Writer-director John Carpenter’s police thriller throbs with the sort of dread that can come from getting lost in a bad neighborhood. It brings to life our worst fears about the chaos that might erupt at any moment in the American urban wasteland. On the last night before a blighted precinct closes and police presence pretty much vanishes from a California ghetto, a few straggling cops and secretaries are inexplicably besieged by a faceless gang of marauders. The fact that no reason for the attack is given only heightens the paranoia.
