(Photo Credit: A24)
(“Onslaught” trailer courtesy of A24)
“Onslaught” is a solid flick.
It is not something to take too seriously.
The horror/action film is just an enjoyable escape from reality.
With that said, “Onslaught” is weird.
It is brutal.
And it is pretty good and worth an hour and a half of people’s time.
“Onslaught” proves that war never ends in the minds of soldiers.
Veterans often deal with PTSD when they return home, never truly becoming the person, they were before they hit the battlefield.
Celeste has never truly recovered from her time in active duty.
She constantly has flashbacks of war and the mistakes that she made.
Those mistakes even mess with her psyche when she is just doing target practice near her desert home.
While many veterans return home to a hero’s welcome, Celeste’s reintroduction into society is something far less glamorous.
In “Onslaught,” the veteran has returned stateside to live and work at a trailer park.
Her job is to manage the mobile park and answer any complaints that the tenants of Windy Oasis trailer park might have.
The hardest part of her job is the first of the month.
While rap group Bone Thugs-n-Harmony craved the first day of the month so that they could spend their welfare checks, Celeste must get rent money from her tenants, which could be as difficult as pulling teeth.
Many of the tenants have excuses like their spouse’s actions made them miss out on business opportunities to people pretending to not know it is the first of the month, even when it is actually eight days later.
Despite all the problems, the residents at Windy Oasis are like family, and family is something that Celeste is initially without because her child Daisy’s (Blake Kennedy) father has full custody of their daughter.
Celeste only has Daisy on certain weekends.
Therefore, when he shows up at Windy Oasis with Daisy, Celeste must hurry up to make her home hospitable, which basically means hiding all her guns, especially the ones she is not legally supposed to own.
Almost immediately, it is clear that Daisy is the adult in her family despite her small stature.
In “Onslaught,” while Celeste is outside arguing with her baby daddy, Daisy begins cleaning up the trailer, washing dishes, all while listening to motivational speaking on her portable radio.
Daisy is what the old folks would call wise beyond her years.
While Celeste may not have the wisdom to get herself out of the rut that she is in after her stint in the military, she is definitely no dummy when it comes to military operations and plans.
When a helicopter makes too many flights over Windy Oasis, Celeste (Adria Arjona, “Life of the Party”) immediately becomes suspicious.
She begins to believe that the government is conducting some secret activity.
But she does not quite know what it is at first.
In “Onslaught,” Kovacks (Eric Wareheim) is conducting some wild experiments in which he is trying to create super soldiers, fighters who will not succumb to the normal human failings as real soldiers.
Real soldiers have empathy, heart, doubt and other human characteristics.
But if he can create super soldiers without those human traits, America could have an unstoppable military force with soldiers who will not stop until their mission is complete.
Unfortunately, when man tries to play God, it often goes haywire.
And when the super soldiers escape their confides after wreaking havoc on their creators, all of God’s creations are in danger unless some civilians can put a stop to their nefarious plans.
Well, some civilians and some veterans that is.
It is funny how gun enthusiasts can look like nut jobs until the world goes nuts, and their skill is desperately needed.
In “Onslaught,” even a Vietnam War veteran like Josiah (Reginald VelJohnson, “Family Matters”) is not as obsessed with weapons as Celeste is, and he lets her know that when she judges him for not being adequately armed when all hell breaks loose.
And luckily for some war veterans, combat skills are like riding a bike.
But fighting super soldiers is a little more dangerous than simply riding a bicycle.
Out-gunned and out-skilled, the residents of Windy Oasis must do all they can to save their own lives and save their country from their own country.
Filmmakers give a countdown in “Onslaught,” letting moviegoers know how much longer than residents of Windy Oasis have until they are bombarded by an onslaught that no other civilization has ever faced in human history.
And to make matters even more hectic for the adults is that they have an innocent child in their presence who would not even have been there if it was not for the career of her father.
Although “Onslaught” does not feature any mega stars in the cast, Kennedy is a name that everyone should know leaving the theater because the young actress shines the most, even up against much older co-stars.
Her character is the young person forced to grow up to soon because their parents cannot seem to quite get it together.
Additionally, it is great to see VelJohnson, who played Carl Winslow opposite Steve Urkel (Jaleel White) back in the 1990s, on the big screen doing his thing, especially in a role so much more different than his character on “Family Matters.”
VelJohnson shows his gangster in “Onslaught,” which is the opposite of the police officer character from the classic sitcom.
And while “Onslaught” is the opposite of a potential Oscar winning film, it is still an enjoyable time for action movie lovers.
REGAL RATINGS
FOUR CROWNS=EXCELLENT
THREE CROWNS=GOOD
TWO CROWNS=AVERAGE
ONE CROWN=POOR
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