hellholehorror
The picture quality was variable with the darker scenes looking especially bad. The music was occasionally annoying and the sound effects felt a little empty but that kinda worked in its favour to some extent. The pace of the film was very good. It kept moving and I was never bored. The action was entertaining and it was a bit different to watch. I liked the fast ending. Scary because of the feeling of gritty helplessness.
rdoyle29
Carpenter's first proper feature is an amazingly taut and efficient action film equally inspired by "Rio Bravo" and "Night of the Living Dead". Carpenter lays out the plot setup and draws out his characters in about 15 minutes and then focuses on the siege of the precinct by a faceless horde of gang members. There's zero fat in this film. It's not all violence ... character relationships develop and deepen ... but it happens inside the structure of his action plot developing on the characters he laid out during the setup.
lloobee_4-1
How much can you say - Stoker and Joston are Perfectly cast in this wonderfully relaxed, low-budget action thriller. Stoker's naivety "This can't happen" plays perfectly against Joston's laconic mass murderer (with his memorable introduction line "got a smoke?").The music is probably the best Carpenter has done - with the possible exception of "the Thing". Somehow very slow and easy, yet intense. "Tap-tap-tap...tap. Tap-tap-tap-tap...tap" you'll recognise it once you hear it.And the last scene - after all the words have been said - is truly hard-core tough guy heaven.
Spikeopath
Assault on Precinct 13 is written, directed, edited and musically scored by John Carpenter. It stars Austin Stoker, Darwin Joston, Laurie Zimmer, Martin West, Tony Burton, Charles Cyphers and Nancy Kyes. Cinematography is by Douglas Knapp.If you are going to homage films that you love, or ones that influence you, then you have to get it right. Something John Carpenter most assuredly did with this, his first masterpiece. Plot and structure of film are simplicity extreme, but it's the execution that matters here, the cool veneer of the hero characters, the frightening relentlessness of the gang members who assault the soon to close down police station and the small number of inhabitants within. Interestingly it's actually Precinct 9, Division 13, but Carpenter was no doubt in a playful mood.Carpenter builds the first half slowly, introducing key characters whilst deftly staging the events that will lead to the actual siege itself. This part of Los Angeles where the story is set is conspicuous by how empty and soulless it seems, even in daylight, which is where the terror actually begins. It's as if residents and locals just prefer to be off the streets at any time of day or night. The gang, like the folk inside the station, are multiracial, but unlike those inside the gang never speak. They move like silent assassins, no shouting or cussing, just a tidal wave of death, their guns adorned with silencers, which leads to a truly brilliant extended sequence as the gang begin to destroy the building silently! Meanwhile relationships are being formed by those under duress, convicts and police forced to battle side by side in the slightest hope of surviving the night.There is no flab on show here, no pointless dialogue or scenes which could have been cut, it's a film that is very much to the point. The cast respond well to Carpenter's requirements, be it emotionally, physically or coolly, all while Carpenter's low tone synthesiser plays out its memorably eerie beats. It's a superb lesson in low budget film making from one of the masters of that art. His filmic star may have waned in his later life, but for a time in the 70s and 80s he shone bright, Assault On Precinct 13 was the ignition. 10/10
