Adam Wingard has spent the last decade making big, loud studio movies, but he’s ready to admit something surprising: he kind of lost himself in the system. The director behind Godzilla vs. Kong and its sequel recently opened up about that creative drift, and how his latest project - a scrappy, brutal action-thriller called Onslaught - actually started life as a very different movie: a sequel to his cult 2014 favorite, The Guest.
Released just days ago on September 2, Onslaught follows Celeste, a badass Army sniper played by Adria Arjona, who has to go full Rambo when a rogue squad of genetically engineered super soldiers tears loose in the desert, threatening her young daughter. The setup is pure, distilled genre fuel - action, thrills, and a nasty streak of horror - and it clocks in at a lean 92 minutes. That’s no accident. For Wingard, this is a return to the raw, punchy filmmaking that made his name before he was piloting billion-dollar monsters.
Why The Guest 2 Became Onslaught
Here’s where it gets interesting. Wingard didn’t set out to make a movie about super soldiers and a sniper mom. He and his frequent collaborator, writer Simon Barrett, were toying with the idea of revisiting The Guest, the stylish, synth-soaked thriller that turned Dan Stevens into an indie icon. But somewhere along the way, the sequel’s DNA mutated. The project grew into something bigger and wilder - less about one handsome psychopath and more about a full squad of engineered killers. And yet, Stevens is still here, playing Dr. Hans Kammler, the brains behind the chaos. So, while it’s not the direct sequel fans were expecting, it clearly holds that spiritual bloodline.
Wingard has been candid that working inside the Hollywood blockbuster machinery left him feeling creatively voiceless. After the massive scale of his monster-verse entries, he wanted to strip everything back. Onslaught feels like his answer to that pressure - a gritty, no-frills throwback that prioritizes practical mayhem and character grit over CGI spectacle. The result is a film that moves fast, hits hard, and doesn’t waste a second of its short runtime.
A Cast of Character Actors and Icons
If the plot sounds like a video game cutscene in the best way, the cast is an absolute buffet of cult-cool choices. Arjona, coming off scene-stealing turns in Andor and Hit Man, leads the charge as Celeste, and she’s clearly relishing the chance to play a steely, protective action lead. Alongside her, you’ve got Reginald VelJohnson - yes, that Reginald VelJohnson - as Josiah, and Michael Biehn, the ultimate Cameron-era action vet, as Baylor. Throw in Eric Wareheim of Tim and Eric fame as Kovacks, plus rising star Drew Starkey and UFC legend Alex Pereira as a character literally called The Butcher, and you have a lineup that feels curated by someone who loves the messier edges of ’80s and ’90s cinema.
It’s a smart mix. Wingard knows that a movie like this lives or dies on its supporting players, and he’s loaded the bench with folks who bring instant texture. Pereira, in particular, is a fascinating pick - the guy is genuinely terrifying in the octagon, and casting him as a hulking super soldier gives the film a physical credibility that CGI can’t fake.
A Return to Form, Warts and All
The early audience response has been solid, with a TMDb rating hovering around 6.3 out of 10. That’s not a universal rave, but for a film this aggressively pulpy, it feels about right - this is a movie that’s going to divide viewers who want slickness from those who just want to watch Adria Arjona kick the living daylights out of genetically modified freaks. And honestly, for the latter crowd, Onslaught delivers.
Wingard’s comments about “losing his voice” ring truer when you watch this movie. There’s a looseness here, a sense of play, that’s been missing from some of his bigger-budget output. He’s not trying to please everyone or set up a shared universe. He’s just making a nasty, efficient genre picture with a killer cast and a bad attitude. After years of answering to massive franchises, this feels like Wingard reminding everyone - and maybe himself - what he can do with a tight script, a dusty location, and a woman with a sniper rifle protecting her kid.
While hardcore Guest fans might still be waiting for that true direct sequel, Onslaught is a worthy, if unexpected, spiritual successor. It’s got the same love for synth-heavy tension, darkly comic violence, and charismatic weirdos. It just swaps the suburban Halloween setting for the scorched desert, and replaces one enigmatic stalker with an entire platoon of them. Sometimes, losing your voice means you finally get to hear yourself again - and for Wingard, that sound is apparently a shotgun blast and a propulsive synth line.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
