by Charles Kirkland Jr.
Onslaught Review finds director Adam Wingard going full grindhouse with a bloody, retro-inspired action thriller packed with killer experiments, trailer-park mayhem, and a gloriously unhinged Dan Stevens.
A Government Experiment Goes Very Wrong
A former Nazi scientist has completed three seemingly unstoppable killing machines using the bodies of deceased veterans for the U.S. government.
Naturally, they escape.
The creations embark on a bloody killing spree that eventually threatens the nearby Windy Oaks Trailer Park. Celeste, a former Army sniper who has just gained last-minute custody of her daughter, suddenly finds herself in their path and must prove just how unstoppable she can be when her family is threatened.
Written by Simon Barrett and Adam Wingard, Onslaught stars Adria Arjona, Dan Stevens, Eric Wareheim, Michael Biehn, Alex Pereira, Rebecca Hall, and Reginald VelJohnson. Wingard also directs, marking his third collaboration with Stevens.
Dan Stevens Embraces the Insanity
One of the stranger connections surrounding Onslaught is Wingard’s revelation that the movie exists in the same universe as You’re Next and The Guest. In discussing the connection, Wingard described Onslaught as the capper to a thematic trilogy with You’re Next and The Guest
It might have been interesting to see Stevens reprise his role from The Guest, but what he does here is considerably more bizarre.
Stevens plays a psychotic, toe-licking, evil Nazi scientist with such gleeful commitment that bringing his previous character into the equation probably would have been overkill.
One Dan Stevens is enough.
His willingness to embrace the movie’s absurdity also gives Onslaught Review one of its most entertaining elements, even when the rest of the film struggles to sustain the same energy.
Onslaught Turns Back the Clock
Onslaught feels like a movie out of time.
From the moment it begins, Wingard reels backward through history, moving from the Barack Obama era to the Harry Truman era to establish the film’s backstory.
But the director is interested in traveling further back cinematically than historically.
Wingard constructs Onslaught as a deliberate throwback to the grindhouse movies that largely disappeared by the end of the 1970s. Despite being shot in IMAX, the movie has the texture and attitude of a low-budget exploitation picture.
It is schlocky, bloody, excessive, and completely aware of what kind of movie it wants audiences to think they are watching.
Grindhouse Ambition Without the Commitment
The obvious comparison is the 2007 double feature Grindhouse, particularly Robert Rodriguez’s Planet Terror and Quentin Tarantino’s Death Proof.
Those movies understood that embracing exploitation cinema required total commitment to the bit.
That becomes the central problem for Onslaught Review.
Wingard assembles all the ingredients. There is excessive violence, deliberately trashy material, retro aesthetics, outrageous characters, and enough blood to repaint the trailer park.
Yet he never seems completely committed to the gimmick.
Instead of the escalating lunacy making the movie increasingly entertaining, Onslaught eventually becomes tedious, predictable, and grating.
A movie this deliberately ridiculous should feel dangerous and unpredictable. Too often, Onslaught merely feels loud.
Retro Style Runs Through Onslaught
Everything about the film screams retro.
That extends from its visual presentation to the synth-heavy soundtrack, which recalls the electronic pulse of The Terminator. Wingard wants the audience to feel as though someone discovered Onslaught on a dusty VHS tape that had been sitting behind the counter of a video store since 1987.
The best throwback, however, may be Reginald VelJohnson.
He plays Josiah, a gun-toting, chain-smoking trailer park neighbor who comes to Celeste’s aid. For anyone raised on Die Hard, it is difficult not to imagine that this is what happened to Al Powell after finally retiring from the Los Angeles Police Department.
It is precisely the kind of casting choice Onslaught Review wishes the rest of the movie matched more consistently: ridiculous, knowing, nostalgic, and fun.
When the Joke Stops Being Fun
There is nothing inherently wrong with making a movie designed to be trashy.
Grindhouse cinema has always operated by its own rules, where excess can become an aesthetic and bad taste can become part of the entertainment.
The problem is that a movie deliberately trying to be bad still has to be entertaining.
Onslaught understands the visual language of the movies it wants to celebrate but does not consistently reproduce their anarchic energy. Once the novelty of its retro presentation wears off, the predictable storytelling becomes increasingly difficult to ignore.
That leaves Onslaught Review caught between appreciating Wingard’s affection for exploitation cinema and wishing his tribute were considerably more fun.
Onslaught Review: Final Verdict
Rated R for strong bloody violence, some gore, sexual material and nudity, and language, Onslaught is a throwback to a time when movies were not necessarily supposed to be good.
Unfortunately, this one is not very good.
Still, audiences with a soft spot for grindhouse cinema, outrageous violence, and deliberately trashy genre filmmaking may find enough here to provide some entertainment.
Onslaught Review ultimately finds a bloody blast from the past that looks and sounds like a lost grindhouse movie but never matches its stylistic ambition with the commitment necessary to make the gimmick truly work.
Fans of schlocky exploitation cinema may have fun with it. Everyone else may find this particular throwback considerably more tedious than thrilling.
Onslaught is in theaters starting September 4, 2026.
Grade: D+
