Ranking Every John Carpenter Theme Worst To Best
6. Assault On Precinct 13 (1976)
The Assault on Precinct 13 theme was a synth-ladled dish that, seeing as it was made in the mid 70s, was also pretty ahead of its time. It was created in the early saga of Carpenter's movie compositions, and even back then, he knew exactly how to get the job done.
'Futuristic', 'grim', and 'post-apocalyptic' are just some of the words you can use to describe this piece. It's a striking musical layer to the accompanying movie. Even if one would disagree that this should be up there with the best, one cannot possibly disagree that it was a benchmark moment of Carpenter's identity as a musician. It's the second-oldest song on this list, and yet you may be surprised to learn that fact.
When Carpenter wasn't doing horror, he was doing sci-fi, and it was gripping clunky not at all pretty sci-fi that might well have been set in the same universe as his horror. The foreboding undertones of his many sci-fi compositions render them only a couple of layers away from the scarier tunes of his repertoire. This one proves that they are also just as awesome.