Onslaught review: Adria Arjona leads a sparsely engaging '80s throwback action film
Adam Wingard attempts to create a campy, self-aware experience does have its moments but is not nearly as thrilling as it ought to be.
On paper, Onslaught is a fairly simple equation of a woman having to combat three highly dangerous, remorseless killing machines.
It was more than 15 years ago that director Adam Wingard and screenwriter Simon Barrett began their slasher journey together and following a short yet prominent mainstream detour in between, the duo is now back tending to their irresistible preoccupations.
Desolate homes in the outback, idyllic family get-togethers ambushed by psychotic killers and state-funded sinister human experiments — all these and a few more familiar motifs return in their latest outing, Onslaught, which, as the title suggests, is designed to launch a relentless attack on its protagonist.
Accommodating multiple cultural palates
Adria Arjona plays Celeste, a post-traumatic-stress-disorder (PTSD)-stricken, divorced US Army veteran whose lonely yet contented existence in a New Mexico trailer home is usurped unfairly when three genetically manipulated ‘super soldiers’ escape a nearby secret facility.
In the writer-director’s intentionally campy approach, Celeste has just been tasked with taking care of her little daughter (whom she barely knows or relates to) for a few days and the unhinged attack on her couldn’t have occurred at a worse time. Sure, Celeste is sitting on a collection of guns and other ammunition, but Wingard and Barrett know better than to lend her easy access to them. All she can do is use her wit and tenacity as a former soldier, along with the amiable services of a fellow, much-older veteran (Reginald VelJohnson) and a beer-guzzling cop/neighbour, who is probably a liability himself.
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On paper, Onslaught is a fairly simple equation of a woman having to combat three highly dangerous, remorseless killing machines. The film never hides its hat-tips to the B-movie sensibilities of John Carpenter and his ilk from the 1980s and largely plays out under the irony-heavy throb of synthwave music and a kind of accessible gore and violence. Yet, it simultaneously desires to be new-age, with its undercurrent of realism that captures the grimy existence of a former soldier and her lingering trauma. It is an A24 (independent US entertainment company known for its arthouse content) release after all and from Oren Soffer’s rough-edged cinematography to the textured sound design, Onslaught tries to accommodate multiple cultural palates at once.
The same could also be said for the layered, cerebral storyline that is imbued with political commentary. Wingard brings back Dan Stevens (arguably his most memorable character from the 2014 film, The Guest) in the role of Dr Hans Kammler, a German fugitive scientist heading a terrifying human experiment somewhere deep in the desert. Kammler is in cahoots with the US government, which wants to unleash the feral super-soldiers for very specific, unconscionable purposes and it isn’t difficult to suspect that the makers of the film want to have a say in how the current US administration is employing its forces against its own public.
A mixed offering
Onslaught, though, does that in its own whimsical ways by creating a lore involving a range of characters, such as a slimy, heroine-injecting government fixer (played by Drew Starkey) and a mysterious woman (also German, and played by Rebecca Hall with a tinge of Britain about her accent) who knows the ins and outs of Kammler’s experiment.
The results of this multifaceted narrative are mixed and irregular. While on the one hand, the more straightforward action portion dispenses a good amount of thrills whenever it is brought to the fore, the prolonged setting-up of all the various elements of the story hampers both its rhythm and intrigue. In other words, Onslaught takes a little too long to get going, and although it immediately finds its tempo whenever it does, the ancillary aspects of its plot don’t really add much to its overall impact. And just as one expects it to take off after finding its groove, it arrives at a screeching halt, leaving way more questions than answers.
Some of the answers, or respites, are still found in the film’s showpiece part, when the killers set their eyes on the trailer park and fully announce their intentions. The action grows visceral and exciting as Celeste finds herself cornered and rapidly running out of options, with her psychological demons also now entering the fray. The writing finds its emotional grounding here, as it relays Celeste’s past in slick, black-and-white flashbacks and gently adds weight to the mother-daughter undercurrent. Another thread, relating to the protagonist’s days in the army and one of the super-soldiers himself, shows a lot of spark until it is abruptly doused and concluded on a rather dissatisfying note.
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Abrupt, indeed, is the operative word to describe Onslaught, which brims with ideas that don’t ever form a whole. It is perhaps intentional on the filmmakers’ part to leave things incomplete so that a franchise or ‘universe’ is forged for the future, especially considering that this storyline (apparently) takes place in parallel with the events of The Guest (2014) and You’re Next (2011). And the latest film does feel a tad lost in those ambitions. It has some terrific action blocks that embrace a movie logic/vibe wholeheartedly, as well as some interesting characters, but they all remain scattered, never able to communicate a coherent, punchy idea that is worth the billing. If you are expecting a fun, self-aware movie that doubles down on the conspiracies it throws up so freely, this one’s not quite it.
