Onslaught Director Adam Wingard Has One Regret About His 2026 Action Movie

A24

Adam Wingard is back, baby. The director behind "The Guest" and "Godzilla vs. Kong" has returned to the realm of original cinema with "Onslaught." Though not quite as low budget as "You're Next" (which quietly made a killing at the box office and launched Wingard's career), it's certainly not a big-budget affair like a "Godzilla" movie. As such, compromises are necessary sometimes, and while the director seems quite happy with his latest effort, he does have one regret.

"Onslaught" follows a rogue squad of genetically engineered super soldiers as they break loose from a desert-based, government-funded secret facility. Hence, a former Army sniper named Celeste (Adria Arjona) living at a nearby trailer park is forced to unleash hell to protect her young daughter as these killing machines invade their quiet little home.

I had the good fortune of seeing Wingard's new movie (which is being released by A24) with the director in attendance, and I'm pleased to say that "Onslaught" is a bloody delight that goes full John Carpenter. During a post-screening Q&A, however, Wingard explained that the film still had limitations despite having a bigger budget than his earliest projects. That meant there was no time to waste and virtually nothing by way of deleted scenes. Here's what he had to say:

"This was a much bigger budget than 'The Guest' and 'You're Next,' obviously, but by today's standards, it's still a relatively low budget. We shot the whole movie in 35 days, so it was very tight, you can see, with all of the things that go into this movie. So, pretty much every f*****g thing is on screen because that's what we have."

In the case of "Onslaught," those restrictions in time and money led to Wingard's lone regret: a missed closeup.

A24

Mild spoilers for "Onslaught" to follow.

Some context: There's a running gag in "Onslaught" after the super soldiers get to the trailer park. One of the residents dies a horrible death and winds up propped up on a grill that is still lit, just burning quietly as the action continues to unfold. We ultimately wind up seeing him multiple times from a distance, which is where Adam Wingard's regret comes in. As the filmmaker explained:

"My only regret is I never f*****g shot a close up of the guy burning on the grill. It would have been so good. It only occurred to me — I don't know why it took so long — a couple of weeks ago I was watching, we made 35 [mm] prints for the Vista, and I was watching that and I was like, 'God damn it. This should have cut to a close up of that guy, half his skull and his flesh sizzling off on one of those.' That would have been f*****g awesome, but we didn't do it."

Regrets happen in the realm of major motion pictures. Heck, George Lucas' biggest career regret is the flop that was "Howard the Duck," and plenty of actors regret passing on life-changing roles. This would-be closeup shot is, admittedly, not that big in the grand scheme of things, but it's not hard to see why Wingard wishes he'd filmed it.

Simon Barrett penned the screenplay for "Onslaught" alongside Wingard. Rebecca Hall ("Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire"), Dan Stevens ("The Guest"), Eric Wareheim ("Beef House"), Reginald VelJohnson ("Die Hard"), Michael Biehn ("Aliens"), Drew Starkey ("Outer Banks":), and UFC fighter Alex Pereira round out the cast.

"Onslaught" is in theaters now.