Dundead: Assault on Precinct 13 (50th Anniversary)

John Carpenter is for many horror fans, one of American genre cinema’s defining architects, helming classics like The Thing, They Live, Escape from New York, and, of course, the original Halloween. Carpenter’s second feature, Assault on Precinct 13, celebrates its 50th anniversary this year and it is one of his leanest, meanest, and ultimately best films. 

Mostly set across one sweltering night in Los Angeles ('A WHITE HOT NIGHT OF HATE!' as the original poster put it), it’s a classic Carpenter tale of a group of survivors holed up in a police station under siege by a vengeful and relentless street gang.

Carpenter was apparently inspired by George A Romero’s 1968 masterpiece Night of the Living Dead, and Duane Jones’ trailblazing performance in that film perhaps paved the way for Austin Stoker’s charismatic (and subversive) central turn as a black police officer in Assault on Precinct 13. Frank Doubleday (the creepy sharp-toothed goon in Escape from New York) brings his customary off-kilter energy to a memorable supporting part, and Darwin Joston is excellent as Death-Row-bound prisoner Napoleon Wilson. 

There’s also a role for Nancy Loomis (later Nancy Kyes) who would go on to play Annie in Halloween, but one of the coolest, most memorable and generally badass characters in the film is the no-nonsense Leigh, played by Laurie Zimmer. Zimmer quit acting after only five acting credits, but she more than makes an impression here, playing Leigh with no small amount of grit and a sardonic glint in her eye.

Carpenter is well-known for composing the synthesizer-heavy scores for many of his films, and in the process, defining the sound of 70s and 80s horror. They’re all brilliant, and while the Halloween theme is hard to beat, Assault on Precinct 13 gives it a good run for its money; the main theme is a suitably intense and thrilling minimalist electronic march, full of menace. 

It all combines to create an essential 70s exploitation action film with a sweaty, ragged physicality, simmering with tension and a brutal sense of violence. One moment in particular is among the most striking in all of Carpenter’s filmography and still feels transgressive today.