A24 released a new trailer for “Onslaught” this week, and this time, director Adam Wingard confirmed something fans had only speculated about before: the film is connected to his 2014 cult favorite “The Guest,” according to Complex. The trailer opens with Adria Arjona’s character warning her daughter not to talk to strangers — advice that, within minutes, proves both accurate and useless once the film’s true threat reveals itself.
“Onslaught” casts Arjona as a former Army sniper turned single mother, living in an isolated desert trailer park, who’s pulled back into combat mode after a squad of genetically engineered super soldiers escapes a nearby military facility, according to Deadline. One of the soldiers is described in the trailer as the human equivalent of a heat-seeking missile, a line Deadline highlighted as capturing the tone of the marketing so far.
Wingard directs from a script by longtime collaborator Simon Barrett, the same team behind “You’re Next” and “The Guest.” Bloody Disgusting described the film’s engineered-soldier antagonists as carrying a distinctly slasher-movie energy, drawing comparisons to Jason Voorhees in how relentlessly they pursue their targets, according to Bloody Disgusting.
A Packed, Genre-Savvy Cast
Dan Stevens, Rebecca Hall, Michael Biehn, Reginald VelJohnson, Eric Wareheim, and Drew Starkey round out the ensemble, alongside UFC champion Alex Pereira, who’s reportedly playing the film’s lead antagonist, known in the story as The Butcher, according to Bloody Disgusting. Stevens, who worked with Wingard previously on “The Guest,” told IndieWire ahead of the new trailer’s release that the director was back in top form, praising Arjona’s performance as a major asset to the film, according to IndieWire.
The new trailer also lands in the middle of a wider press push for Arjona, who’s currently promoting the film alongside other high-profile upcoming roles, including James Gunn’s “Man of Tomorrow” along with a remake of The Thomas Crown Affair, according to Collider. Recent press photos and footage of Arjona wielding a chainsaw in “Onslaught” have even sparked some fan speculation about her potential fit for a future DC role, according to ComicBasics, though nothing beyond her already-confirmed “Man of Tomorrow” casting has been announced.
Behind the scenes, “Onslaught” is produced by Aaron Ryder, Andrew Swett, Wingard, Jeremy Platt, and Barrett, with Oren Soffer serving as cinematographer, according to Wikipedia. Following his work on the blockbuster films Godzilla vs. Kong and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, Onslaught becomes Adam Wingard’s first original, non-franchise feature since The Guest.
