Thriller Archives - Cinematic Panic

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974): The most thrilling Subway ride in New York

By Fabian Bullitt 14 September 2024The MoviesMovie Review, On My Shelf, Thriller

I’ve never been to New York City. In fact, I’ve never set foot in America. Yet, I feel like, somehow, I know a little bit of New York, New York, as I spend my life watching movies and TV shows set there. The image that comes to me when I think about the city is not really how it is there now, but how it was.

You know, like in Ghostbusters or—as you may have guessed—The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) directed by Joseph Sargent. For me, NY is everything but an asepticized place. It has character. It’s dirty. It’s loud. And people seem to be insufferable half the time (and also casually racist and sexist for some reason). The other half is guys like Walter Matthau as Lt. Garber. He has an attitude but I’m sure we could be friends.

Assault on Precinct 13 (1976): So Simple, Yet So Effective

By Fabian Bullitt 17 August 2024The MoviesJohn Carpenter Movies, Movie Review, Thriller

As I’m not the kind of cinephile to obsess over the work of a specific director or an actor, I like to judge one’s work for its own merits, not through the lens of my admiration for a particular individual. Nevertheless, my tastes are clearly in phase with John Carpenter’s films.

I can appreciate Halloween, but I don’t care for it. However, my favorite movie is The Thing, I regularly feel the need to rewatch The Fog, They Live, In The Mouth of Madness, or Big Trouble in Little China. And from time to time, I like to revisit Assault on Precinct 13.

The lone inhabitants of an abandoned police station are under attack by the overwhelming numbers of a seemingly unstoppable street gang.