A24’s “Onslaught” is here.
The new thriller from director Adam Wingard and writer Simon Barrett, the team that brought us “You’re Next,” “The Guest” and “Blair Witch,” takes place in a dusty New Mexico town and pits a single mom (Adria Arjona) against three murderous experiments unleashed from a nearby research facility. It’s got all the hallmarks of a classic Wingard/Barrett joint – bloody action, big laughs and John Carpenter’s favorite font (that’d be Albertus, a glyphic serif).
But beginning with the film’s San Diego Comic-Con presentation, a new dimension to “Onslaught” was revealed when Wingard mentioned that it takes place in the same world as “The Guest,” his 2014 thriller about a soldier (Dan Stevens) who comes back from the war to his fallen friend’s family and begins to insert himself into their lives.
“We can set it in this ‘Guest’ universe,” Wingard told us. And like “The Guest,” “Onslaught” also features Stevens in a pivotal role. But in what other ways is “Onslaught” connected to “The Guest?”
Read on to find out… but beware: this is your spoiler warning.
Same Town, Same Season
“Onslaught” is set in the town of Moriarty, New Mexico, which is an actual small town in Torrance County where “The Guest” was partially filmed. According to a 2020 census, the town has fewer than 2,000 full-time residents and its quaint, middle-of-nowhere quality is played up in that earlier Wingard film. In “Onslaught,” it’s more explicitly set in Moriarty.
And what’s more – the movie takes place during the same season as “The Guest.” Wingard had described the setting of his earlier movie as “always being Halloween,” but later clarified that it was actually set at Halloween, not some nebulous approximation of the holiday. While there aren’t as many overt references to the spooky holiday in “Onslaught,” the opening has Arjona doing weapons practice on some hapless jack-o-lanterns. And the ghastly monstrosities that escape from the lab certainly have Halloween vibes, with their glowing eyes and killer instinct – true hallmarks of any slasher movie villain.
KPG
There’s actually something that links “Onslaught” to both “The Guest” and 2011’s home invasion thriller “You’re Next.” In the 2011 slasher, one of the characters references a mysterious defense contractor known only as KPG. In “The Guest,” Wingard and Barrett fully explore the company – we see the board of directors scramble when one of their assets breaks containment and the response that the company employs in an attempt to contain it.
In “Onslaught,” Stevens plays Dr. Hans Kammler, a third-generation descendant of an Operation Paperclip Nazi scientist, brought to America to help with the war effort, the space program and beyond. (This was real. Google it!) In a recent interview, Stevens and Wingard confirmed that the “K” in KPG stands for Kammler, named after a real German scientist who immigrated during the war. “Onslaught” introduces Kammler working for a new organization known as Priapus, which is the “P” in KPG.
But more on Stevens’ Kammler…
David? Is That You?
At one point, you see one of Kammler’s ancestors, presumably the actual Nazi scientist brought over from Germany during the war and it looks a lot like … Dan Stevens’ David from “The Guest.” Could David be a clone of Kammler? Or some other experiment?
The links between “The Guest” and “Onslaught” suggest that David – whatever or whoever he was – was a prototypical program that eventually evolved into what we see in the new movie. While David had some quirks, murderous for sure, he was far more human. The creatures in “Onslaught” have had that humanity driven out of them; they are a more refined killing machine, but also just as unwieldy.
“I think he’s related to the genesis of the David character in some form [or] fashion, and I think that’s something that maybe we’ll more literally explore hopefully in future installments,” Wingard told TheWrap.
More From This Universe
Wingard also said that he definitely wants to tell more stories in this universe. When asked if there would be future films in the same world, he said, “Oh, yes.”
But in order to make sure that happens, you should definitely go see “Onslaught” this weekend.
“Onslaught” is in theaters now from A24.
