Spoilers ahead for Onslaught's ending!
Now that August is behind us we're getting close to spooky season, and there are already a number of exciting new movies to get you into the spirit. Chief among them is Adam Wingard's new A24 movie Onslaught, which stars future Man of Tomorrow actress Adria Arjona. She plays protagonist Celeste, an Army sniper who must protect herself and her young daughter from a trio of Super Soldiers when they escape from a nearby military base. She drops an epic F-bomb in the final battle, and spoke to CinemaBlend about how that iconic line came together.
Some of the best horror movie feature iconic tag lines, where the Final Girl stands up to their enemy, usually with some profanity. Think Sigourney Weave saying "Get away from her you bitch!" from Aliens. Arjona gets one for the record books in Onslaught, and as you can see from the video above, I had to ask her about it. She told me about saying "You fucked with the wrong mom" to The Butcher in the final battle. She opened up by saying:
That was actually, funny enough, it was kind of line that me and Adam [Wingard] did that night. We, like, kind of riffed on a couple lines and we landed in that one. I remember I called Tyler Nilson, a really dear friend of mine who, he just has, like, word vomit. And I FaceTimed him. I'm like, 'Help me out, help me out.' And he gave me so many absurd ideas, and then I came back to Adam.
How funny is that? Given how hard that line slapped in theaters, I was convinced that Celeste's F-bomb from Onslaught was in Simon Barrett's wildly effective screenplay. But it turns out it was actually an alt, with Arjona and Wingard offering new choices while shooting that epic moment on set. Whatever combination of circumstances resulted in this moment in the new horror film, I'm glad it did.
Celeste drops this f-bomb after a night from hell, where she had to keep her daughter alive and had already killed two of the zombie-like super soldiers. The third one ends up being someone from her past, and in the final battle she takes him out violently with chainsaw in a scene that would put Leatherface to shame. In our conversation, Adria Arjona went on to share why she loved that moment so much, telling me:
But I loved 'You fucked with the wrong mamma. Come on, you bitch.' Like, I love calling him a bitch. because he is. And I, watching the movie last night again, I was like, ‘He's such a little bitch.’ Like, I kicked him in the nuts. I went low. He should have known I was gonna go low again, and he didn't because he's a little bitch. He wanted to you know, overtake me, but he didn't.
The Belko Experiment actress makes some points, and it's for this reason that the movie's last, bloody fight of Onslaught is so satisfying. The entire movie's violent events and Celeste's history build into one more epic moment, and she takes The Butcher out with vengeful glee. And if you ask me, it's an instant horror classic moment.
A24 once again proved it's the home for original movie projects, and Adam Wingard's latest action horror flick is no exception. And with a tight 92-minute runtime and a mixture of dark comedy, horror, and action, I could use another sequel or two... complete with more epic one liners.
Onslaught is in theaters now as part of the 2026 movie release list. Spooky season is upon us, so bring on the horror!
