Onslaught Filming Locations

Adam Wingard’s Onslaught makes unusually strong use of its New Mexico surroundings. The A24 action-horror film, starring Adria Arjona as former Army sniper Celeste, was filmed primarily in and around Albuquerque and Moriarty, New Mexico, with the production using real desert locations, existing buildings and purpose-built sets instead of relying heavily on virtual environments. Principal photography began in November 2024 and continued into January 2025.

Several locations can now be identified more precisely. The fictional Windy Oasis trailer park was constructed specifically for the film in the New Mexico desert, Albuquerque’s Turquoise Museum was transformed into a private club, and an abandoned newspaper production facility doubled for part of the secret military complex. A real truck stop was also used for one of the movie’s most violent sequences, although its exact public address has not been reliably disclosed.

Albuquerque, New Mexico

Albuquerque served as the main production base for Onslaught. Production listings identify the city as the movie’s principal filming location, and Wingard has since described working out of a temporary production office in an aging office building in central Albuquerque.

The city gave the filmmakers access to very different environments without moving the production far. Downtown Albuquerque provided unusual existing architecture, while the surrounding high desert supplied the wide, exposed landscapes needed for Celeste’s isolated life and the super-soldiers’ journey across New Mexico.

Cinematographer Oren Soffer has said the production worked practically on location rather than shooting its environments virtually. Visual effects were used mainly for limited cleanup work. That decision is particularly noticeable in Onslaught because the trailer park, industrial spaces and roadside locations have a physical roughness that fits Wingard’s deliberately old-school action-horror style.

Moriarty, New Mexico, and the Windy Oasis Trailer Park

Moriarty is one of the most important places connected to Onslaught, both as a story location and as part of Wingard’s return to New Mexico. The small city lies east of Albuquerque along Interstate 40 and Historic Route 66. Wingard specifically spoke about returning to Moriarty while discussing the movie, calling the return symbolic because he had previously used the area while making The Guest.

That connection is intentional. Onslaught takes place around Moriarty, where Celeste manages the fictional Windy Oasis Trailer Park with her daughter Daisy nearby. Rather than finding an existing trailer park that matched their requirements, the production design team constructed the Windy Oasis set from scratch in the New Mexico desert. Both exterior and interior material was filmed using the practical set.

The exact parcel of land used for Windy Oasis has not been publicly identified in a reliable production source. It is therefore safer not to attach an unverified address to the set. What is confirmed is that the filmmakers physically created the trailer park in the desert rather than assembling it primarily on a soundstage.

Wingard’s affection for the region also explains why New Mexico feels like more than a convenient substitute for another state. He has called it his favorite place to shoot and said he hopes Onslaught will not be his final production there.

The Turquoise Museum Became Cyrus’ Private Club

One of the most distinctive confirmed Onslaught filming sites is the Turquoise Museum at 400 2nd Street SW in Albuquerque. The unusual castle-like building was used for the elaborate private club sequence involving Drew Starkey’s character, Cyrus.

The location looks dramatically different in the finished movie. The production removed the feeling of a brightly lit museum and dressed the interior with candles, haze and colored lighting. Blackout material was placed beyond the windows so that scenes photographed during the day could appear to take place at night. Soffer described the sequence as an opportunity for the cinematography team to become much more stylized than they were elsewhere in the film.

The building itself is recognizable because of its elaborate architecture, including towers, stained glass and mansion-like interiors. That made it possible to create an extravagant club without constructing an equally large interior from scratch.

The museum has since closed its physical Albuquerque location as it transitions toward a planned digital museum, making Onslaught an interesting record of the building during its period as a public attraction.

An Abandoned Albuquerque Newspaper Facility Became the Military Complex

Another major practical location was an abandoned newspaper production facility in Albuquerque. Dan Stevens, who plays Dr. Hans Kammler, revealed that the filmmakers used the enormous industrial building because its existing machinery provided substantial production value.

The building’s huge mechanical equipment appears around Kammler during his arrival at the secret research facility. Instead of building rows of fictional industrial machinery, Wingard and his crew were able to move the camera through an authentic industrial environment.

Stevens specifically remembered the tracking shots through the facility and the scale of the machinery. The publicly available Onslaught interviews, however, describe it simply as an abandoned Albuquerque newspaper factory and do not give a confirmed street address. It should therefore not be confused with a studio set or assigned to a particular building without stronger documentation.

Interestingly, Albuquerque’s former newspaper facilities have previously attracted productions because their large industrial interiors and surviving equipment can stand in for factories and institutional spaces.

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The Onslaught Truck Stop and Gas Station

A real New Mexico roadside location was also used for the truck stop massacre, one of Onslaught’s biggest action sequences. Soffer has confirmed that the production filmed the truck stop sequence practically, including extensive physical destruction and effects.

Wingard deliberately treats the sequence differently from some of the movie’s more exaggerated violence. He has explained that the truck stop scene was designed to feel disturbingly immediate before the film shifts back toward its heightened B-movie tone.

Celeste also has scenes around a gas station, and Wingard has said that Arjona’s final day of shooting took place at the gas station location.

As of the film’s theatrical release, however, neither Wingard nor the principal production interviews have publicly identified the truck stop or gas station by business name. Until that information emerges, listing a specific convenience store or highway stop would be speculation.

When Was Onslaught Filmed?

Principal photography began November 11, 2024, with production continuing through January 2025. IMDb records the shoot as running from November 11 into January, while contemporary production information placed the work almost entirely in the Albuquerque, New Mexico area.

The timing meant the crew spent much of the shoot working through New Mexico’s winter conditions, with a substantial amount of the film photographed at night. That practical approach helped give Onslaught the gritty desert atmosphere Wingard wanted while keeping most of the movie rooted in actual locations rather than digitally created environments.

So, the most important Onslaught filming locations are Albuquerque and Moriarty, New Mexico, with the Turquoise Museum, a purpose-built desert trailer park, an abandoned newspaper facility and a real truck stop or gas station among the known individual sites. Several exact addresses remain undisclosed, and those are better left unidentified than filled in with unverified location claims.