Assault On Precinct 13 (1976)

John Carpenter's second film and easily one of his best (after 'The Thing' and just ahead of 'Dark Star'). It's tension and fear of the unknown personified as a band of faceless thugs track down a man who (justifiably) wasted some of their crew. Make no mistakes, you may find a dusty copy of this lying in the thriller section of your local video store, but this is nothing short of a horror film. 'Assault...' is a slim remake of the Howard Hawks/John Wayne classic 'Rio Bravo' (John Carpenter recently recorded a commentary track for the new 2 disc edition of it), with elements of George A. Romero's 'Dead' films thrown in for good measure and has received the popular and unnecessary remake treatment. But if that's what it takes to remind people how good the original was in the first place then so be it and bring on 'Escape from New York'. If you want extra features then you'll have to order it from America, with a Q&A with director and star and a typically engaging commentary from Carpenter.

There was a time when John Carpenter was the master of suspense, when his movies did not have direct to DVD written all over them. This is one of the classics, with it's western set-up, brilliant music score, this is a masterclass in low budget film making. as a gang of psycho's lay siege to Precinct 13. The suspense is brilliantly sustained, and the silenced shoot-out is text book in iconic movie moments. Of course the movie looks dated, and for anybody looking for high octane action will be disapponted. But for a master class in low budget film making this movie is hard to beat. These reasons make this movie an all time classic!

This movie even though directed on a very low budget does not fail to deliver one of the most dark, tense and exiting movies of the 20th Century. Set in a rundown neighbourhood in South Central LA the movie tells the story of a street gang who have stolen a cache of automatic weapons but during the raid some of there members are killed by the LAPD so the rest of the gang vow revenge on the LAPD & the citizens of Anderson.

saw this on its release in`76.still along with starman,one of john carpenters best films ever.tense,action packed,exciting and violent.the remake from a couple of years ago is pretty good but this film takes some beating.highly recommended.

A truly excellent little film. Whilst the budget is obviously meagre, Carpenters knack for creating such strong atmosphere and suspense shines through the majority of the films duration, showing that he can make the maximum impact with the minimum of fuss. The obviously Howard Hawks inspired elements of the film never attributes to a loss of Carpenters own distinct visual style. He shows the early signs of his future directorial development, especially when making the faceless criminals laying siege on the Police station seem weirdly like a supernatural force. Carpenters ultra cool, and Memorable synth score underpins the majority of the slow build-up of tension.