If you're a fan of the works of John Carpenter, its safe to say the period of time from 1978 to roughly 1994 represented a "golden era" of his works. Among the films he made during that time are:
Halloween (1978)
The Fog (1980)
Escape From New York (1981)
The Thing (1982)
Christine (1983)
Starman (1984)
Big Trouble In Little China (1986)
Prince of Darkness (1987)
They Live (1988)
In The Mouth of Madness (1994)
Pretty impressive stuff, though there are a few somewhat forgotten TV movies and at least one feature film, Memoirs of the Invisible Man (1992) which few would say are among his highlights.
People may also know of his first feature film, the Dan O'Bannon (Alien) co-written Dark Star (1974).
While the film certainly got Mr. Carpenter and O'Bannon noticed, it was arguably Carpenter's 1976 film Assault on Precinct 13 which was his first "big" success. It seemed to be overshadowed, though, by the even greater success of Halloween, released only two years later, to the point where it feels like Assault on Precinct 13 is something of a forgotten Carpenter classic.
Assault on Precinct 13 was the first John Carpenter directed/written film I saw and, to this date, I feel that while he came up with some more interesting concepts later on, it remains my favorite John Carpenter film.
The plot is essentially a western siege film set in then modern times mashed up with elements of Night of the Living Dead: A soon to be closed down Police Station is open for one final day/night and the man in command of the station arrives for one last shift with the personnel inside. A van with some prisoners arrive. All seems calm.
But nearby, a chance encounter between an ice cream truck driver, a father and his young daughter, and several vicious gang bangers leads to a siege of the station.
While the movie is very low budget and some of the acting -alas!- isn't all that great, the suspense is genuine and the threat tangible.
Years later and in 2001 John Carpenter would essentially remake this film as Ghosts of Mars while in 2005 a remake of Assault on Precinct 13 starring Ethan Hawke and Laurence Fishbourne was released. The remake was incredibly disappointing, IMHO, and not worth checking out. Ghost of Mars, again IMHO, has its moments but it too pales when compared to Carpenter's original Assault on Precinct 13.
If you're a John Carpenter fan and haven't yet seen this film, you owe it to yourself to give it a look.
I don't think you'll be disappointed!
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