Here's a slick little offering from John Carpenter that bears his typical stamp.
It's very much a B-movie with a B-movie cast. But that's not to say that it or they are inadequate, quite the contrary. The movie itself gives a good run for your money, and the actors - although comparatively unknown or just barely familiar faces - do a very competent job with the characters they are given. Their unfamiliarity is, in truth, their best asset, because it helps to make them all the more ordinary and therefore believable.
In short, a gang of young hoods are ambushed and blown away by police. Other members of this same gang have burgled an armoury and made off with modern assault rifles. Later a traffic-cop (Austin Stoker) starting a late shift is asked to baby-sit a soon-to-close police station - Precinct 13. Now, at the same time, a bunch of prisoners is being transferred by bus from one institution to another. Whilst also at the same time, a father and daughter are looking to visit their granny, but manage to get lost instead. And finally, the surviving members of the gang engage in a revenge blood-pact to assault the police station, and slaughter everyone or die trying.
All of these various threads converge at precinct 13. The elements are brought together rather clumsily, I think, because of Mr Carpenter's comparative inexperience as a director (he got a lot better). There seems to be a lot of needless meandering. Though even then we glimpse the special Carpenter inspiration from time to time. The nauseously-nice kid mentioned above catches a bullet in the chest without any warning. It's one of the most shocking murders I've seen in a movie, who's industry usually holds childhood sacrosanct.
Eventually, the disparate survivors find themselves under siege in the police station (and this time there's no Steven Segal). The sinister, spectral gang surround them and begin shooting. Their guns are automatic and are fitted with silencers. As a result there are no firing reports. An intermittent hail of bullets descends upon the building and all that can be heard are the whizzings and ricochets of incoming rounds. Scenes have a supernatural quality. The windows, blinds, and all the internal fittings, begin disintegrating piecemeal as if prey to some fickle poltergeist. Heaps of stationery take flight with a 'pop', light-fittings erupt, charts and pictures fall to the ground. It's a quite horrific scenario that seems to have a hint of 'Quatermass & The Pit' or 'The Birds'. Carpenter plays it to excellent effect.
One of the transfer prisoners is a notorious murderer, played nicely by Darwin Joston. He joins Austin Stoker's character in a fight for their collective lives. An actress called Nancy Kyes is especially convincing as a fractious and frightened telephonist. You can almost feel the jagged edge of terror in her voice.
All of the acting is decent. The script varies from slick to slightly silly, but there are some excellent one-liners and situation comments. The tension in the precinct building develops very well as the anonymous phantoms converge, and keeps you guessing what will come next. Further grit is added by some wonderfully sinister theme music, which I believe was also written by multi-talented Mr C.
Unfortunately, the ending is a little weak. Because nobody else appears to know what is happening (the wires are down), the survivors are left to their own devices. But it seemed to me that all they had to do was start a fire on the roof or upper story. That would have served as a beacon. However...
I have only the video print (bought many years ago) and the image quality is, at times, so dark as to render some scenes almost indistinguishable. Perhaps the DVD is better; I've heard no comments one way or the other.
If you haven't already seen this movie, give it a whizz. It may be flawed, but in my opinion it is certainly superior to his preposterously over-blown 'Halloween', with its indestructible bogeyman Micheal Myers engaged in a brat-slashing bore-athon that made John Carpenter into a household name. This, at least, is plausible. Moreover, one is induced to care about these characters, and that is what STORY is all about.
The movie has recently been reincarnated as a more formulaic actioner rather than a horror film on the edge of supernatural. But what I would like to see is a digital remastering and tidying-up of the original - preferably by the man himself. Maybe even a 'Director's Cut'.
It would take very little burnishing to make this shine as a classic.
It's very much a B-movie with a B-movie cast. But that's not to say that it or they are inadequate, quite the contrary. The movie itself gives a good run for your money, and the actors - although comparatively unknown or just barely familiar faces - do a very competent job with the characters they are given. Their unfamiliarity is, in truth, their best asset, because it helps to make them all the more ordinary and therefore believable.
In short, a gang of young hoods are ambushed and blown away by police. Other members of this same gang have burgled an armoury and made off with modern assault rifles. Later a traffic-cop (Austin Stoker) starting a late shift is asked to baby-sit a soon-to-close police station - Precinct 13. Now, at the same time, a bunch of prisoners is being transferred by bus from one institution to another. Whilst also at the same time, a father and daughter are looking to visit their granny, but manage to get lost instead. And finally, the surviving members of the gang engage in a revenge blood-pact to assault the police station, and slaughter everyone or die trying.
All of these various threads converge at precinct 13. The elements are brought together rather clumsily, I think, because of Mr Carpenter's comparative inexperience as a director (he got a lot better). There seems to be a lot of needless meandering. Though even then we glimpse the special Carpenter inspiration from time to time. The nauseously-nice kid mentioned above catches a bullet in the chest without any warning. It's one of the most shocking murders I've seen in a movie, who's industry usually holds childhood sacrosanct.
Eventually, the disparate survivors find themselves under siege in the police station (and this time there's no Steven Segal). The sinister, spectral gang surround them and begin shooting. Their guns are automatic and are fitted with silencers. As a result there are no firing reports. An intermittent hail of bullets descends upon the building and all that can be heard are the whizzings and ricochets of incoming rounds. Scenes have a supernatural quality. The windows, blinds, and all the internal fittings, begin disintegrating piecemeal as if prey to some fickle poltergeist. Heaps of stationery take flight with a 'pop', light-fittings erupt, charts and pictures fall to the ground. It's a quite horrific scenario that seems to have a hint of 'Quatermass & The Pit' or 'The Birds'. Carpenter plays it to excellent effect.
One of the transfer prisoners is a notorious murderer, played nicely by Darwin Joston. He joins Austin Stoker's character in a fight for their collective lives. An actress called Nancy Kyes is especially convincing as a fractious and frightened telephonist. You can almost feel the jagged edge of terror in her voice.
All of the acting is decent. The script varies from slick to slightly silly, but there are some excellent one-liners and situation comments. The tension in the precinct building develops very well as the anonymous phantoms converge, and keeps you guessing what will come next. Further grit is added by some wonderfully sinister theme music, which I believe was also written by multi-talented Mr C.
Unfortunately, the ending is a little weak. Because nobody else appears to know what is happening (the wires are down), the survivors are left to their own devices. But it seemed to me that all they had to do was start a fire on the roof or upper story. That would have served as a beacon. However...
I have only the video print (bought many years ago) and the image quality is, at times, so dark as to render some scenes almost indistinguishable. Perhaps the DVD is better; I've heard no comments one way or the other.
If you haven't already seen this movie, give it a whizz. It may be flawed, but in my opinion it is certainly superior to his preposterously over-blown 'Halloween', with its indestructible bogeyman Micheal Myers engaged in a brat-slashing bore-athon that made John Carpenter into a household name. This, at least, is plausible. Moreover, one is induced to care about these characters, and that is what STORY is all about.
The movie has recently been reincarnated as a more formulaic actioner rather than a horror film on the edge of supernatural. But what I would like to see is a digital remastering and tidying-up of the original - preferably by the man himself. Maybe even a 'Director's Cut'.
It would take very little burnishing to make this shine as a classic.