Review: ONSLAUGHT

<p>&nbsp;<i>by Rob DiCristino</i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhnFdVF_Vu9zJDzllCZepsj6jTzprFWzlYSiVAy5r995ftD8OL3IZ4A45H5waNf4HyF8KecU-ihXz1QJ6rrImU74PBS3IK6rwBEgs2GG1dJD7_pv36heceFEJG-HIjA15-p2r2XFJyZRsNs3P8H1Fzmh2MZYgjRtTGkSY-d8QGRlhYfgTfWgn5U2XBezg/s3998/ONSLAUGHT_Teaser-Onesheet_Celeste.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3998" data-original-width="2700" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhnFdVF_Vu9zJDzllCZepsj6jTzprFWzlYSiVAy5r995ftD8OL3IZ4A45H5waNf4HyF8KecU-ihXz1QJ6rrImU74PBS3IK6rwBEgs2GG1dJD7_pv36heceFEJG-HIjA15-p2r2XFJyZRsNs3P8H1Fzmh2MZYgjRtTGkSY-d8QGRlhYfgTfWgn5U2XBezg/w270-h400/ONSLAUGHT_Teaser-Onesheet_Celeste.jpg" width="270" /></a></i></div>In which Adam Wingard gets back to basics.<span><a name='more'></a></span><br />

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You know what? Let’s just cut to the chase on this one: <i>Onslaught</i> is not a very good film. It’s a crass, empty, and juvenile actioner, a reheated John Carpenter riff that sorely lacks the gritty authenticity and cynical defiance of Carpenter masterpieces like <i>The Thing</i>, <i><a href="https://www.fthismovie.com/2013/01/it-came-from-80s-they-live.html">They Live</a></i>, and <i>Assault on Precinct 13</i>. Unlike those films, <i>Onslaught</i> is forced and overeager, bending over backward to be transgressive in a laughable, 2010 sort of way. Co-written with longtime partner Simon Barrett, Adam Wingard’s first independent effort since 2014 is an impotent temper tantrum from a filmmaker venting his frustration over the decade he’s spent trapped in the IP hellscape of <i>Godzilla vs. Kong</i> (a vibrant franchise with a real impact on pop culture; surely you have a number of favorite scenes from those memorable films!). And I sympathize, Mr. Wingard. I really do. After the critical success of <i><a href="https://www.fthismovie.com/2014/09/review-guest.html">The Guest</a></i> and the commercial breakthrough of <i><a href="https://www.fthismovie.com/2013/08/review-youre-next.html">You’re Next</a></i>, I’d have taken the big sack of money, too! But by returning to his genre roots, Wingard proves that money might not buy creative happiness.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9E8Shps7W-QCh4WDYWkBzeoaiXVmNNsZMjpN455b8DOirD8cInWH9Y57Rf1VJynB-zx3QmSxaDL3PDZDAKct8ASibXuB61Fah1cDwuyrTBgex_eduQnqjbNuuKmMC647mmXlV3X23WuhT0e5I21yQgowBrULmpD7ut7UGZTul2P3FKDw4NVCJzdhxtYg/s5703/ONSLAUGHT%2003.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3802" data-original-width="5703" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9E8Shps7W-QCh4WDYWkBzeoaiXVmNNsZMjpN455b8DOirD8cInWH9Y57Rf1VJynB-zx3QmSxaDL3PDZDAKct8ASibXuB61Fah1cDwuyrTBgex_eduQnqjbNuuKmMC647mmXlV3X23WuhT0e5I21yQgowBrULmpD7ut7UGZTul2P3FKDw4NVCJzdhxtYg/w400-h266/ONSLAUGHT%2003.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>But hang on. We’ll get there. <i>Onslaught</i> is the story of retired Army sniper Celeste (Adria Arjona), whose post-traumatic stress disorder has destroyed her marriage (to Jacob Scipo’s Griffin), made her a stranger to her young daughter (Blake Kennedy as Daisy), and doomed her to ownership of a run-down trailer park on the desert outskirts of a mysterious military facility. When a work emergency forces Griffin to leave Daisy with Celeste unexpectedly — interrupting an afternoon of target practice that Sarah Connor would find excessive — the struggling veteran must put on a brave face and play the part of “Mommy.” Meanwhile, in the aforementioned mysterious military facility, a trio of hulking, undead supersoldiers engineered by a third-generation Nazi scientist (Dan Stevens in elderly makeup as Dr. Kammler) and his wife (Thundering Badass Rebecca Hall as Frau Kamm