Courtesy of Everett Collection
John Carpenter is known by and large for his horror fare. And rightfully so. With classics like Halloween and The Thing to his name, it’s only natural that those efforts sometimes eclipse the rest of his oeuvre.
With that said, to overlook Carpenter’s output beyond the horror space is to miss out on some truly exceptional pictures. Big Trouble in Little China is one of the greatest B-movies of our time, and Escape From New York is a satisfying, action-packed affair that unfolds at breakneck pace. Both are standout examples of the director’s non-horror offerings that hit all the right notes.
Assault on Precinct 13 is yet another effort outside the director’s horror output that shouldn’t be overlooked. It’s intense and unflinching. I’ve long been a fan of Assault on Precinct 13, a sentiment that I enthusiastically expressed in an editorial for Dread Central. An editorial that reads, in part: “Assault on Precinct 13 is an unsettling ordeal that pummels the viewer with stylized violence early and often. Carpenter combines the gritty visuals with a phenomenal score and memorable characters, making for an exploitation effort that rises head and shoulders above many of its contemporaries.”
The action plays out like this:
When the LAPD kills several members of the South Central gang Street Thunder, the remaining members avenge themselves by way of a bloody war waged against cops and citizens alike. Caught in the crossfire is Lt. Ethan Bishop (Austin Stoker), who’s managing a skeleton crew at the local and soon-to-be-closed police precinct. As the gang members close in, Bishop forms an unlikely alliance with a group of prisoners in order to defend the station and the lives of everyone in it.
It might not be immediately obvious, but Carpenter names Rio Bravo as a major influence on the film. The core setups are actually fairly similar. The writer/director takes Rio Bravo‘s basic premise about a law enforcement officer under siege by a band of ruffians and relocates the action to the modern era.
Carpenter made the film for an estimated budget of just $100,000. At a time when films were still exclusively shot on celluloid, that’s a really tight budget, but you wouldn’t know it from watching Assault on Precinct 13. If you’re curious to see how Carpenter does a lot with a little or to see how the flick parallels Rio Bravo, you can presently catch it streaming on Tubi.
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