Horror Movie News Report
Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett’s ONSLAUGHT earns praise for its craftsmanship and action, but Rue Morgue’s review concludes that the military horror film does not fully develop the ideas introduced in its opening scenes.
The film stars Adria Arjona as Celeste, a former Army sniper living at the Windy Oasis trailer park. Her difficult day becomes substantially worse when her ex-husband leaves their young daughter, Daisy, with her while preparing to move away. At the same time, three former soldiers escape from an underground Armed Forces facility after being scientifically transformed into living weapons. Following a massacre at a remote convenience store, the trio heads toward Windy Oasis.
Celeste and her weapons are the community’s primary defense. Among the residents are Daisy, Vietnam veteran Josiah, played by Reginald VelJohnson, and police officer Kovacks, played by Eric Wareheim. The cast also includes Blake Kennedy, Dan Stevens, Rebecca Hall and Michael Biehn. Stevens plays scientist Hans Kammler, who is responsible for the supersoldier program, while Hall appears as his wife, Hanna.
According to Rue Morgue, ONSLAUGHT establishes several potentially significant threads before settling into a more direct siege story. Its opening credits reference U.S. government and military atrocities, while Kammler and Hanna are introduced in a manner that suggests the film might pursue a more unusual or politically charged direction. The review says neither possibility receives the follow-through it appears to promise, leaving the movie as a relatively straightforward action-driven horror film.
The review does find considerable appeal in the execution. Oren Soffer’s widescreen cinematography and Matthew Pusti’s synth score contribute to a strong retro atmosphere, while Wingard brings energy and dark humor to the violence. Rue Morgue singles out the convenience-store sequence as particularly effective.
Arjona is identified as the film’s central strength, with the performance balancing Celeste’s battlefield trauma and her determination to protect her daughter. The review also highlights her scenes with Kennedy and VelJohnson, whose characters form a connection as veterans from different generations.
Ultimately, Rue Morgue views ONSLAUGHT as a well-made, energetic mayhem movie that draws heavily from Carpenter-style genre cinema and The Terminator without establishing a comparably distinct identity of its own.
