My quick rating – 6.1/10. When a rogue squad of genetically engineered super soldiers breaks loose in the desert, a badass Army sniper must unleash hell to protect her young daughter. Sounds simple enough. And thankfully, Onslaught mostly understands that sometimes simple is exactly what you want.

We begin with gunfire in the middle of nowhere before getting a look at Celeste (Adria Arjona) blasting jack-o’-lanterns into smithereens with a shotgun. It’s 7:04 a.m., minus about 11 hours and counting down. And this woman doesn’t just have a boomstick. She has a damn arsenal. Along with some PTSD, naturally. Flashbacks give us a brief idea why.

Then we hit the credits, backed by some suitably industrial music from Matthew Pusti, before cutting to some weird foot-licking German dude named Hans hopping onto a helicopter. We’re getting exact times now – 7:52 a.m. and meeting more characters. I like the dismal, grainy look Adam Wingard has given the film. He has already shown a keen eye behind the lens with You’re Next and a couple of Godzilla flicks, among others.

I assume we’re briefly meeting all these people living in this makeshift trailer park for a reason. This countdown must be leading to some serious shit, and surely the weird dude has to be the ringleader. Hans Kimler (Dan Stevens), by the way. 9:51 a.m. Time for some surgery. 11:52 and more copter hopping, along with a warning. This is a real-world exercise, and injuries should be expected. Hopefully you were paying attention during the credits, because that’s where you get a clue about what the hell is going on.

We meet the three test subjects: Crybaby, Cockroach, and Butcher (Alex Pereira for the UFC fans), because genetically engineered super-soldier nicknames were running low. They feel no pain, can control their heart rates, and won’t stop killing until shutdown or mission complete. Basically, human heat-seeking missiles with anger-management issues.

3:38 p.m. Time for the experiment. The government contact, Baylor (Michael Biehn), naturally wants results. They have glowing eyes. I can’t wait. And, unsurprisingly, that doesn’t go particularly well for the military or scientists.

By 6:45 p.m., it’s about time things stop going well for everyone else too. I’m digging the music, the video-game-like camera shots during the carnage, and, most importantly, the plentiful blood. The military calls in professional cleaner Cyrus (Drew Starkey) to clean up after the warehouse experiment, and from here Onslaught settles into what it does best. People getting violently murdered in increasingly unpleasant ways.

Sometimes I’m perfectly happy with three dudes who are going to kill anyone they see until somebody manages to kill them. There’s something refreshing about that simplicity. The confined-space action works, Arjona holds her own nicely, and there’s plenty of blood and a few wonderfully nasty severed body parts.

And you can blame the government. Of course you can.

My only real drawback? For a movie that clearly wants to lean into the mayhem and brutality, I wanted more of it. When you’ve created genetically engineered killing machines with glowing eyes and zero regard for human life, don’t be shy about letting the bastards loose.

Still, Onslaught delivers a solid action/horror romp with enough blood and bullets to make the countdown worthwhile.