Onslaught (2026)

The onslaught in Onslaught shows up late and leaves early.

Adam Wingard and Simon Barrett are back with a great B movie setup: a desert trailer park, a former Army sniper (Adria Arjona) raising her daughter, and a squad of genetically engineered super soldiers who break out of the secret government lab next door. Wingard clearly has Assault on Precinct 13 on the brain, and casting Michael Biehn is a nice treat for anyone who grew up renting The Terminator and Aliens.

And it looks fantastic. The night exteriors are the best thing in the movie, with the fog machines running at full blast and the trailer park lit up in that hazy, colored 1980s glow. Wingard has said this was a cheap shoot by today’s standards. You’d never know it from the frame.

The problem is everything between the setup and the payoff. Onslaught runs 92 minutes and still feels padded, which is a rare trick for an action movie this short. The plotting is weird, a lot of the middle feels like stalling, and by the time the super soldiers actually lay siege to the place, it’s over almost as soon as it starts. The siege is also where the acting gets shaky, which hurts, since that’s the part I showed up for.

There are a couple of moments in there that worked for me. Not enough of them.

My expectations going in were pretty low, and Onslaught still didn’t quite clear them. I doubt I’ll revisit it. But I had a mostly fun time, and I can see it becoming the kind of B movie people stumble onto on a streaming service in five years and talk up to their friends. It’s a scrappy little 1980s throwback with great fog, and some nights that’s enough.

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