Onslaught (2026)
Directed by Adam Wingard
When a rogue squad of genetically engineered super soldiers break loose in the desert, a badass Army sniper must unleash hell to protect her young daughter.
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42 films that influenced Onslaught
What critics say influenced Onslaught
Director
John Carpenter
Critics invoke Carpenter by name, and compare Onslaught to 7 of Carpenter’s films.
Visuals
On Carpenter, rather than any one film
…it would sound like the greatest John Carpenter/Shane Black collaboration that never happened…
…to the grittier low-budget genre films of John Carpenter…
…an 80’s style mash up of John Carpenter and James Cameron pastiche…
Wingard uses a John Carpenter-esque narrative pacing then the positioning of the trio before they strike is characteristic of Carpenter’s staging of sieges prior to the melee…
Adam Wingard is going for an old-school John Carpenter vibe, and at moments it really does feel like a lost eighties movie.
…which, in fitting John Carpenter fashion, is slowly and steadily escalated…
…which were essentially invented by Carpenter in the original Halloween…
…mixing the relentless horror of slashers like Halloween and Terminator with the stylized visuals of Quentin Tarantino's best work…
Onslaught can be best described as the twisted love child of First Blood (1972) and Halloween (1978).
He blends The Fog with The Terminator and a dash of Halloween…
And utilizing a masked, relentless killer like Michael Myers only works if he’s wielding a knife, not an automatic weapon.
Think Halloween if it was wearing the clothes of Assault on Precinct 13.
…to this time play it as slick as the obvious Assault on Precinct 13 and The Fog influences.
The Fog, Halloween, Assault on Precinct 13, even Escape from LA.
Think Halloween if it was wearing the clothes of Assault on Precinct 13.
…a fun homage to John Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13…
…leaving only a handful to make their Assault on Precinct 13-style final stand…
Matthew Pusti’s discordant electronic score that brings to mind “Assault on Precinct 13”…
…while the soldiers patiently wait outside, standing in a formation reminiscent of John Carpenter’s The Fog…
He blends The Fog with The Terminator and a dash of Halloween…
…to this time play it as slick as the obvious Assault on Precinct 13 and The Fog influences.
…as if Marlon Brando in “The Island of Dr. Moreau” wandered into “The Thing,”…
John Carpenter films like They Live being one of many in this lineage…
It especially carries that Escape from LA silly action-movie vibe…
…the bandage that covers Celeste’s injured eye that makes her look like Snake Pliskin…
Director
James Cameron
Critics invoke Cameron by name, and compare Onslaught to 3 of Cameron’s films.
Visuals
On Cameron, rather than any one film
…an 80’s style mash up of John Carpenter and James Cameron pastiche…
(Okay, so there’s a dash of James Cameron in there too.)
…mixing the relentless horror of slashers like Halloween and Terminator…
…there’s very little we needed to know about, say, Laurie Strode or Sarah Connor…
And I just have to say, Onslaught clearly owes a lot to The Terminator*.
He blends The Fog with The Terminator and a dash of Halloween…
…it also feels like a reference to the “Terminator” franchise complete with a cameo from Michael Biehn…
Also, Drew Starkey (Hellraiser), Michael Biehn (The Terminator), Jacob Scipio (Passenger), and Reginald VelJohnson (Die Hard I and II) are in this amazing cast.
One framed photograph in Celeste’s home feels like it could be a Cindy Sherman-esque homage to “Aliens” (1986), specifically Private Vasquez (Jenette Goldstein) posing with any of the men that she served with.
While there are a few examples (Aliens and Predator most famously), one reason why we don’t see it often is that one genre cancels the other out.
“You fucked with the wrong mom” (meant to echo Ripley’s famous outcry, “Get away from her, you bitch”)…
RIPLEY: Get away from her you bitch!
Michael Biehn, "The Terminator," "Aliens"…
She’s Sarah Connor in T2, serious anger problem and all.
That design could be seen as a reference to a scene in The Guest where the mysterious David (played by Stevens) is also briefly obscured by drying laundry before revealing his true skills as a cold-blooded killer.
…composer Matthew Pusti’s pulsing score echoes the work that Steve Moore and company did for The Guest…
Per Wingard, “Onslaught” takes place in the “same universe” as “The Guest”—and “You’re Next,” because what the hell, sure…
Adam Wingard became a darling of the 2010s horror scene when he arrived with You’re Next and The Guest.
…it shares the same world and expands on ideas introduced in “The Guest.”
…he made a pair of super-effective horror-tinged action movies in You’re Next and The Guest…
Director
Quentin Tarantino
Critics invoke Tarantino by name, and compare Onslaught to 2 of Tarantino’s films.
Visuals
On Tarantino, rather than any one film
…the work of John Carpenter and Quentin Tarantino…
…reads less like an intentional, Tarantino-esque interlinking via blink-and-you-miss-them Easter eggs…
Wingard even tweaked the fake blood recipe to match the bright-red palette of Kill Bill…
Sandwiched between their feature-length Death Proof and Planet Terror were a handful of tongue-in-cheek trailers…
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Watching Onslaught, I immediately started thinking about everything from Universal Soldier to RoboCop and even Terminator.
…the mythology screams “RoboCop” (1987), but instead of treating a fallen cop as Frankenstein’s monster, the mad scientists used soldiers.
As already mentioned, the plot of Onslaught reminded me of Project Wolf Hunting. Admittedly, that 2022 Korean production is even more brutal than this 2026 production. However, the core plot revolving around a super soldier and “expendable casualties” has a lot in common.
The aesthetic lineage Wingard invokes relied on the genuine nastiness of works like Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!
…the chainsaw antics from “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre” (1974)…
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The trio as a unit gives a very “Mad Max” vibe, especially given their vehicle of choice.
While there are a few examples (Aliens and Predator most famously), one reason why we don’t see it often is that one genre cancels the other out.
Also, Drew Starkey (Hellraiser), Michael Biehn (The Terminator), Jacob Scipio (Passenger), and Reginald VelJohnson (Die Hard I and II) are in this amazing cast.
Reginald VelJohnson, “Die Hard”…
Reginald VelJohnson (Die Hard) as Josiah…
At least we have the great Reginald VelJohnson (Die Hard) along for the ride.
(Yeah, the “Die Hard” vet steals the movie).
…including an elder military veteran (Die Hard‘s Reginald VelJohnson)…