Adam Wingard has finally returned to the genre of his roots, with his horror-action-thriller Onslaught. The A24 film was released this past weekend, received mixed reviews, and ultimately did not perform very well at the box office. In fact, Onslaught earned less than $2 million in its three-day opening weekend. By any metric, this is not a good return for the $15 million-budget film, as it makes it highly unlikely that the film will recoup its losses, leaving A24 and co. to essentially pick up the tab.
So in concrete financial terms, there’s nary a positive way to spin this. But in the long term, I actually think that this divisive initial reception of the film will turn out to be the best thing for it. Because by flopping an earning some egregiously negative reviews as well as some ravenously positive ones, Onslaught has set itself to succeed in pretty much the only way it was ever going to: as a soon-to-be cult classic.
The phrase "cult classic" is thrown around a lot these days, thanks to it becoming popular with streaming algorithms, which inexplicably like to apply the label to films at random. The true definition of a cult classic is a film that underperforms or is even outright dismissed upon initial release but, over the course of subsequent years, garners a cult following that helps to generate a newfound level of respect for the film in public discourse. While a film of any type can become a cult classic, genre films are the ones that most generally find themselves falling into this category, with eccentricities that may not jive with general audiences but speak more directly to a home-viewing niche.
Go-to examples of cult classics would be films like Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner or John Carpenter’s The Thing, both of which were inexplicably massacred by critics and left to drastically underperform at the box office upon release but have since been venerated and are seen as must-watch movies (rightfully so). More recently, films like David Fincher’s Fight Club or Richard Kelly’s Donnie Darko would also fit into this category, as the general perception of these films has blossomed over the years from initial dismissal to outright praise.
Onslaught was never going to be a massive blockbuster. It’s a prickly, distinct, and idiosyncratic horror film that is ostensibly a follow-up to an earlier Wingard cult classic, The Guest. I’m sure that there were conversations held about how 2026 has been the year of unexpected breakout horror hits like Obsession and Backrooms, and how maybe Onslaught could reach unexpected heights as well, given that its initial trailer debuted in front of the latter of those two hits. But the film’s sensibilities were never going to gel particularly well with mainstream audiences, which is why it has always been destined for cult status.
But in order for it to get there, it had to flop at the box office first. Wingard and Onslaught will be fine, and in the years to come, I kind of suspect that the film will garner a cult status and be widely renowned as some of the filmmaker’s best work. I had some issues with the movie, but ultimately really enjoyed it, and I could see it absolutely killing as a midnight movie for decades to come.
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