Viking Night: Assault on Precinct 13
By Bruce Hall
April 19, 2011
BoxOfficeProphets.com
These were my thoughts as I tried to sit through John Carpenter’s Vampires back in 1998. I mention this movie in particular only because I took a date to see it, and the entire experience was a nightmare. The date was one of the most awkward experiences of my adult life. Yet I don’t remember the girl nearly as well as I do the incredibly horrible movie we saw on that awful day. But I come here today to praise John Carpenter, not to bury him. And the purpose of this article is to celebrate a film he made at the beginning of his career, presumably when he was still taking advice from people. It’s an underrated picture, sandwiched on Carpenter’s resume between Dark Star and Halloween. It might seem more obvious for me to write about one of those films, but try and make me choose between the obvious and the obscure and...well, I’ll pick Assault on Precinct 13 every time. Besides, I’m just coming off Donnie Darko and Eraserhead. I’m in no mood to tackle Dark Star.
Assault on Precinct 13 is set in a fictional version of Los Angeles where violent gangs have overrun the city’s poor neighborhoods like a cancer. Thugs roam the streets in tricked out muscle cars, taking their aimless aggression out on a helpless population already weary from years of economic stagnation and lack of political leadership. Armed with military grade weapons, one gang has the upper hand and a terrified public is left to fend for itself as the police abandon the neighborhood. I know how implausible this sounds; how hard it is to close your eyes and imagine such a thing. Believe me, I have no idea where Carpenter gets his crazy ideas. Eventually the gang attacks a single dad and his adorable daughter, imposing upon the child one of the more chilling screen deaths I can immediately recall.
The father (who totally looks like James Woods, but isn’t) chases the thugs down, killing the gunman before finding himself outnumbered by the rest. He flees to the nearest police station for help with the gang members in hot pursuit. I don’t know about you, but should I ever find myself hunted by an insanely violent mob of psychotic killers, I’d like to think I could race into a police station and get a little help. Unfortunately, the latest neighborhood the cops have given up on is this one, and Anderson Precinct 13 is just hours away from shutting down forever. The phone lines are already disconnected and the building has been conspicuously stripped of all communication capability – which of course will in no way prove significant later on in the film.
Inside, Lieutenant Ethan Bishop (Austin Stoker) has been given final command of the station and all he has to do is pack the place up, shut the lights off and leave the key under the mat in the morning. His only company on this lonesome detail are the station’s two dispatchers, Leigh (Laurie Zimmer), Julie (Nancy Loomis) and a couple of guys we’ll call Officer Cold Corpse and Detective Easy Target. Around the same time the Distraught Father runs into the station for help, a prison bus pulls up around back. Three convicts were on their way to the lockup when one of them fell ill, forcing the driver to make an unscheduled stop. Among the passengers is Napoleon Wilson (Darwin Joston), a smart alec killer on his way to Death Row (needless to say, his presence eventually comes in handy).
In the middle of all this confusion, the gang unleashes a ferocious attack on the station, catching everyone by surprise and leaving only Bishop, Leigh, Napoleon and another prisoner named Wells (Tony Burton) alive. Terrified, confused, cut off from the rest of the city and low on ammo, the unlikely group must join forces to survive until help arrives.
On the surface, this description might lead you to make a knee jerk comparison to other siege films of the era like Dog Day Afternoon or The Gauntlet. But Dog Day Afternoon is based on a true story (seriously) and The Gauntlet is just a mindless action fantasy - not to mention both of those films were blessed with bigger budgets and more influential directors. Assault on Precinct 13 was an ultra low budget horror film in an urban setting - and it was Carpenter’s uniquely sublime instinct for the genre that made it unique.
Yes, the story sounds like something out of a USA Network original movie. And the climax, by today’s standards, is slightly more thrilling than listening to NASCAR on the radio. But urban crime in America was far worse 35 years ago, and to those living in large cities the issue was a source of constant anxiety. The idea of a ruthless street gang taking over a police station is terrifying, and I can only imagine watching this movie in a darkened theater at a time when it didn’t seem nearly as far fetched as it does today.
Carpenter has a gift for atmosphere - his greatest attribute is his ability to take a wafer thin idea and extend it into a 90 minute parade of shadows and silence, underscored by the lurking certainty of hideous death. To that end, he experiments here with techniques that would later become his trademarks. Sparse camera movement, an embrace of shadow and an amateurish, brooding electronic soundtrack lend Assault a threadbare, do-it-yourself vibe that’s ideal for the subject matter. This is a straightforward film with a simple, no nonsense story. And like most stories it contains elements of others – most notably and old John Wayne film called Rio Bravo. But it’s an intentional homage, so if you’re the sort of person who insists that Hollywood is out of ideas, remember that turning old things into new things is pretty much what creativity is all about. I’d also be happy to hear the last idea YOU had for a movie.
And speaking of ideas, the “mismatched clutch of survivors battling evil” is one that Carpenter would use a bit too often later in his career. Obvious character archetypes abound here, but since Assault was inspired by a Western it works well - this is the kind of story where we NEED to know where everyone stands. Lt. Bishop is a virtuous man who feels compelled to follow the letter of the law no matter how desperate things become. Napoleon doesn’t seem like such a bad guy, and it’s not just in contrast to the bloodthirsty mob outside. He’s at peace with his mistakes and he doesn’t feel the need to run from the death he’s come to realize he deserves. Laurie Zimmer gets to do something that few women were allowed to in horror movies up to this point, and that’s act. Leigh grudgingly adopts a leadership role during the crisis, and she has an almost laconic sense of fatalism about the whole thing. Talk about channeling your inner Carrie Fisher.
The Gang is a mindless mass of anger silhouetted against the night, hunched over like ninjas as they pour from the shadows, firing on the station. They have no dialogue, they perform bizarre cult rituals and they never, ever seem to run out of bodies. Like an insatiable zombie horde, they just keep coming, and coming, and coming. They may be the most interesting character in the film, with their amoeba like resilience giving them an almost supernatural quality.
The individual performances are adequate, if nothing else. Aside from Joston, who gives a career performance, the acting is a notch above soap opera quality but the performers do seem deeply committed to their roles. I guess that’s another testament to Carpenter’s ability to get the most out of the least. There’s no denying this is a low budget film and it shows, but the parts make a satisfying whole and it all strikes a tolerable tone between horror, suspense and humor. It threatens you, but it never overwhelms you. It toys with your patience a bit, but it makes you glad you stuck around for the end.
Despite its grim premise and gritty tone, Assault on Precinct 13 has a cynical sense of humor, but overall it carries a sense of optimism. It’s the same sense of optimism I try to have about John Carpenter in general. In my opinion, the man reached his creative peak during the Reagan Administration and if he never creates another masterpiece again, that’s okay. But the list of great horror directors working today isn’t a long one. It would be nice to see Carpenter’s name on it again.