Summer Riffs: Assault on Precinct 13 and Surviving Edged Weapons

Join us for Summer Riffs, where every Sunday in August we will be screening a fun flick that you can riff on, laugh out loud at, love, and hate. Audience participation is encouraged in this series.

In John Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13 (1976), a highway patrol officer, two criminals, and a station secretary defend a defunct Los Angeles precinct office against a siege by a bloodthirsty street gang. Carpenter modeled the film after classic westerns, but was unable to do a period piece due to its limited budget. Despite its limited budget, Assault on Precinct 13 became an instant cult classic and put Carpenter on the map to pave the way for films like Halloween, Escape from New York, and The Thing.

Surviving Edged Weapons (1988) is a documentary issued to police on video in the 80s and 90s on how to survive edged-based attacks, primarily blades—with often comical…