‘Onslaught’ Bombs With Audiences, Earns a “C” CinemaScore as Adam Wingard Returns to His Indie Roots

Adam Wingard’s “Onslaught,” which hit theaters yesterday, has not been getting the best reviews, as it currently sits at 57% on Rotten Tomatoes, and its box office numbers are looking pretty grim.

The A24-produced action thriller, playing in nearly 2000 screens, is eyeing a $2.5M four-day weekend, and that’s against a $15M budget. I had to miss the press screening since I’m at Venice, but what did our readers think of the film?

Audience scores are not good for “Onslaught,” which just nabbed a mediocre “C” on CinemaScore. This hints that the film may lack the kind of legs needed to break even, and that’s despite its fairly modest budget.

This is Wingard going back to the type of films he should have always stuck to making. Yes, he had commercial success with “Godzilla vs. Kong” and “Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,” the latter of which grossed over $572 million worldwide, but he wanted to go back to his indie roots—the results seem to be mixed at the moment.

“Onslaught” reunites Wingard and co-writer Simon Barrett, the team behind “You’re Next” (2011) and “The Guest” (2014). That’s the Wingard I like. It should be mentioned that, without Barrett, Wingard is kind of creatively lost, having helmed “Blair Witch” and “Death Note”—movies that should not be elaborated upon further.

Wingard has described “Onslaught” as the final chapter of a trilogy alongside his other two films, “You’re Next” and “The Guest.” According to Wingard, “Onslaught” is not a direct sequel following the same characters, but it shares the same world and expands on ideas introduced in “The Guest.” Wingard even acknowledged that audiences could “technically call this a sequel” because of the shared universe.

Adria Arjona leads the film as a struggling mother living in a trailer park who sets out to protect her loved ones from a rogue squad of genetically engineered super-soldiers who have escaped from a secret military base while mercenaries attempt to contain them. Rebecca Hall and Dan Stevens also star in “Onslaught,” alongside Michael Biehn, Reginald VelJohnson, Eric Wareheim, Drew Starkey, and Alex “Poatan” Pereira.