Adam Wingard‘s new movie “Onslaught,” in theaters Friday via A24, is an ’80s-inspired action thriller in which a combat veteran (Adria Arjona) has to save her daughter (Blake Kennedy) when their trailer park is attacked by a trio of government-enhanced super soldiers. It’s a lean, mean throwback to the golden age of Cannon Films mayhem, and Wingard only has one regret.
“I think the one thing I would probably do is add even more graphic violence,” he says.
Given the ways the desert locals are treated as cannon fodder, it’s a wild request. But Wingard marvels at the amount of freedom A24 gave him for his R-rated siege tale.
“It’s actually a relatively restrained film in terms of what you see,” he says. “There are a couple of moments of blood that are usually over the top, so that it’s not disturbing. There’s a lot of disturbing violence, but it’s usually not too gratuitous. I was really surprised … like the truck stop massacre sequence. I thought for sure we were going to get pushed back. I even expected A24 to push back on it, but we never had to censor anything in the film. I don’t know why that is necessarily. It might be a tonal thing, because the movie can tightrope walk fun and disturbing violence, but it’s not torturous.”
