Adam Wingard has a new film coming out in just a few short weeks, Onslaught, and now we have the initial reactions to early screenings of that film. Generally speaking, the buzz coming out of advanced screenings like this, regardless of the film in question, errs on the side of positive. There are a few contributing factors at play here, including that if a studio is comfortable enough to show a film early, then they probably feel pretty positive about it. But the other element is that the buzz of seeing an anticipated film early, weeks before the rest of the world will get to, can be an exhilarating plus-up all its own. This is how you get moments of initial reactions that are utterly baffling in hindsight, like everyone saying that Andy Muschietti’s The Flash was an all-time superhero movie a few years back before it came out and promptly fell flat on its face.
This is what makes it especially notable when a film has these advanced screenings and the reactions coming out of them aren’t inherently tinged with positivity. In many ways, divisive reactions often serve to make me personally more interested in the film, as it means it's doing something interesting, at the very least. And such very much seems to be the case for it, with some praising it as a riotous genre film and others deeming it “irresponsible.”
For the uninitiated, Adam Wingard is a real-life rags-to-riches genre filmmaker who has been doing pioneering in-the-trenches work within low-budget horror since the 2000s. Along the way he has made numerous films, many of which have become cult classics, including You’re Next and The Guest. After attaining this success, he graduated to become the creative lead behind the Legendary’s MonsterVerse, spearheading Godzilla vs. Kong. That film proved to be a hit, helping bring patrons back to movie theaters in a big way in the immediate aftermath of pandemic-era lockdowns, and was also a blast. Wingard was the first American filmmaker to bring real pulp and genre-flavored insanity to this iteration of the franchise, removing stagnant boardroom scenes in favor of bringing in elements like Mechagodzilla and a neon-lit Hong Kong battlefield, so he has my love for that.
Following that, Wingard stuck around to make Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire before opting to return to his more overt horror roots with Onslaught. But that’s not to say Wingard’s career has been devoid of bumps in the road. His 2016 film, Blair Witch, was a sequel to 1999’s iconic The Blair Witch Project, and while I will go to bat for it as a solid work in its own right, the film was critically reviled and proved to be a commercial mishap. In 2017, he made the live-action Death Note move for Netflix, which also earned him a great deal of ire for being a not-exactly faithful take on the beloved manga’s material. So the fact that Onslaught is earning such divisive reviews actually serves as something of an encapsulation of Wingard’s career: high highs and low lows.
So what do some of these early reactions not like about Onslaught? Well, in a social media post, Sean Boelman called it “irresponsible” and “a huge waste of time and potential.” Jacob Ethington called it “pretty uneven” and Eric Francisco said it is “20 minutes too short.”
Elsewhere, though, others seemed to enjoy the film immensely. Drew Taylor said it’s “a down-and-dirty, back-to-basics thriller in the mode of The Guest” before concluding “if you’re on its 80s-indebted wavelength, it hits.” In conjunction with this, Eric Vespe wrote, “Onslaught is like a modern-day Cannon remake of Assault on Precinct 13. Early Carpenter meanness… very entertaining throwback.
For what it’s worth, this all sounds to me very much like Adam Wingard made a true-blue Adam Wingard movie, and it just took some of these early reactors a bit by surprise. Wingard, in his heart of hearts, is a go-for-broke pulpy genre dude, and from both the negative and positive responses here, it sounds very much like that is what Onsalught’s sensibilities are.
Needless to say, I remain extremely jazzed for this.
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