Directed By Adam Wingard

Starring – Adria Arjona, Dan Stevens, Eric Wareheim

The Plot – When a rogue squad of genetically engineered super soldiers break loose in the desert, a badass Army sniper (Arjona) must unleash hell to protect her young daughter.

Rated R for strong bloody violence, some gore, sexual material/nudity, and adult language.

Onslaught | Official Trailer HD | A24

POSITIVES

If I’m basing the extent of my collective opinions about the film purely on its technical aesthetics, then it’s undoubtedly one of the most mesmerizingly enthralling films of the year, especially with Wingard returning to his grittily gnarly grindhouse roots in the vein of The Guest and VHS, which have since made him a much-deserved household name. Between Oren Soffer’s spellbinding cinematography combining hypnotic lighting schemes and specialized rigs to contort a visceral movement of the lens, to the inescapably immersive sound design conveying piercingly penetrating volume behind the seemingly endless rounds of ammunition between its characters, this is a film that has no problems subscribing to a commanding element of rabid intensity that allows each sequence of physical conflict to effortlessly permeate a scintillating form of suspense for the environment, as well as vulnerability for the characters involved, evolving it gracefully as a science-fiction horror survive-the-night that feels directly plucked from the 80’s. Further solidifying this artistic intention, the rhythmically pulsating synth score from Matthew Putsi is equally dark and ominous in resonating the very dreadful gloom from that established era, where the entirety of his compositions not only seem to echo the feats of devastation being inflicted by its super soldier assassins on-screen, but also coincide brilliantly with the emotional tangibility of its overwhelmed veteran protagonist, making every square inch of Putsi’s instrumental work feel introspective alongside everything that the movie chooses to show, instead of tell us. This leads to some applauded praises towards the script from Simon Barrett, who instead of reveling incessantly in the cold and clamoring confines of exposition-heavy dialogue, he instead instills a lot of faith and confidence in the interpretive capabilities of his audience through the body language and responses of the movie’s ensemble, giving us a closer form of insightful communication with them that makes each of them a blast to experience on-screen. This is especially the case for Arjona’s Celeste, whose take-no-shit aggressiveness and motherly instincts make her one of the most relatable protagonist all year, but even for the strangely surreal side of the movie’s many wild card antagonists, there’s this overhead moral ambiguity and scenery-chewing radiance that allows each of them this captivatingly fun appeal at all times, proving that everyone assembled is having the time of their lives with such off-the-wall and unconventional characters who each add a much-needed element of mystique to the movie’s lore. Considering most of Barrett’s storytelling is unfortunately subjected to such intrusive editing consistencies of post-production, it makes the subtly enacted psychologies of his characters feel all the more vital to the movie’s success, allowing a rag-tag ensemble of familiar faces and Wingard favorites to commit themselves so endlessly to such unstable performances. This is especially the case for Adria Arjona’s single most demanding performance to date, where between the gut-wrenching resiliency of physically demanding sequences and the wallowing of her isolation from her Celeste’s post-traumatic-stress-disorder, she culminates heroically as this woman nearly coming apart at the seams, brought to life only when her daughter’s well-being is threatened by a terrifying trio that brings Hell upon her small trailer park community. Arjona is matched by meaningful turns from Reginald VelJohnson, who cements a compelling dynamic alongside Celeste that sees the Die Hard veteran inflicting a contentious-but-charmingly affectionate chemistry between the two, as well as a disappearing duo of Dan Stevens and Drew Starkey, who make up for in Lynchian-like mystique what they lack in minimal screentime. Despite the movie’s many problems that will become evident, it’s also benefited by a 30-minute climax that serves as the culmination to everything that the movie builds towards throughout its opening hour, where the dependable tension of Wingard’s direction truly makes its presence felt in fleshing out the vulnerability factor of so many claustrophobically contained sequences. What’s most surprising to Wingard’s execution is that up until the final act of the movie, most of the violence and gore that he unloads throughout the film is kept minimized, so as not to possibly alienate new audiences who aren’t familiar with his distinct brand of shock factor cinema, however once the anticipation factor gives way to a cat-and-mouse battle of wills between our established protagonists and their superhuman adversaries, the depths of their devastation give way to buckets of blood, lacerated limbs, and one particular homage to a certain 70’s horror movie that made me smile sentimentally with approval, serving as the driving forces to a chaotic climax that managed to maintain the entertaining indulgence that I had with the experience.

NEGATIVES

Despite the many pleasantries that you can commend this movie for, it’s also unfortunately one that feels so painfully constricted by its 87-minute runtime, where much of the social commentary and supporting arcs to Barrett’s aforementioned script are abruptly rushed to feel insignificant in the first place. While I could easily make a laundry list of disposed additions to this movie’s creativity, the most detractingly significant are certainly those that pertain to a nothing backstory subplot for Celeste’s time in the Army, featuring a few flashbacks at random times throughout the narrative that intentionally only surmise a tacked-on and ridiculously convenient connection to one of the super soldiers, as well as the governmental arc itself, who are written as generically cliched and unoriginal as any seedy governmental figure ever put to screen. While I can commend Wingard’s seething disdain with attempting to cultivate aggressively unfavorable commentary to the morally compromised people who make actions in the shadows of this country’s heroic soldiers, it doesn’t feel like the opportunity unearths anything meaningful beyond the unforgivable ways that they treat those soldiers, and considering so much of this thematic intention is surmised during an opening act that took more time than I would prefer to become engrossed in the narrative, it often makes Celeste’s backstory build and characterization feel secondary to the movie’s objective, requiring Arjona to work overtime to even make the character compelling by audience standards. Even in its inconsistent articulation of the super soldiers, there’s very little visual evidence as to what makes them such unstoppable forces of nature, beyond their reckless intensity, leaving their flimsy and unimposing designs a bit compromising of the Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers comparisons that I have heard people make after seeing the film. While the designs of the soldiers are cool enough for a Call of Duty big screen adaptation, there’s little to their resiliency and capabilities that helped them stand out in a generation of genre-glorified iconic antagonists, and considering the plot centers directly around their untimely invasion of this desolate trailer park, they’re honestly the least interesting part of this whole movie, especially when so much about their programmed objective is glossed over during initial story beats that are too unfocused to elevate their appeal. Beyond some unfulfilling arcs and generically manufactured characters, there’s also some unfortunate decisions made to the documenting eye of Wingard’s direction that prove to be too much of a good thing, particularly some anxiously overzealous editing and first-person-shooter POV perspectives that completely eviscerate any palpable suspense or tension from sequences outside of the climax bubble. This could easily be forgivable if there was some semblance of a personality to these ambitious sequences, in order to make them equally fun and ferocious, but too often Wingard’s tonality takes itself far too seriously, and the result is especially intangible with anything even closely resembling Grindhouse cinema, with more attention to expressive techniques over on-the-ground conflicting struggles. If this isn’t enough, while Arjona, VelJohnson, and even Stevens solidify needle-moving work to the movie’s integrity, there are just as much extensive waste in this downright remarkable ensemble, where Michael Biehn, Rebecca Hall, and Eric Wareheim are relegated to blink-and-you-might-miss-it roles that contaminate their casting. I can appreciate the opportunity to work with a daringly ambitious director, but the script’s disinterest with inclusion the closer that it gets to its second half becomes painstakingly evident, and it just makes the production’s enacted casting feel like it’s overreaching for actors who have carried their own movies, especially Hall, who here with a thick German accent hints towards a sequel that inevitably will never come for this movie.

OVERALL
Onslaught might imbalance the need for stimulatingly 80’s low-budget propulsive style over fully realized thematic substance but Adam Wingard’s electrifying directional eccentrics and Adria Arjona’s affirming performance keep it tied together at the seams of a stitched together script of many ideas without the necessary time allowance to flesh them out. With its back against the wall of an unfocused opening act and forgettable one-offs among a decorated ensemble, the film relies heavily on a grittily gruesome climax of chainsaws and charbroiled grills, enacting a fun-but-flawed return to form for Wingard’s many grindhouse influences.

My Grade: 6.4 or C