As a big fan of THE GUEST, when word spread of a spiritual sequel to it done by Adam Wingard and written by Simon Barrett, I knew I had to check it out. And I wasn’t going to wait until it hit home video. No, this called for a trek to the movie theater on opening weekend to see it. Armed with some popcorn and an empty bladder, I headed out on a Sunday morning to give it a watch.
ONSLAUGHT is the tender tale of a mother named Celeste (Adria Arjona) trying to get by while taking care of her daughter, who her ex drops off on her unexpectedly one day. And then crazed super soldiers who have escaped from a secret government lab decide to attack her trailer park and massacre everyone there. Meanwhile, a government agent is hot on the trail of the soldiers, trying to cover their tracks by any means necessary.What follows is an action packed and gripping tale of survival that shows you do not fuck with a mother, especially one with military training.
It’s clear from the onset that the super soldiers in ONSLAUGHT are no David from THE GUEST. Whereas he seemed human despite being a monster, these men are pure monsters who live for killing and nothing more. Which is fine as they don’t need to be. They’re hulking brutes who are armed to the teeth and ready to kill and have some bitching, glowing eyes that make them look even more terrifying. They look like murder machines and believe me, they are.
We also get a closer look at the organization that spawned David in this one, where it employs an ex-Nazi scientist named Dr. Kammler (Dan Stevens in a wig and makeup) and allows him to create horrors like the soldiers with inhumane experiments. In fact, the corporation wants him to do just that as war is profitable and they need improved killing machines to sell to the highest bidder, at least according to Baylor (Michael Biehn), another KPG employee who is there with some mercenaries to see how the soldiers perform.
The trailer park gang is made up of a bunch of oddballs who are surviving together against impossible odds. Arjona leads them and does it well, bringing a nuance to her damaged character where she loved her daughter but is trying to get over her own trauma from the military and seeing combat. Along for the ride is Vietnam vet Josiah (Reginald VelJohnson), who is kind and supportive of Celeste. Then there’s the down on his luck police officer Kovacks (Eric Wareheim), who has to overcome his cowardice and in the face of certain death. We get time to know them and others before the super soldiers descend upon them like the Furies. They do well with their roles and I’m always happy to see VelJohnson show up in a movie and kick some ass. I haven’t seen Arjona in anything that I recall but she’s pretty fantastic in the role of Celeste and has you rooting for her to win and try and turn things in her life around. Wareheim was probably the biggest shock for me as I wasn’t aware he was in the movie and he drives around like he could be a Tim & Eric Show character.
The action scenes are fast and furious. Though the super soldiers start off with guns, they end up equipped with a variety of implements that allow them to dispatch their prey in grisly ways, from knife to axe to a giant freaking chainsaw. As you might expect, it gets pretty bloody as well, and Wingard doesn’t shy away from the red stuff. Whereas David in THE GUEST was surgical in his precision, these men are butchers and leave oceans of blood in their wake.
There’s some good tension built up in the movie right from the beginning, when we get a countdown to when everything starts to go to hell. Everyone is going about their day, oblivious to the terror that is coming for them, making it hit that much harder when it does. Even when the bullets start flying, there are some good scares when the men stalk their prey as well as Jason or Michael Myers could and deliver just as much violence. I feel like there’s a bit of commentary on how we treat our veterans, too, leaving them broken and living in trailer parks to eke out a living and forgetting about them. Especially Celeste, who constantly trains with her weapons to stay in fighting form, paranoid that something is going to go wrong and not very disappointed when it does.
It’s not a perfect movie, but ONSLAUGHT is a damn fun one and doesn’t overstay its welcome, clocking in at a brisk 92 minutes. If you’re a fan of THE GUEST and want to play in that world one more time, you’ll enjoy it. If you aren’t and just want a bloody and fun romp, you got that, too. Check it out.
