Tag: Drew Starkey

ONSLAUGHT (2026)

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Directed By: Adam Wingard

Written By: Simon Barrett 

Cinematography: Oren Soffer 

Editor: Adam Avery and Josh Schaeffer

Cast: Adria Arjona, Dan Stevens, Drew Starkey, Michael Biehn, Reginald Vel Johnson, Rebecca Hall, Eric Wareheim, Alex Pereira 

When a rogue squad of genetically engineered super soldiers break loose in the desert, a badass Army sniper must unleash hell to protect her young daughter.

I can already understand why ONSLAUGHT has disappointed some people. In fact, I almost feel like this is one of those movies that comes with a built-in warning label 

Because if you walk into this expecting a nonstop action extravaganza, THE TERMINATOR with a female lead, or some glorious 1980s style bloodbath that spends two hours blowing things up, you might find yourself checking your watch.

But personally, I really enjoyed this. And I think a lot of that comes down to taste.

ONSLAUGHT is patient. Almost deliberately so. It spends a surprising amount of time establishing its world, its characters, its atmosphere and, most importantly, the feeling that something very bad is eventually going to happen. And I don’t movies that make me wait. Let’s us in with the atmosphere and give 

This feels less like a traditional action movie and more like a siege film that has wandered into a science-fiction nightmare. There is action throughout, but it arrives in bursts, almost as if the movie occasionally remembers, Oh yeah we’re supposed to be making an action movie.

The story itself is admittedly pretty thin. There are characters and bits of information that seem like they are going to become enormously important, only for the movie to leave some of those pieces sitting on the table. At times, it feels less like a complete story and more like the first chapter of a larger universe. maybe that’s intentional.

Because ONSLAUGHT exists in the same universe as director Adam Wingard’s THE GUEST, though this feels like a much more conventional cousin. Where THE GUEST was sleek, mysterious and wonderfully strange, this feels more like Wingard trying to reconnect with the scrappier independent filmmaker underneath all those giant monsters.

After directing GODZILLA VS. KONG and GODZILLA x KONG: THE NEW EMPIRE there’s something oddly refreshing about watching Wingard scale things back and concentrate on mood, character and visual style.

And boy, does this movie have style.

The pounding synth-heavy score immediately gives the film that wonderful 1980s action-thriller flavor. The cinematography, lighting and production design create an atmosphere that feels intentionally retro without simply becoming cosplay.

There were moments when I felt like I was watching a lost John Carpenter movie. And for me, that is a compliment. Especially if it’s one from his heyday

This is a movie more interested in building tension than immediately releasing it. The camera lingers. The atmosphere hangs around. The threat gradually becomes clearer. You spend much of the movie waiting for the inevitable explosion of violence. When it finally arrives, the action is impressive.

Is it quite as epic as the movie has trained you to imagine it will be? Not necessarily.

The film spends so much time building toward that final confrontation that your imagination almost becomes the production designer. You start creating a bigger, crazier climax in your own head. But when the payoff comes, there is still plenty of carnage to enjoy. I appreciated that ONSLAUGHT didn’t feel the need to constantly throw something at me just to keep me awake.

Dan Stevens is particularly interesting here. Following THE GUEST, he once again gets to disappear beneath layers of makeup and play somebody considerably stranger than the handsome leading man he could so easily be playing. Stevens seems increasingly interested in becoming a character actor rather than simply being another conventional leading man, and honestly, the more bizarre the role, the better he seems to be.

And the film’s lead Adria Arjona gets to demonstrate that she can carry this kind of material, too. There’s a physicality to the performance that makes the action feel believable without turning the character into some invincible superhero.

Ultimately, ONSLAUGHT is a movie that lives more by its characters, atmosphere, music and visuals than its plot.

Sometimes I would rather watch a filmmaker execute a straightforward idea with personality than watch a complicated story that has absolutely nothing to say visually.

That’s what I think Adam Wingard deserves credit for here.

Whether ONSLAUGHT completely works for you probably depends on what you want from it. If you’re looking for relentless action, you may walk away disappointed. If you like slow-burn genre movies, Carpenter-inspired atmosphere, synth scores, strange characters and films that take their sweet time before finally letting the monsters out of the cage, there’s a lot to appreciate.

Did I want a little more from the ending?

Absolutely. It’s entertaining, But I also think there’s something admirable about a filmmaker making the movie he wants to make, rather than the movie we have already decided we want to see.

Give it a try.

Grade: B- 

QUEER (2024)

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Directed by: Luca Guadagnino

Written By: Justin Kuritzkes

Based On The Novel By: William S. Burroughs 

Cinematography: Sayombhu Mukdeeprom 

Editor: Marco Costa 

Cast: Daniel Craig, Drew Starkey, Lesley Manville, Jason Schwartzman, Ariel Schulman, Andra Ursata, Omar Apollo, David Lowery

In 1950s Mexico City, an American immigrant in his late forties leads a solitary life amidst a small American community. However, the arrival of a young student stirs the man into finally establishing a meaningful connection with someone.

This is director Luca Guadagnino’s second film released this year and while not making its mark as strong as his previous film of the year CHALLENGERS. It does offer another look into relationships and the destructive characters within them. It’s also another random adaptation for the director. Making a film from a legendary cult writer and book.

It was like going on a trip that ends up more as a journey and never quite knowing where it will Lead. Then being a guest in this limited epic. While witnessing a love story you want to see work, but ultimately see the cracks and the doom, but still holding out hope.

This film seems to be like the author of the book William S. Burroughs’s writings that could be episodic linear more stream of consciousness at times and little short stories that didn’t really have plots and were more like chronicles, but with all the names changed.

As the film works in different stages, either way, we get to know the lead character played by Daniel Craig, and the fact that he just seems lonely in various ways he tries to rectify that through the company of others, both physically emotionally, and socially. With excessive alcohol and always a pistol by his side, truly his only constant companion. He is also a functioning junkie in the first part of the film. We see his romance with a young man and all his longing for this young man and how it plays out it’s truly beautiful how he tries to court him when we see vague images of what he wishes, he could do to him alone like touching his face in a movie theater or stroking his hair.

The next part of the film seems to focus more on the drug addiction of the character. Now he has fallen in love with this young man, and the young man seems somewhat interested in him, but is emotionally absent to him that’s deepening his drug addiction. 

The next part is when they decide to take a trip together on the search for an elusive flower, and that journey into the jungles and Amazon, and how once it does, it provides quite a unique experience that deepens both of them, but also the rest of the film is more Jumps around and it truly starts to get into the more surrealistic images and hallucinogenic images where it goes more for the visuals and at this point either you’re with the film or you’re not.

This is an easy film to try and break down and explain you can bring up certain plot points, and things that happen and still never quite get to the point of the film or what you’re watching those films as an audience member you have to experience it and come out with your own meaning like it or not. As with its author and his writing, it’s not easily explained.

The film just seems to go along on its own journey, never rushed and never quite on the path you expect but at heart it is a love story that no matter what is timeless and easily identifiable.

The soundtrack includes a lot of the music of NIRVANA and PRINCE. One wonders if it is partially because of the past collaborations between the author of the book and the film is based upon William S. Burroughs and NIRVANA lead singer Kurt Cobain, but also a way to show they art can be timeless. Especially if it evokes a certain mood and atmosphere that is personal, identifiable, and universal in a sense.

Just like the title most of us know what Queer means to most, but here while it has its brushes with what most believe. It also goes out of its way to not be easily definable. It can be a title but never quite an entire identity. As so many have their own definitions of it. So just like the characters this film refuses to be one thing or ride along one wavelength. 

Grade: B 

HELLRAISER (2022)

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Directed By: David Bruckner 
Written By: Ben Collins and Luke Piotrowski
Story By: Ben Collins, Luke Piotrowski and David S. Goyer 
Based On The Book By: Clive Barker
Cinematography: Eli Born 
Editor: David Marks 

Cast: Odessa A’Zion, Jamie Clayton, Adam Faison, Drew Starkey, Brandon Flynn, Goran Visnijc, Hiam Abbass 

A take on Clive Barker’s 1987 horror classic where a young woman struggling with addiction comes into possession of an ancient puzzle box, unaware that its purpose is to summon the Cenobites, a group of sadistic supernatural beings from another dimension.

The film is perfectly fine as a kind of reboot or sequel to the original series of films and certainly better than the more recent sequels. Though in certain ways it fails. 

Not entirely it’s its own fault. As the film for all the gore and new directions. It plays strictly modern and is hard to be as shocking or as disgusting as the original two films.

Those films were not only shocking but identifiable as at heart the story was a kind of pulp story with otherworldly elements. That seemed to bathe in the cruelty of the aspects. While showing a story of obsession and manipulation. Where truly the only innocent character survived. 

Then through it, all the special effects were revolutionary and revolting so much that you could feel the pain or wince as to what it was like. Sort of like when men hear stories of anything happening to genitals. 

Here the film tries not so much as the original did, but is left with something that while violent feels typical, and if this franchise needs updating they seem to be going in the right way. As they need a balance of lore, story, gore, and effects that balance each other out. As to not seem too exploitive which then has the film feeling lopsided.

Here the film is serviceable enough with the main character with a past and makes the storyline convoluted more than it needs to be. Seeming to want to have a detective story, but in the end little mystery and while cruel bit cruel enough. 

Jamie Clayton makes an interesting new pinhead. Though the chest design makeup in certain lighting reveals itself to be more of a made up than organic. Though that is a nitpick, she and the cenobite designs are on point.

What also hurts the film which is common in general is that we don’t care much for these characters. As they barely make their presence felt. The lead is ok because we spend the most time with her. When she loses her brother that is the only time the film seems to touch on something that approaches an actual emotion and is believable. The other characters you try to but could care less. Especially her boyfriend.

Give the film a try, but don’t expect to be blown away. As this is Hellraiser for a new generation but definitely won’t over-shine the original. Even today still feels shocking.

Grade: C+