“Onslaught” is Insensitive, to Say the Least

Yesterday I published a review of By Any Means, which questioned the ethics of turning a sensitive subject matter into an action movie.  Today I have egg on my face, because I am now presented with something that is so much more “in poor taste” it redefines the term by comparison. 

At least By Any Means is sensitive, on the right side of the conflict, and attempts some realism. That film could, and maybe should, be argued to be in good taste.  A24’s Onslaught takes a myriad of sensitive issues, from mass shootings, to home invasions, to the Holocaust, to warfare, and more, and turns them into the 2026 equivalent of a cheesy b-movie.  There is no question that this film minimizes those issues and turns them into popcorn entertainment, which subconsciously reduces at least some audiences’ appreciation of the seriousness of these topics. 

Perhaps this would be okay if there was, you know, a point.  At the very most, it seems pretty obvious that the creators of Onslaught are trying to instill an anti-war message.  There are a couple problems with this. First, A24 has done this much better before, in the form of both Civil War and Warfare, which both came out within the last couple of years.  Not to mention the myriad of better anti-war films from other studios.  Second, it is highly doubtful that audiences are going to see this goofy action thriller and develop a renewed vigor against the industrial-military complex.  That is like expecting people to develop a new passion for protection of children by watching Gamera vs. Guiron.  It just isn’t very likely at all.

At the least, is Onslaught entertaining?  Does the cheesiness pay off?  Not really.  The best part of the movie is probably our main character, Celeste, played by Adria Arjona.  Arjona does a good job in the role, but her character essentially boils down to a mashup of the “tough mom” and “female Rambo” tropes that haunt lesser-grade action movies.  Everyone else is an even less engaging trope at best, or an offensive stereotype at worst. 

This movie was made on a relatively low-budget, at $15 million.  This constrains the movie to mostly three settings: a warehouse dressed up as some Josef Mengele concentration camp (with accompanying dime-store Josef Mengele), a gas station, and the main setting, a trailer park in the middle of the desert.  All three settings are visually uninteresting, and with the other aspects of the movie being so underwhelming, it takes away from the film. 

The action sequences are kind of engaging, but they’re so obviously the same as every other film of this type.  That sameness infects the entire skeleton of the film, with a story structure as generic as store-brand drugs.  Yet this contradicts the external makeup of the film, which is trying very hard to be experimental.  But there is a big difference between trying to be experimental and trying to experiment.  The former is an attempt to recreate a unique style, the latter is an attempt to invent a style. 

Onslaught isn’t very good.  There are positives, such as the short runtime and making a Latina the main character (although even then, she needs to be saved by a man on more than one occasion).  But between its problematic nature, its lack of originality, the offensiveness of its characters, and the senselessness of its violence, this cannot be recommended in good faith, even as a brainless action movie.  A24, do better.  We know you can.