Onslaught

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Onslaught

A24 serves up a bloody rampage and a love letter to grindhouse cinema

A former sniper must protect her daughter from mutated soldiers who have escaped from a secret military base. Adam Wingard’s blood-soaked sci-fi horror from A24, packed with spectacular action and grindhouse madness.

Celeste is a former military sniper still haunted by memories of the battlefield. She lives in a trailer, hiding from the world, and shares custody of her daughter with her ex. But peace was never in the cards for her. A desert stretches out near the trailer park, and somewhere in it sits a military base where a secret experiment is underway. When mutated soldiers break free, Celeste is forced to return to the one thing she was trying to escape, and the one thing she knows best: fighting and killing. And there is no more efficient killing machine than a mother protecting her child. Armed with a chainsaw, covered in blood and looking like a one-eyed Ash Williams, she is about to show the mutants that the desert was the safest place they could have been.

“Onslaught” is meaty, bloody genre fun, made with a gleeful sense of mischief. It has the feel of a good old-fashioned grindhouse movie, where any scene can end in a spectacular explosion or a gruesome bloodbath. Blood sprays in every direction, limbs go flying, and the whole thing gleefully juggles genre clichés while playing with audience expectations. There are fights to the death, mutant eyes glowing in the darkness, and, best of all, Dan Stevens having a blast as the mad scientist behind the whole nightmare. “Onslaught” is made for viewers who don’t flinch at onscreen violence and can appreciate a film that knows exactly how to play with genre conventions. This is cinema for anyone who likes their action to do more than politely knock on the door. It kicks it down. Its energy is downright infectious.

Behind the camera is Adam Wingard, director of “The Guest,” “You’re Next,” and the two most recent installments in the “Godzilla x Kong” franchise. Here, he reunites with his longtime collaborator, screenwriter Simon Barrett. The cast includes Adria Arjona, Dan Stevens, legendary actor Michael Biehn, Rebecca Hall, Drew Starkey, Eric Wareheim, and Reginald VelJohnson. The film was made for A24, the now-iconic studio that has helped fuel the horror renaissance of recent years.