10 Horror Movies Hiding In Plain Sight

Before becoming a master of horror with Halloween in 1978, John Carpenter released this tense thriller two years prior. It has all the hallmarks of a great Carpenter film, and of course - it shows he was a horror director before he was, well, a horror director.

A ragtag team of cops and crooks in a decommissioned police station must put aside their differences to hold-back a violent gang if they want to survive the night. The only problem is that they are outnumbered and outgunned with the hope of rescue fleeting faster as the seconds go by.

Much like Southern Comfort, the tension comes from not knowing when the next body will drop. Odds of survival are far from ideal, especially given how vicious the gang is. They kill indiscriminately. Man, woman, child, it doesn’t matter. To them everyone is just a sack of meat.

Part of what makes Assault on Precinct 13 go from thriller to horror is Carpenters character work. The more you care about a character the more afraid you are that something will happen to them. Good writing goes a long way, something that Carpenter is very much aware of and uses to push the viewer closer to the edge of their seat.