Michael Myers and Jason Vorhees, but with military training | Onslaught (2026)

They just unleashed their deadliest weapon on us.

I am Jason Kleeberg, this is Force Five, and today I’m going to give you 5 reasons you might like Adam Wingard’s 2026 film Onslaught, and make sure to stick around because at the end I’ll give you two top 5 lists this movie could easily make.

This film makes no attempt to hide its grindhouse influences and that’s a good thing. Right from the opening title card that smashes onto the screen you know you’re living in 42nd Street territory. Adam Wingard himself has described Onslaught as an a-plus B movie. This film is about three super soldiers who escape from a government lab out in the desert and then find themselves trying to eliminate everyone that they come across. Adria Arjona plays Celeste, an inactive military sniper who becomes a thorn in these monster’s sides when the come to her trailer park to eliminate a witness - her daughter. You can feel a combination of stripped down genre filmmaking and B-movie sincerity here and if you’re a fan of filmmakers like John Carpenter, Larry Cohen, Joe Dante, or just like the nastier, bloodier corners of 70’s exploitation flicks, you’ll have a good time with this one.

Speaking of…

Wingard and his cinematographer Oren Soffer made these three escaped super soldier monsters look absolutely amazing. They’re decked out in big, Call of Duty type armor with everything covered but their eyes, and their pupils glow in the dark. There are several shots of them just standing, silhouetted against the desert background with their weapons drawn that just look so cool. They’re huge, they’re silent, and they only communicate through military hand signals. While they don’t have personality, some of the supporting characters certainly do. Dan Stevens continues to take weirder and weirder roles and I’m totally here for it. His outfit screams deep cut Halloween costume once this film gets its cult of fans and the scene where he’s introduced will certainly make Tarantino change his underwear. Drew Starkey is another standout, he plays Cyrus, a military fixer who’s in charge of finding out where the experiments went.

Continuing with the old school influence…

A huge part of the reason that this feels like old school John Carpenter is the synth-driven score by Matthew Pusti. Years ago, Adam Wingard and Pusti created music for an imaginary sequel to The Guest, even releasing The Guest 2 soundtrack when the film didn’t exist. Then when Wingard made Onslaught, which takes place in the same universe, some of those musical ideas made their way into this film. If you like Carpenter scores like Halloween and Escape from New York, Tangerine Dream’s work on films like Thief, or even Wingard’s own The Guest, a movie that I absolutely adore, you’re going to like the music here. It goes a long way toward creating that retro-action horror atmosphere.

If you like slasher movies like Halloween and Friday the 13th, I think you’ll enjoy this and I know it might seem like a weird comparison, but hear me out. As I was watching this, especially when the super soldier monsters start smashing through trailer park doors and windows, I couldn’t help but think, “These guys are Michael Myers and Jason Vorhees if they had military training.” Adam Wingard said that his concept was taking the military-industrial complex and exploring it through the structure of a slasher movie and I think that makes them a bit scarier than a normal slasher movie villain. It’s the unstoppable force of Michael Myers combined with the tactical capability of a trained soldier.

Sometimes a movie only really needs one reason to check it out and in my opinion, that reason is Reginald VelJohnson, yes, Carl Winslow, toting a shotgun. VelJohnson plays Josiah, an older military veteran who lives in the trailer park and it was so nice to see him on screen just playing a guy I want to hang out and read books with. If you’re like me and grew up watching him on TGIF in Family Matters or in Die Hard, seeing him is like a nice warm hug. The role was actually written for Keith David, but the director Adam Wingard said that he became the heart of the film. Seeing the high-strung dad who spent years telling Steve Urkel to get out of his house grab a shotgun to take on genetically engineered murder machines is worth the price of admission by itself.

Let’s get into some Top 5 lists. The first I’d put this on is Top 5 One-Eyed Characters. Celeste sustains an eye injury partway through the film and she looks even more badass with a towel wrapped around her head covering her eye. It also feels like a deliberate nod to Snake Plissken but other great one-eyed characters include Frigga from Thriller or They Call Her One Eye, Elle Driver from Kill Bill, Nick Fury and Rooster Cogburn from True Grit.

The other ins government experiments gone wrong. Think Universal Soldier, The Guest, which takes place in the same world, or Overlord, which I really had a lot of fun with.

If you’ve seen Onslaught, what did you think of it? If you have a movie you want me to do a 5 reasons video for, email me at forcefivepodcast@gmail.com. Finally, down below you’ll find the link to order the film on Physical Media as well as links to my other socials. 

Life is short. Spend it with the people, and the movies, that you love.