Directed by John Carpenter • 1976 • United States
Starring Austin Stoker, Darwin Joston, Laurie Zimmer
John Carpenter’s lean, mean second feature puts a gritty exploitation spin on Howard Hawks’s classic western RIO BRAVO, transposing the story to a soon-to-be-closed LA police station where a group of officers and convicts find themselves under siege by a marauding streets gang who have taken a blood oath to kill someone trapped inside. The baddies are portrayed as zombielike killing-machines straight out of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD; the notorious ice-cream truck scene is still a shocker; and Carpenter keeps the tension mounting with his pulse-pounding synth score.
Up Next in Synth Soundtracks
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Messiah of Evil
Directed by Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz • 1973 • United States
Starring Marianna Hill, Michael Greer, Joy BangA woman (Marianna Hill) arrives in a sleepy seaside town after receiving unsettling letters from her father, only to discover that the town is under the influence of a strange cult th...
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Liquid Sky
Directed by Slava Tsukerman • 1982 • United States
Starring Anne Carlisle, Paula E. Sheppard, Susan DoukasOne of the coolest and most outrageously stylish oddities to emanate from the 1980s indie underground is a postpunk science-fiction fantasia set in New York’s zonked-out bohemian demimonde....
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Manhunter
Directed by Michael Mann • 1986 • United States
Starring William Petersen, Kim Greist, Joan AllenMichael Mann’s hypnotic, hyperstylized adaptation of Thomas Harris’s novel “Red Dragon” was the first film to introduce audiences to the infamous Hannibal Lecter. Will Graham (William Petersen) is a...
