I came across Onslaught, and the first thing that just caught my attention was the whole idea of a former Army sniper having to protect her daughter from genetically engineered super soldiers....
And so I was like, okayyy....., this could actually be interesting, well, it was really indeed interesting, but it was also one of those movies where you will just sit there watching everything happen and you occasionally ask yourself, what exactly is going on...
Here Onslaught is a 2026 action, horror, sci fi , and thriller movie directed by Adam Wingard, with Adria Arjona playing Celeste, the main character, the movie is about 1 hour and 32 minutes long, so thankfully, it does not take forever to get to the madness...
So tis story starts with Celeste, a former Army sniper who is now living a much quieter life with her young daughter, Lily, she is no longer the soldier she used to be, but clearly, those skills never really left her, and then, of course, trouble comes looking for her, somewhere in the desert, a group of genetically engineered super soldiers escapes from a secret military facility, these are not normal soldiers who escaped and are trying to find their way home, these ones are basically walking weapons, and they start leaving destruction everywhere they go...
Their escape eventually brings them to Celeste's trailer park, and that is where the movie really switches gears, because now Celeste is not just a mother trying to keep her daughter safe , she has to become the soldier she thought she had left behind...
And I actually liked that part of the story, there is something about watching a character who looks like an ordinary mother suddenly reveal that she knows exactly how to handle a weapon, how to fight and how to survive, you know that moment when someone does underestimates a quiet woman and then immediately regrets it... Yeah?..
Yeah, Onslaught has plenty of that energy, the soldiers are being hunted and contained by people connected to the military, while Celeste is basically caught in the middle of everything, and as the story progresses, we start getting more of the conspiracy behind these genetically engineered men and why they were created in the first place....
The movie does not spend too much time explaining every single detail, though , It is much more interested in throwing you into the action and letting you figure things out along the way, and honestly, the action is where this movie really comes alive....
There is shooting, fighting, blood, explosions and some very brutal moments, these super soldiers are not exactly the type of people you want knocking on your door at night, but here one thing I noticed is that the movie feels very much like an old school kind of action movie, It does not try too hard to make everything complicated, It gives you a dangerous enemy, gives the main character a personal reason to just fight, and then basically says
Let the madness begin.
Adria Arjona carries the movie really well as Celeste, her character is not just a woman waiting around for somebody else to rescue her daughter she is actively fighting to protect her, and that makes her relationship with Lily important to the whole story.
Then you have Dan Stevens as Hans Kammler, along with Eric Wareheim, Reginald VelJohnson, Michael Biehn and several others, the cast is actually quite interesting, especially because some of these characters don't immediately tell you whether they are people you should trust or people you should be watching carefully.
And then there is Alex Pereira as The Butcher...
Let me just say...
When I saw him in this movie, I already knew somebody was about to have a very bad day.
The movie is also quite violent, so this is definitely not something I would recommend if you are looking for a calm movie to watch before bed, the director has even talked about the film's mass violence sequences and how the horror reflects some of the fears of the time we are living in, what I liked most about Onslaught is that it doesn't waste too much time.
It is short, straight to the point and full of action, but at the same time, I feel like the story could have gone deeper, the whole idea of genetically engineered super soldiers and the people behind them could have given us much more, I wanted to understand the experiment, the people responsible and the bigger reason behind everything happening.
Instead, the movie sometimes feels like it just wants to get us from one fight to another, but maybe that was the point.
Sometimes you do not need a movie to make you think for three days, sometimes you just want to sit down, watch a woman pick up her weapons and absolutely refuse to let anybody touch her child, and that is basically Onslaught.
It is violent, bloody, fast and a little crazy, but it knows the kind of movie it wants to be, If you enjoy action movies mixed with horror, military experiments, super soldiers and a strong female lead, then yes, give it a try.
If you are looking for a deep, perfectly explained sci fi story with every question answered, hmm... maybe lower your expectations a little.
Not because it is perfect, but because I actually had fun watching it, and honestly, sometimes that is enough, because when genetically engineered soldiers come knocking...
Momma needs to get her guns......
Rating: 90/100
