It's ironic that the score for the original version of Assault on Precinct 13, composed and produced by director
John Carpenter on his own, remains more powerful and menacing than
Graeme Revell's score to Jean-François Richet's 2005 remake. This says more about
Carpenter's accomplishment with limited means than anything else.
Revell's work with
the City of Prague Philharmonic is satisfactory, switching gears between sweeping dramatic motifs and quiet passages so foreboding that they're disquieting. Those who have seen the original Assault on Precinct 13 probably have its main synth vamp in permanent memory;
Revell could've livened up his take with a couple sly references to it. "Generique Assault," the lone cut with vocals, features rhymes from
KRS-One that will surely gain at least a couple comparisons to
Bobby Brown's
Ghostbusters 2 hit, "On Our Own." ~ Andy Kellman