After spending nearly a week lounging in the Gulf of Mexico I spent Sunday afternoon lounging on the rocks in the water at Dale Hollow reservoir. All this warm weather resting has reminded me what a sun worshiper I’ve always been — I think most summer babies are. I brought two songs back from the trip and I’m hoping to get my demo situation figured out soon. I recently moved out of an apartment where I had a studio space and I’m sort of in-between recording wise. It’s actually a great time to check out what other people have happening in their recording spaces so if you have a set-up and you’re itching to cut something be in touch.
In the meantime I came across a fun article about John Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13 the other day. The movie is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year and this piece at the A.V. Club is the latest chapter in Tom Breihan’s must-read “A History of Violence” horror movie project…
A scraggly group of ordinary people are thrown into a room and forced to work together. Outside that room, bloodthirsty forces are massing, looking for any opportunity to break in and kill whoever’s inside. The people in the room might not know each other and might not like each other. They might disagree over whether to hole up in the room or to make a break for it. They absolutely will not all survive. But if they’re brave and inventive and quick thinking enough, a few of them might live to see the morning.
That’s a classic movie setup, especially for low-budget films, situations where the producers can only afford one set or location. It extends outside the world of action movies; the original Dawn Of The Dead might be the best siege movie ever made. And the scenario still works now; the new punks-fighting-skinheads indie thriller Green Room is easily the best new movie I’ve seen in 2016. For a lot of these movies, there’s a clear model at work: John Carpenter’s 1976 film Assault On Precinct 13, a low-budget landmark and the first great work from one of the best action-movie directors ever to do it.
Read the whole piece at the A.V. Club site and check out this great interview featuring Carpenter talking about that “first great work” on it’s 20th anniversary 20 years ago…
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