{"id":14973,"date":"2026-09-04T22:34:03","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T02:34:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=14973"},"modified":"2026-09-04T22:34:03","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T02:34:03","slug":"onslaught","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2026\/09\/04\/onslaught\/","title":{"rendered":"Onslaught"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Onslaught<\/strong> (2026)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A24\/Action-Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 92 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong bloody violence, some gore, sexual material\/nudity, language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Adam Wingard\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Simon Barrett\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Matt Pusti\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Oren Soffer\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: September 4, 2026 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Adria Arjona, Dan Stevens, Eric Wareheim, Reginald VelJohnson, Michael Biehn, Alex Pereira, Drew Starkey, Rebecca Hall, Maurice Greene, Blake Kennedy, Jacob Scipio.<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: *** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0Here we are in the final weekend of the 2026 summer movie season. Typically, Labor Day weekend is a dead zone at the multiplexes. Studios dump the last of their garbage hoping to make a few bucks while the big releases dwindle down. The last thing you\u2019d expect to see is something great. Well, hold onto your hats, people. Onslaught<\/strong> is awesome!<\/p>\n

\u00a0Directed by Adam Wingard (You\u2019re Next), Onslaught<\/strong> is a nifty throwback to the grindhouse movies of the 70s with its gritty aesthetic and John Carpenter-esque score (by Matt Pusti). Okay, so the plot owes a little more to the 80s and 90s with its nods to The Terminator and Universal Soldier, but the whole vibe is from the Golden Age of Exploitation. It\u2019s extremely violent and bloody with guns, axes, cleavers and chainsaws being the instruments of the carnage. As for the cause of it, read on.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The plot of Onslaught<\/strong> is as follows: a trio of genetically engineered super soldiers escapes from a secret military facility and go on a killing spree, ending up at a trailer park where they meet their match in a traumatized Army sniper. That\u2019s the short version. I\u2019ll bet you want more details. Read on.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The super soldiers are the result of years of experiments by Dr. Hans Kammler (Stevens, The Guest), a brilliant but mad scientist in the grand tradition of German-accented doctors affiliated with the Nazi Party. He\u2019s been experimenting on American soldiers thought to be dead. He\u2019s turning them into mindless killing machines whose sole function is to kill whatever\u2019s in their path period. They can\u2019t be bargained with. They can\u2019t be reasoned with. And they won\u2019t stop, EVER…. well, you get the idea.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Predictably, things go horribly wrong when Hans holds a demonstration for somebody important (played, ironically, by Terminator co-star Michael Biehn). They wipe out the entire platoon he brought with him as well as everybody else in the place. Then they leave the facility to continue their mission starting at a convenience store. It\u2019s a total massacre!<\/p>\n

\u00a0What the trio didn\u2019t expect was to run into Celeste (Arjona, Blink Twice), a former Army sniper with an arsenal and a case of PTSD. She\u2019s been has been living in the trailer park for the past few years not confronting her demons. Instead, she spends her days and nights doing repairs around the park and drinking away her pain. She\u2019s already a mess. Now add to that a young daughter (Kennedy) she unexpectedly gets saddled with for the weekend by her uncaring ex. It\u2019s the wrong weekend to have a little kid hanging around.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The government, the ones who funded the clandestine experiments, can\u2019t have their property running around unchecked. They put one of their best spooks, a creepy albino named Cyrus (Starkey, Outer Banks), on it. They don\u2019t want him to stop them; they just want him to observe, to see that they work properly. And these are some mean machines! Clad in camoflauge and masks, they\u2019re an imposing sight with their hulking physiques and glowing green eyes. The lead guy is \u201cThe Butcher\u201d (UFC fighter Pereira), a brutal sort who earned his moniker because of his penchant for extreme violence. He more than lives up to the name.<\/p>\n

Onslaught<\/strong> isn\u2019t without a few minor flaws, but I\u2019m not about to let them spoil my fun. Fun is the key word here. Let\u2019s start with Stevens\u2019 eccentric performance. It\u2019s decidedly cartoonish, but it works beautifully. Dressed in a white cape and wearing a bald cap, he takes the weirdness to the next level in an early scene where he submissively crawls on the floor and worships his wife\u2019s (Hall, The Town) feet. We can see who wears the pants in this marriage. I relished every minute Stevens was on-screen.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Although I would have liked to see her be more bad ass than damaged, Arjona holds her own in the lead role. I can see her becoming the next big female action star. Along these same lines, I was disappointed that Pereira didn\u2019t get to display his fighting skills more. He\u2019s a UFC fighter; why not put his training to good use here? Reginald VelJohnson (Die Hard) steals nearly every scene he\u2019s in as Celeste\u2019s Vietnam vet neighbor. This guy isn\u2019t afraid to fire his weapon. He also has a sharp wit. He\u2019s a cool sidekick. Starkey brings the creep factor as the cold-blooded government spook we first meet in an S&M club. I have a theory that he\u2019s also the result of a government experiment. Maybe it\u2019ll be revealed in a sequel provided one happens at all.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In addition to the underrated horror flick You\u2019re Next, Wingard also directed the equally underrated The Guest (also starring Stevens). The director has stated that Onslaught<\/strong> is in the same universe as these two movies. That\u2019s cool! Now I\u2019ll have to watch them again.<\/p>\n

\u00a0You all know about my affection for trashy B-movies. Onslaught<\/strong> fits easily under that heading. It\u2019s a bonkers blend of action and horror that doesn\u2019t fit neatly into either category yet still delivers a goodly amount of both. Besides, I can hardly knock a picture that features bloody chainsaw violence. That\u2019s a deal sealer for me. And coming out at the end of the summer like it does is a sweet bonus. It\u2019s the ideal movie for Friday or Saturday late-night viewing.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Onslaught (2026)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A24\/Action-Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 92 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong bloody violence, some gore, sexual material\/nudity, language)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Adam Wingard\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Simon Barrett\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Matt Pusti\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Oren Soffer\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: September 4, 2026 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Adria Arjona, Dan Stevens, Eric Wareheim, Reginald VelJohnson, Michael Biehn, Alex Pereira, Drew Starkey, Rebecca Hall, Maurice Greene, Blake Kennedy, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14974,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-now-playing"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Onslaught-POSTER.jpg?fit=620%2C918&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14973"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14973\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14978,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14973\/revisions\/14978"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}