular, dirt-under-the-nails action-slasher with Adria Arjona doing exactly what the mission calls for. A bit more OOMPH and we’d have a real classic here.”
Bill Bria of SlashFilm had a glowing early reaction, saying, “ONSLAUGHT is Adam Wingard’s return to exploitation with a vengeance. A nasty, satiric action thriller that harbors a political consciousness beneath its genre armor. Adria Arjona shows she has a wider range than she’s already delivered. Wingard & Simon Barrett take no prisoners.”
Roberto Tyler of Geek Vibes Nation liked a bit of the action, but felt it ultimately came up short on a whole, saying, “ONSLAUGHT is a wild ride to say the least. A badass blood covered Adria Arjona fights 3 super soldiers in a homage to 80s grind house films. A good time for the most part but everything that surrounds the movie beyond the action violence just doesn’t work and or falls flat.”