While you may not immediately recognize him by name, you almost certainly would recognize Adam Wingard by his work. The filmmaker has played an integral role in shaping the landscape of the modern horror genre as well as big-budget monster movies in some truly unexpected ways, from low-budget slashers like You’re Next to big-budget blockbusters like Godzilla vs. Kong.
Now, after spending years turning Lengedary’s MonsterVerse from an underperforming behemoth into a full-blown phenomenon with the one-two punch of Godzilla vs. Kong and Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire, Wingard is returning to his roots with the action-horror-thriller, Onslaught, distributed by A24.
It has long been understood that Onslaught would be a return-to-form of sorts for the modern master of the macabre, but the full extent of that has recently been revealed in some pretty striking ways. At Comic-Con this past weekend, Wingard and co. were in attendance to promote the new film, and the filmmaker revealed that Onslaught isn’t just a return to the horror genre; it’s a return to the literal world of his previous films as well, serving as a sequel to his cult classic The Guest.
Speaking about the film, Wingard said, “I look at this as a cap in the trilogy between The Guest and You’re Next. It’s not like a direct sequel, in the sense that it’s a continuation of those characters, but it takes place in the same town as The Guest. The idea is that the secret programs we’re seeing going on here are other little aspects of the same thing David’s character came from in The Guest… So you could actually technically call this a sequel; it’s in the same universe.”
For those unfamiliar, The Guest was a Dan Stevens-starring 2014 action-horror thriller. The film’s story centered on Stevens’ character, David Collins, who was an expertly trained and often inhumanly talented solider, assassin, and killer. Onslaught looks to further explore the backstory behind all of this, diving into the conflict between a small town and a whole platoon of mindless soldiers with David’s abilities who are beset upon them. Beyond these narrative moments, Onslaught also has many stylistic threads tying it to The Guest, from a fall aesthetic to heavy synth music.
All of this to say, Onslaught seems to simultaneously be a standalone story that any audience member will be able to enjoy and understand as a work in its own right but will also feature more than a few pieces of connective tissue that will reward longtime Wingard fans. Speaking as someone who saw You’re Next in theaters when it was initially released and still touts it as one of the best slashers of the past two decades and absolutely adores The Guest, this is incredibly exciting news. Having Wingard return to his roots in this way is exciting one way or the other, but to have the return be so explicitly rooted in those seminal films makes it even more satisfying.
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