Onslaught is one of the year’s nuttiest movies.
A crazy German scientist (an unrecognizable Dan Stevens) is creating an army of super-soldiers at a remote military base. Of course, three of those soldiers escape to wreak havoc upon the world.
But there’s a problem: The budget for the A24 film is small, and the promise of these super-soldiers getting out and causing mass mayhem is stifled. They make it as far as a trailer park, where they meet their match in former soldier Celeste (Adria Arjona). So … these unstoppable forces are stopped rather easily, resulting in something anticlimactic. The film should’ve been called Onslaught in a Trailer Park.
I’m not giving too much away here. You’ll be able to tell pretty quickly that the movie will never really go anywhere. By the time the action should really be ramping up, it’s almost over.
Maybe if director Adam Wingard hadn’t established such lofty expectations in the setup, the film could’ve felt more complete. As it stands, it feels like it is missing another (more expensive) chapter.
That said, the movie is not a complete loss. Some of the sequences have a fun slasher feel, especially when one of the soldiers brandishes a chainsaw. Arjona makes for a decent action hero, and Blake Kennedy is cute as Daisy, her scrappy daughter. Having Michael Biehn in the cast helps give the film a grindhouse feel. (He was actually in the Tarantino/Rodriguez double feature, Grindhouse!)
This film could’ve used more Eric Wareheim, he of the legendary Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! He gives the film a fun, off-the-rails comedic jolt as a deranged police officer. His character demands its own movie.
Onslaught is admirable for what it tries to do with so little. A $15 million budget just isn’t going to do it, given the film’s aspirations. It’ll make for decent-enough Saturday-night viewing on a streaming service, but don’t bother on the big screen.
