Starring Adria Arjona, Blake Kennedy and Reginald VelJohnson
Directed by Adam Wingard
Written by Simon Barrett
A24
The military-themed horror/actioner ONSLAUGHT is a lot like an Army MRE (Meal Ready-to-Eat). It satisfies a basic hunger, though it doesn’t offer a lot of distinctive flavor.
The latest collaboration by director Adam Wingard and writer Simon Barrett (YOU’RE NEXT, THE GUEST) announces its inspirations right away with the use of the “John Carpenter font” in the opening titles. It then cheekily begins with a bunch of jack o’lanterns being blown away (take that, HALLOWEEN!) in a desolate desert landscape. The gun is wielded by Celeste (Adria Arjona), a resident of the Windy Oasis trailer park and a former Army sniper with, of course, more than a touch of PTSD. She’s also got family issues, specifically an ex-husband who unexpectedly drops off their young daughter Daisy (Blake Kennedy) even as he’s planning to take the girl away with him on an impending move. Celeste is having a bad day, and we know it’s bound to get worse.
That’s because the B story involves a nearby underground Armed Forces bunker where three more former (male) soldiers, who have all committed atrocities, have been scientifically transformed into “the human equivalent of a heat-seeking missile.” Inevitably, the trio break free from their holding area and head topside, and after a massacre at a remote convenience store, they set their sights on the even more remote Windy Oasis. There, Celeste and her large stash of weapons are all that stand between these seemingly unkillable warriors and the deaths of Celeste, Daisy and the other residents, including good-natured Vietnam vet Josiah (Reginald VelJohnson) and not-so-good-natured cop Kovacks (Eric Wareheim).
After Wingard’s lengthy sojourn in the land of franchises and megapictures like BLAIR WITCH and the GODZILLA VS. KONGs, ONSLAUGHT is a return to his nitty-gritty indie roots. In particular, it recalls THE GUEST, in which a combat veteran played by Dan Stevens wreaks havoc in the Southwest. Stevens is in ONSLAUGHT too, in a very different part: Herr Doktor Hans Kammler, the scientist behind the supersoldier program, made up and coiffed in a way that resembles THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW’s Riff Raff. He’s introduced indulging in a bit of kinkiness with his domineering wife Hanna (Rebecca Hall), setting up the exciting possibility that the film to follow will continue in the same perverse vein. Similarly, the opening-credits montage of U.S. government and military atrocities and other unsavory activities suggests there will be some intriguing political subtexts at play as well.
Unfortunately, ONSLAUGHT never really follows through on either, delivering instead a straightforward mayhem movie that is very well-crafted without being terribly inspired. As the deadly trio lay siege to Windy Oasis with both heavy firepower and big blades, Oren Soffer’s sharp, atmospheric widescreen cinematography is complemented by Matthew Pusti’s ’70s-evocative synth score. The result is a film that more than one critic has accurately observed feels like the most John Carpenter-y movie that Carpenter never made. (In fact, he almost made one very much like it: Carpenter was once attached to a Shane Black/Fred Dekker script called SHADOW COMPANY with a very similar storyline.)
Perhaps inevitably, the result is that ONSLAUGHT doesn’t achieve a singular personality of its own. Barrett’s script, based on a story by him and Wingard, has some tasty lines in the early going (“Dr. Kammler, would you mind not smoking while the subject’s brain is exposed?”, “Progress does not crawl on its belly like a worm”) before sidelining Dr. Kammler, Hanna (Hall fans like myself will be especially disappointed) and Baylor, played by Michael Biehn, whose presence emphasizes the debt the movie also owes to THE TERMINATOR.
ONSLAUGHT’s strongest asset is Arjona, who was terrific in Richard Linklater’s undercelebrated HIT MAN and fully convinces as both a woman tormented by past trauma on and off the battlefield and a stalwart protector of her child. She has some nice moments with Kennedy before everything goes south, and also with VelJohnson (it’s cool to see him back in an actioner all these years after DIE HARD), two different generations of fighters for their country finding a kinship. Arjona also acquits herself well when the going gets violent, and Wingard brings energy and some black-comic flair to the carnage; the convenience-store slaughter is especially potent.
At the same time, ONSLAUGHT doesn’t entirely avoid the contradiction of many such films: It comes down hard against the bad warmongering military while also reveling in the joy of shooting and blowing shit up. On that simple level of appeal, ONSLAUGHT delivers the goods, but it’s a shame that it doesn’t pay off on the possibilities it sets up for itself to do and be something more.
