User Reviews

The gritty, stylish 'Assault on Precinct 13 (1976)' is my first experience with American director John Carpenter, labelled an "auteur" by the French and a "bum" by his compatriots. At this early stage, I'm siding with the French. This is one of the definitive "siege films," a deft, low-budget blend of the American Western (let's say '3:10 to Yuma (1957)') and a zombie movie ('Night of the Living Dead (1968)' being an obvious influence). In modern-day Los Angeles, the lone inhabitants of a closing-down police station – among them police officers (Austin Stoker), secretaries (Laurie Zimmer), and prisoners (an ice-cool Darwin Joston) – are affronted by dozens of armed gangsters, who are waging a bloody war with the authorities as payback for recent gang-member deaths.

After an extended prologue, in which disparate story lines fatalistically converge on each other (and featuring one particularly nasty moment than nearly landed the film an X-rating) the siege scenario begins… and the tension rarely lets up. One sequence in particular, a tense crawl towards a parked car, had me holding my breath for minutes, its conclusion a veritable kick in the guts. Carpenter, assisted by his own low-key but insistent synchronised score, manipulates the film's urban setting to his advantage: isolation becomes so much more unbearable when civilisation is so near, and yet so unattainable. Chillingly, most of the antagonists themselves remain faceless shadows in the darkness, representing an incomprehensible force of evil, consumed by bloodlust, and unafraid of the consequences.

I long for the days when John Carpenter was ingenious enough to make such excellent films as his classics like Halloween, Escape From New York, and of course, The Thing. He's gone way downhill since those glory days but thankfully he built himself enough of a legacy that the aforementioned films will be the one's he is known for, along with a little film called Assault of Precinct 13. This is one of Carpenter's very first films, made back in 1976. It tells the story of a group of people holed up in a police station that is under siege by a ruthless South Los Angeles gang. It is a wicked film full of intense action, riveting suspense, and an incredible score written by Carpenter himself. It is a brief 90 minute flick that has a very low budget indie feel to it, but this only adds to the experience which makes this film into something truly remarkable.

It's hard to place exactly why I love this film. It is one of those that seems like it shouldn't be nearly as enjoyable and excellent as it is. There's plenty of cheese and its a very small scale low budget flick that doesn't possess any kind of pizazz, no remarkable production value, and no big name stars to carry the film. But it might just be all of these things that combine to make this film so much fun and so incredibly compelling. Carpenter makes the most out of what little he has and makes a uniquely awesome film. Herein lies a style that you either love or hate. If you can stand low budget action then you should love this film, as I do. If you long for something bigger then chances are you won't get much out of this. It's a matter of personal preference, but my preferences make me enjoy this film almost too much.

Something else that makes this film work is its overall tone. It's a very serious and hard hitting film. It is brutal and unapologetic when it comes to the level of violence, and it doesn't hold back. The immense darkness of the film makes us believe in what we are seeing and draws us deep into the film's driving emotion and sincerely intense action. This film is not satire, it's not a farce, it's not a parody. It is it's own type of film, managing to be utterly serious and absolutely wicked. This is a must see whether you are a John Carpenter fan or not.

It's time for the old precinct to retire, the last night, after which it's not required, with Ethan Bishop holding fort, there should be nothing to report, what could possibly go wrong, you might enquire. A visit from a bus going to jail, then a shell-shocked guy who's struggles to inhale, there's a gathering outside, where some pressure is applied, before you know it, there's a full frontal assail.

A quiet evening doesn't quite go to plan for the skeleton staff of an almost decommissioned police station, as a gang of vengeful thugs take their frustration out on the inhabitants after an incident earlier that day. It remains a great piece of filmmaking with some brilliant performances from a director who went on to make a difference.

John Carpenter is one of few directors who can successfully transform their movies into giant roller coaster rides without insulting the audience. James Cameron does this, sometimes, but usually adds more plot to his stories. Carpenter just takes simple premises, throws some characters together, and lets everything evolve and unwind on their own. "Assault on Precinct 13" deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as "Dawn of the Dead," or perhaps the overrated "Texas Chainsaw Massacre," as a very low-budget horror/thriller that takes a cast of unknowns, places them together, doesn't really delve into their backgrounds, but lets everything just work itself out like clockwork. There's an eager new cop, an infamous death row murderer, and a relocating precinct, all stuffed together into a movie about a vicious gang assault. It's brilliant in a very subtle way; a sign of things to come for a director who has implemented some of the most oft-used camera tricks in the horror world.

He pioneered the first-person killer perspective in "Halloween" - an effect sorely missed on full screen TV and VHS versions, to once again be savored on the wide screen DVD presentation. Carpenter received quite a number of critical jabs in 1978 for his use of the POV technique, explained to be too voyeuristic and potentially dangerous to be shown in a mainstream motion picture. Hitchcock used the POV technique very subtly in "Psycho's" famous shower sequence, but in "Halloween" it was far blunter, resulting in an uproar of moral complaints.

No matter. "Halloween" became movie horror legend, casting a spell over its viewers, inspiring major knock-offs such as the "Friday the 13th" series (which has overall made more money than the "Halloween" franchise due to more sequels than "Police Academy").

"Assault on Precinct 13" was one of Carpenter's very first efforts at directing. It shows. The movie is flawed, imperfect, both technically and otherwise (some of the dialogue in particular could have used fixing, and the acting is nothing incredible by any means). But it still has an addictive sense of urgency and frantic pacing that makes the movie feel like one long, non-stop, brutal assault - even though the setup for the film takes over forty minutes. It may not be a flawless film but it is one of my favorites.

It's about a new cop named Bishop (Austin Stoker) who is put in charge of a transferring L.A. police precinct - number thirteen. As equipment is carried out of the building and last-minute closings are made, far away a bus load of convicts, including notorious murderer Wilson (Darwin Joston), decide to stop at precinct 13 due to the fact that one of the criminals seems to be coming down with a harsh cough. And downtown, a young girl is shot by a ruthless gang member. Her father shoots the killer, and then flees to precinct thirteen, hunted by the gang members, who eventually begin to siege the precinct in a suicide raid. Trapped with two killers, a few cops and a jail warden, Bishop and company try to think of a way out of the place without getting shot by the vicious gang outside.

That's basically it - people stuck inside a police station trying to get out without dying in the process. The movie is only ninety minutes long, give or take, which is a good thing, because if it had been any longer it might have lost some of its pacing and become tiring. Instead, there isn't a single scene in "Assault on Precinct 13" that I think should have been cut. I'm sure there are some that could have been tossed onto the editing room floor, but I'm glad that the movie is the way it is - it flows smoothly and we don't ever feel like a scene has gone on too long or too short. In that sense, it's just about perfect.

Carpenter has had one of the most successful careers of all time, followed by a legion of cult fans. His "Halloween" is one of the greatest horror films of all time, and one of the most influential. He occasionally makes his duds, like any director, but in this case, the good far outweighs the bad. "Assault on Precinct 13" is an utterly refreshing film experience that manages to maintain a fast speed but never appears to be cheating its target audience, or treating them stupid. The movie is being remade in 2005, with a considerably higher budget, bigger names, and probably worse directing. I don't really look forward to this remake because I can almost guarantee that, given the age it is being made in, there will be many pointless plot explanations, worse dialogue and bad direction. "Assault on Precinct 13" does not really need to be made again because the first one works so well. History has taught us that most remakes are not at all on the same level as their influences - just look at Hitchcock's "Psycho," then Van Sant's. If it isn't broken, don't fix it. "Assault on Precinct 13" is not broken and it does not need to be fixed.

John Carpenter's no-budget pseudo-remake of "Rio Bravo" (with heavy doses of "Night of the Living Dead" thrown in--the zombies replaced by inhuman hordes of street toughs) set in a besieged 1970s LA police station scheduled to be closed the next day, is a flawed but worthwhile 90 minutes from a flawed but worthwhile filmmaker.

The best thing about "Assault" is its bare-bones construction. There's precious little backstory, no real explanation for the heinous actions of the gang members, no extraneous "character development" for the protagonists, no scenes where they talk about how they have a wife and kids at home or are retiring tomorrow, and very few cutaways from the main action once it gets going (the lone exception being a few sequences with couple of clueless cops patrolling the neighborhood who keep missing the siege on the supposedly abandoned precinct). The only music is Carpenter's cheap-but-effective synth score, which only serves to heighten the action rather than distract us from it. It's the kind of minimalism big-budget Hollywood just doesn't have the patience for.

The film delivers some memorable sequences, to be sure. The office being shot up by silenced gunfire, so that the windows, papers, and furniture seem to be popping and jumping of their own accord; the image of the mob of gangsters silently and fluidly sliding across our line of vision in the shadows; and, of course, the incredibly jarring and appalling "ice cream" scene.

When all is said and done, however, "Assault" doesn't quite add up to a completely satisfying movie. While the psychology of the siege is well-executed, the final action sequence is a bit anticlimactic and doesn't quite live up to it. Also, the movie's less-is-more aesthetic is a bit punishing for the first 20-odd minutes before the good stuff starts--it comes across like the uninspired and weakly constructed beginning of an MST3K movie. I kept expecting a giant insect to gobble up one of the characters.

At its best, then, "Assault" is lean and mean. But at its worst, it's a bit thin.

Set in gang-riddled Los Angeles in the 1970s, director John Carpenter was inspired to make a film that was basically a combination of Rio Bravo (1959) and Night of the Living Dead (1968) with rookie cop Ethan Bishop in John Wayne's Rio Bravo role/Duane Jones' Ben, a recently vacated police precinct as the small town jail/farmhouse, and with gang members in place of Night of the Living Dead's zombies/Nathan Burdette's men.

For some viewers, that premise alone may be enough for them to not be able to grant this film a 10, but Assault on Precinct 13 is yet another example of why quality isn't correlated to having unprecedented ideas.

One of the first striking things about Assault on Precinct 13 is that it looks beautiful. It was made on a relatively low budget, and it looks like a large percentage of the money must have gone into camera rental, film stock and film processing. Douglas Knapp's color cinematography is crisp, innovative (I just love the shot with the camera mounted in front of the car headlight, with the sunset in the background) and marvelously portrays Los Angeles as a gritty, suburban wasteland as well, if not better, than any other film I can think of. What makes it effective isn't over-the-top, run down buildings and heavily populated streets, but vast, wide-open spaces, with squat, nondescript houses and buildings, all fading into nothingness. Knapp even manages to make the streets look like this, and a couple scenes are set in what is effectively a sand-logged desert, with a lonely, dangerous phone booth sitting in isolation. The police station also reflects the suburban wasteland look in terms of its spaces and their relationship to each other, its sparseness and its colors.

The low budget nature of the film forced a very successful straightforward, brutal and realistic approach to the action, especially the violence. Carpenter, on his commentary track on the DVD, notes that some scenes weren't as he would have liked because they didn't have the coverage they needed, and had to let them play out, longer than normal, from a single angle. Thank the heavens for a lack of time and funding! Despite the over-the-top mayhem in subsequent action films by other directors, the impact of many of the scenes in this film cannot be topped, and it's often because of the unusual, almost documentary-like feel of the film.

Also adding to the effect is Carpenter's score. Although it's technically primitive, it's just as good as any of his other music, and Carpenter is as talented as a film composer as he is as a director. His use of motifs, often in an almost trance-like repetition, is similar too, and just as effective as, both Bernard Herrmann and Ennio Morricone.

The performances are all excellent, and the staging is even better. If you know anything about the premise of the film before you begin watching it for the first time, you may have difficulty figuring out how they're going to pull off the central situation of the film. The logistics seem to be against creating a prolonged tense situation. Carpenter and company create the perfect scenario with just a couple ingenious moves, and the unending threat, combined with the unusual pacing of the zombie-like menace make Assault on Precinct 13 as frightening as any horror film could be.

This is possibly one of Carpenter's best films,with the exception of The thing.It is one of the great siege films of all time.The scene with Kim Richards(escape to witch mountain) is one of my favorites.This movie proves you don't have to have a multimillion dollar budget and big name stars to make a great movie.The performance by Laurie Zimmer was incredible.I can't believe she was never cast in another film(but thats Hollywood for you).If you like action and thrillers this film is definitely worth a look.Its not perfect, the plot has some holes, the premise is at times shaky, but all of the actors produce believable performances,especially Austin Stoker,Darwin Joston, and of course Zimmer.

Ackowledged by it's own creator on the DVD, Assault on Precinct 13 is a bit more of a hybrid than just a sheer homage to Howard Hawks's Rio Bravo. It has traces of that (editing name, ho-ho), and of the Western specifics in bits of the storytelling devices and stereotypes. But it also has traces of the horror film, of the basic theme of demise by outside forces that not only rests in the best of zombie films but also in a lot of Carpenter's later work. What makes the film seem fresh today, even if it takes its time to get started in the first half hour, is how focused the action is around the story. Even with these basic characters- those with speaking parts closer to archetypes than not- it all works. It's a practically-perfect midnight movie.

You've got your good guys, a mix of cops and criminals (one of them, Darwin Joston's Napoleon Wilson, has enough style as an actor without even flinching at times). And you've got the ravenous gang (achem, zombies) out for blood after a gun down by a vengeful father. What surprising about how this very simple premise is set up, of a showdown in the worst pit of Los Angeles, is how it's all close to being just a pure exploitation film. But there's some thought or maybe just music to the film (not the actual music, though that's cool in its way) just as relentless as in Carpenter's other work, maybe even more in its rough way. It is a violent film, but the violence comes and goes leaving more room for talk than one might expect given it's by-a-thread rating. It's quite clear where the visual style would end up lending itself to in later years too (i.e. Reservoir Dogs).

When taking aside the occasional misstep, like an unneeded (suggested) sub-plot (not that Joston or Laurie Zimmer are bad actors, but they lack chemistry), Assault on Precinct 13 comes out without many scratches at all. It's a lean film at 90 minutes, with enough tension for two more. When it is shocking it shocks, when it wants a cheap, solid laugh or (more often) grin it comes through, and it doesn't pull any punches in letting you know here and there this is nothing more than a genre exercise. That Carpenter is able to pull it off so un-pretentiously is a credit to his first inspiration, as well as to the spirit of the long boiled ingredients of older films. In short, the most cult you can find by the filmmaker without going to his previous effort Dark Star. Grade: A

Here's a slick little offering from John Carpenter that bears his typical stamp.

It's very much a B-movie with a B-movie cast. But that's not to say that it or they are inadequate, quite the contrary. The movie itself gives a good run for your money, and the actors - although comparatively unknown or just barely familiar faces - do a very competent job with the characters they are given. Their unfamiliarity is, in truth, their best asset, because it helps to make them all the more ordinary and therefore believable.

In short, a gang of young hoods are ambushed and blown away by police. Other members of this same gang have burgled an armoury and made off with modern assault rifles. Later a traffic-cop (Austin Stoker) starting a late shift is asked to baby-sit a soon-to-close police station - Precinct 13. Now, at the same time, a bunch of prisoners is being transferred by bus from one institution to another. Whilst also at the same time, a father and daughter are looking to visit their granny, but manage to get lost instead. And finally, the surviving members of the gang engage in a revenge blood-pact to assault the police station, and slaughter everyone or die trying.

All of these various threads converge at precinct 13. The elements are brought together rather clumsily, I think, because of Mr Carpenter's comparative inexperience as a director (he got a lot better). There seems to be a lot of needless meandering. Though even then we glimpse the special Carpenter inspiration from time to time. The nauseously-nice kid mentioned above catches a bullet in the chest without any warning. It's one of the most shocking murders I've seen in a movie, who's industry usually holds childhood sacrosanct.

Eventually, the disparate survivors find themselves under siege in the police station (and this time there's no Steven Segal). The sinister, spectral gang surround them and begin shooting. Their guns are automatic and are fitted with silencers. As a result there are no firing reports. An intermittent hail of bullets descends upon the building and all that can be heard are the whizzings and ricochets of incoming rounds. Scenes have a supernatural quality. The windows, blinds, and all the internal fittings, begin disintegrating piecemeal as if prey to some fickle poltergeist. Heaps of stationery take flight with a 'pop', light-fittings erupt, charts and pictures fall to the ground. It's a quite horrific scenario that seems to have a hint of 'Quatermass & The Pit' or 'The Birds'. Carpenter plays it to excellent effect.

One of the transfer prisoners is a notorious murderer, played nicely by Darwin Joston. He joins Austin Stoker's character in a fight for their collective lives. An actress called Nancy Kyes is especially convincing as a fractious and frightened telephonist. You can almost feel the jagged edge of terror in her voice.

All of the acting is decent. The script varies from slick to slightly silly, but there are some excellent one-liners and situation comments. The tension in the precinct building develops very well as the anonymous phantoms converge, and keeps you guessing what will come next. Further grit is added by some wonderfully sinister theme music, which I believe was also written by multi-talented Mr C.

Unfortunately, the ending is a little weak. Because nobody else appears to know what is happening (the wires are down), the survivors are left to their own devices. But it seemed to me that all they had to do was start a fire on the roof or upper story. That would have served as a beacon. However...

I have only the video print (bought many years ago) and the image quality is, at times, so dark as to render some scenes almost indistinguishable. Perhaps the DVD is better; I've heard no comments one way or the other.

If you haven't already seen this movie, give it a whizz. It may be flawed, but in my opinion it is certainly superior to his preposterously over-blown 'Halloween', with its indestructible bogeyman Micheal Myers engaged in a brat-slashing bore-athon that made John Carpenter into a household name. This, at least, is plausible. Moreover, one is induced to care about these characters, and that is what STORY is all about.

The movie has recently been reincarnated as a more formulaic actioner rather than a horror film on the edge of supernatural. But what I would like to see is a digital remastering and tidying-up of the original - preferably by the man himself. Maybe even a 'Director's Cut'.

It would take very little burnishing to make this shine as a classic.

I decided to rent this film seeing as a friend recommended it to me and i have to say i was very disappointed. The film did not have much tension,thrills or suspense and it is supposed to be an action thriller after all! There's little plot or character depth,i just didn't feel sorry or care about any of the characters and if they were to have their brains blasted out i would not have been that shocked.I also thought that the acting was wooden as none of the characters seem very scared at what was happening to them. There are some plus points in the film such as there's one killing scene which i thought was brutal and darwin joston gave the film some black humor with his 'got a smoke?' catchphrase but the rest of the cast(especially lauren zimmer)could and should have done better. Overall there are gome good points and it is a low budget thriller so i didn't expect amazing action scenes but ultimately this just seemed run of the mill fare.

Verdict: 5/10

Watching John Carpenter's latest 'Ghosts Of Mars' recently I couldn't help but wonder what happened to Carpenter's vision. 'Assault On Precinct 13' was made 25 years earlier on probably a tenth of the budget and is basically the same movie only ten times better! Carpenter self-consciously uses Hawks' 'Rio Bravo', adds a touch of Romero's 'Night Of The Living Dead' and comes up with arguably the most exciting siege movie of all time. This gem is a perfect example of superior low budget film making. Relative unknowns Austin Stoker ('Abby') and Darwin Joston ('Eraserhead') are both outstanding as the stars of this taut and unpredictable thriller, and the supporting cast includes Laurie Zimmer (sadly her only movie), Nancy Loomis ('Halloween'), Kim Richards ('The Car' - in the movie's most controversial and memorable scene), and Carpenter semi-regular Charles Cyphers ('Escape From New York'). One of Carpenter's best efforts and overall an extraordinarily underrated movie. 'Assault On Precinct 13' is a classic! Add this to your "must see" list immediately!

Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) is one of my childhood favorites. A crazy film about all of the L.A. street gangs forming a pact so they can terrorize the streets together. When one of their own is killed and the person responsible enters a skeleton crew manned Police precinct the gauntlet is tossed and they decide to wage war upon the building.

I love this picture. This is John Carpenter at his best. He managed to follow up his brilliant picture "Dark Star" with an urban western. The character Napoleon Wilson was an early proto-type for future anti-hero Snake Plisken. Highly recommended.

A

John Carpenter is the master of the B-Movie genre, making well-liked films such as Halloween (birth of the slasher film), Big Trouble in Little China and Escape to New York. Assault on Precinct 13 is one of Carpenter's best, and one of my favourites of his.

In Los Andres gang-warfare is troubling the streets, and one gang was able to steel some advanced weapons to use for their mayhem. The gang, Street Thunder play revenge on the LAPD and swear a blood oath. On his first day on the job, Lieutenant Ethan Bishop (Austin Stoker), is assigned to run Precinct 9, Division 13 police station, a station about to closed down, and running on a skeleton staff. At the same time Napoleon Wilson (Darwin Joston), a prisoner on his way to death row is transfered, but on the way to a high security prison, a prisoner becomes ill and they have to stop at Bishop's station. In South Central LA, Lawson (Martin West) is searching for the house for his daughter's nanny. When he stops his young daughter buys an ice-cream from a van, and ends up getting shot by a gang member. Lawson quickly seeks revenge, killing one of the gang members. By doing this, he obviously get the gang hunting him, and ends up in the police station. The gang lays siege on the station, and the cops and criminals have to work together to survive.

It's a simple premise and plot, and works as a suspenseful horror like film. The siege of an numerous enemy is very similar to George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead. It is a short film, and very action packed. It is violence, as excepted, with a shocking scene involving a young girl dying. My DVD is rated 15, but I'm surprised it's not an 18 (and that is rare). The acting a little wooden, but it doesn't matter so much in this type of film. At least John Carpenter tries to bring some character and backstory, especially Napoleon Wilson who works as an anti-hero and a early prototype to Snake Plissken in Escape from New York. Some of the pacing is a little off, especially in the beginning. But Carpenter knows simple ideas, like cops and criminals working together to stop a greater threat, and action and set pieces.

Just before the rise of the slashers and the rise of John Carpenter as a horror director, remember Halloween and The Thing he made this gem. After the SF turkey Dark Star it wasn't simple for John to proof himself. It is nowadays that he is much more appreciated then in the 70's. Even with the much acclaimed The Thing John was spit out by the press, The Thing was a flop at the box offices and failed to have a great support, well we know better these days, what a classic that is, the effects, but back to Assault. That one too was not a favorite of the public. It was a bit the time of cop revenge movies like Dirty Harry and Death Wish but Assault had one problem, the murder of a child in front of the camera. Even up to today standards that scene is explicit. But in his first major attempt you already can feel the atmosphere that he created for Halloween, the way he uses the camera and the score, excellent. Due the remake, won't bother to see it, the movie is now available at last. A must have in your collection.

Siege battles have always been my favorite type of battle, there is just always something gratifying and exhilarating seeing few overcome or at least try to overcome against innumerable odds which seems almost hopeless. And just the sheer intensity of being alone against the world and whatever means you use to stay alive and win. This is my second favorite film from my favorite movie director John Carpenter, it's also one of my favorite action movies and films in general.

This was his first silver screen film, I'd say it was one helluva start and has aged well over the decades, yeah there has been many movies and TV shows that have utilized this formula but this film, does it with perfection and I still feel is the best.

I love the fact that it's done on a low budget which is fine by me because that helped give the film the right look and feel, it also feels like the filmmakers really put effort to their work. From the locale down to the enviorment it takes place, it feels like any place else that I've passed by. And as usual with Carpenter, this film has one of the best damn scores I've ever heard and is memorable. From the music that goes on in the film down to the theme song.

I like the plot it really does feel plausible, makes me wonder if any gangs or crime organization might of thought of doing something like this in the back of their mind. The action is great, looks and feels realistic, doesn't look as though it was perfectly choreographed as any Jackie Chan film would, which gives the action a slight sense of unpredictability.

The two protagonists Biship and Napolion (played by Austin Stolker and Dawrin Joston shame both didn't have more) are great like the chemistry between them, which makes this film also kinda a buddy cop movie, so in a way this film helped pave the way for future buddy cop films like "Lethal Weapon" and the underrated "Drive". Like in most those movies both characters are dynamic opposites and yet they have and form a bond. It's true that both characters don't have much depth, but you get little hints of depth which make them all the more interesting, sometimes what you don't say says a lot about a person and sometimes I find when you know a character so well they tend to be less interesting.

Biship is the figure of authority but I think is pretty cool, just has sort of that easygoing attitude where you can easily be friends with the guy, I like his leadership quality the way he conducts things in the situation I can't help but feel he's can make Captain, I'd follow him. We also in one scene see Biship use to be a rebel and even lived on the wrong side of the tracks, just seeing him as a police lieutenant now just shows that not everyone that lives on those tracks turns out bad.

Napolion is a figure of anti authority. He's rebellious, doesn't take crap from people that give him crap, a real butt kicker, but also kinda a passive aggressive type. But what I like is just the sense of mystic of his character, he is a death row inmate that has killed people but how he talks and the way he composes himself were not sure if those people he killed were really innocent. I also can't help but feel he could be an ex army or marine, just from the way he handles that shotgun, I don't know your theories are as good as mine but still you have to wonder.

The Street Thunder are great opponents for the two, I really like how this gang is handled their scary because they feel like they could exist. It's true they never say anything in the film but it's really in their actions and behavior that make them all the more menacing; they have no movie for their killing, it's like these guys are just doing it just to have fun or mere boredom. I also like how their sort of like game hunters, in some parts of the film they don't do anything at first but when their moment comes you know they will. One scene which really disturbed me was when one member took out a sniper rifle and as they were driving by, this guy was either practicing or thinking of killing whoever walked on the sidewalk, I'll admit that was scary because it made me wonder it made me wonder if someone ever put cross hairs on me whenever I walk on the streets.

What I like the most is the sense of suspense which is does great. I like the use of darkness in the film, it really creates a sense of unseen danger, that someone could just come out of the shadows or hit you and you wouldn't know where. The sounds of the silencers and where the gangs are positioned, but worst of all just the mere quiet really gave that sense of isolation, dread and sometimes impending doom.

Assault on Precent 13 has plenty of ammo and firepower.

Rating: 4 stars

Assault on Precint 13 is a great film. Independent in quality and execution but better than many studio films. Young John Carpentar had already made Dark Star which is a comedy sci-fi better known for being the source for Ridley Scott's Alien in many ways and yet had Halloween ahead. This is great direction- there isn't much dialogue and the sequence of attack on the police station is very good.All actors are character types which only add to the atmosphere and realism.

Precinct 13 is what Carpenter considers to be his first real film. Despite being so, it contains some very impressive camera angles and use of shadows, as well as a score that, although technically simple, epitomises the word 'cool'. Made on a shoestring budget, it was unfairly gnawed at by critics and yet eventually cemented itself as a cult classic (which is a sentence that can be attributed to half of Carpenter's filmography) The plot, like all the best Carpenter movies, is a simple one – A group on inhabitants in an abandoned police station find themselves under attack from an unstoppable street gang.

The lack of funds available meant that coverage of scenes had to be played out from a single angle longer than normal. This gives the movie a straightforward, brutal and almost documentary-like approach. Pretty violent for its time, Precinct 13 grips you as you will for the goodies to make it out of this sticky situation alive. You also don't need to be a genius to see all the nods and reverences to Carpenter's favourite westerns. The acting quality varies between cast members, but the dynamic duo of Police Officer Austin Stroker and anti-hero Darwin Joston make up for the relatively sub-par supporting cast. The tension present in the film is just one of the many Carpenter trademarks that he would be later known for. Not much is known about the huge, almost cult-like, street gang – they are as enigmatic as any Carpenter villain, and the tautness of the movie is improved because of this.

Best Scene: That ice cream truck scene, which completely shocked me. A young girl who looks around only seven walks to the truck to replace her ice-cream but unbeknownst to her it have been boarded by the street gang. One member, without even looking, just points her gun at the sweet girl and blows her away. There's no dramatic music or anything; it's done in a matter-of-fact kind of way, which makes it all the more disturbing.

John Carpenter's second feature, this little B-movie is his 'modern retelling' of 'Rio Bravo'. A man chases and kill a gang member who killed his daughter, and them hides in a closing-down precinct. This leads to an all-out assault from the gang, as the people still there (some officers and prisoners) have to team up to defend themselves.

I usually love Carpenter's films, but I have to say this one was disappointing. And you can't even blame his inexperience, considering he had already done the excellent 'Dark Star'. He seems really confused here.

The characters are not only wooden, the gang members are more like zombies. They don't act like living beings (how one reacted when shot by the father, for example), they merely rush without thinking at times, and are flat-out expressionless. Carpenter admitted to taking inspiration from 'Night of the Living Dead', but come on: this was supposedly a realistic film and they are supposedly humans, you can't really make it work like that.

Furthermore, they ARE shown to be intelligent. The way the gang cleverly organizes the attack is a total contradiction from the kamikaze-like actions they make a moment later; even the 'explanation' makes no damn sense. For the most part the assault looks EXACTLY like your typical zombie film's 'characters in a building holding off a zombie horde' scene.

The other characters, while not suffering from that, aren't any good either. The dialogues they are given are extremely bad and inconsistent with the situation at times, and the acting only makes it worse. Darwin Joston, for example, is totally lacking in the wit his character's dialogues seem to imply he has; Austin Stoker and Laurie Zimmer are also bad, and only Tony Burton is salvageable among the main actors.

I would like to know if Carpenter (or anyone who worked in this film) has ever used a silenced weapon. It is a common problem in films, especially spy ones, but since it is made a major plot point here it bugged me. This 'a silenced weapon can not even be heard' is RIDICULOUS; a silenced gun still reaches around 120db, or as loud as (if not more than) a car honk to anyone close-by. The idea that no one nearby would hear it, especially when they are shooting WINDOWS (which is also quite loud), makes this lose a lot of credibility (as one character even states, how the **** is a shooting in the middle of a city not being heard by anyone?!).

Despite all its flaws, the movie still has some of Carpenter's usual qualities. The movie takes its time in the beginning, sure, but Carpenter knows how to create a mood; the assault is quite tense (despite its silly moments and sometimes out-of-place dialogue), as well as some earlier scenes (even if they, too, make no damn sense, like the killing of the girl). The assault itself is not quite bad either; despite the zombie horde similarities, it is quite fun. The soundtrack is also excellent, the only flawless thing in the entire film.

The movie has its moments, but overall it is far too idiotic to work. Had 'Assault on Precinct 13' been a zombie invasion film rather than a cop/gang action/thriller, it could have been successful. As it stands, though, this is little more than a silly B-movie, and Carpenter is way above this kind of thing.