Ghosts Of Mars
Directed by: John Carpenter
Written by: Larry Sulkis, John Carpenter
Starring: Ice Cube, Natasha Henstridge, Pam Grier, Jason Statham

John Carpenter is a cult filmmaker in every sense of the word. Although he has had a few fleeting moments of mainstream success, such as with Big Trouble In Little China and Halloween, the majority of his films are never experienced by a very large moviegoing audience. Rather, they are digested and cherished by many underground fans who know exactly what to expect when they watch a John Carpenter movie: sudden scares, slow moments of gut wrenching suspense, and western-style bad ass heroics. Rarely are Carpenter’s fans ever let down in this regard.

In recent years however, Carpenter has arguably worked his way into a little bit of a rut. He caught more than his share of flack for his last 3 movies (Village Of the Damned, Escape From L.A. and Vampires) and for the most part, with good reason. Although most long-time directors have a stinker or two under their belts, it was a little disconcerting that Carpenter just happened to produce three of his least impressive movies consecutively, one after the other.

I honestly had no idea what to expect next. Would John Carpenter’s work continue to deteriorate, as he faded away into anonymity? Or would he surprise everyone and redeem himself with his best flick in a long time?

Well, Carpenter gave us Ghosts Of Mars, which certainly did not look to be a winner, by any stretch of the imagination. I think most people would agree with me there, because it didn’t do too well in theatres. But you know, you just can’t judge a movie by its cover, because with Ghosts Of Mars, Carpenter came to do two things: make a damn good movie, and chew bubblegum. And he ran out of Hubba Bubba.

Ghosts Of Mars in a way, feels like a slightly modernized John Carpenter movie, but not in that cheesy Dracula 2000 kind of way. It’s set on Mars, but the sci-fi element is thankfully understated, serving little purpose other than as an interesting backdrop and a slight change of scenery for Carpenter.

The story is as follows:In the future, Mars is colonized. (Human society is also matriarchal, but this is never really explored much.) Members of the police force are called upon to do a prisoner transfer for a dangerous outlaw who is suspected of committing a series of murders. When they arrive however, they find the city deserted. A “ghost town” if you will. Slowly they realize that there is something strange going on. The townspeople have been possessed by something, turning them into bloodthirsty zombie type creatures. The prisoner transfer becomes meaningless, as the only way for them to for survive is to team up with the prisoner and his posse in an attempt to escape.

The prisoner, in case you hadn’t guessed, is played by Ice Cube, and his name is “Desolation” Williams. He is the quintessential John Carpenter anti-hero, and although he seems out of place in this movie at first, it doesn’t take long for you to realize that Cube is the man. The head police officer is played by Natasha Henstridge, best known for her role as the alien in Species. She is one female cop you don’t want to mess with. Apparently this role was originally supposed to be played by Courtney Love. I would have liked to see her kick some ass, but unfortunately she was sick or something and had to pull out. I’m not complaining about Henstridge though. It’s true, that she does have a wooden, emotionless acting style, but it worked for her Linda Hamilton/Sigourney Weaver type character.

One of the other police officers is played by Jason Statham, who most will remember from Snatch and Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. He plays the stereotypical womanizer who tries to get some action from the hard ass (and hard body) female cop.

There are many classic John Carpenter elements in Ghosts Of Mars.

First of all, Carpenter loves his framed narratives. A good chunk of this story is told through flashbacks, which some people may find annoying. John Carpenter fans, however, will find it all too familiar.

The story itself is also bares similarities to some of his previous movies. First of all, there is the deserted, isolated setting. This is a classic element of horror movies in general, and John Carpenter has used it to great effect in movies like The Thing. There is also the sense of being trapped and surrounded, and this recalls previous Carpenter flicks like Prince Of Darkness and Assault On Precinct 13.

In keeping with tradition, Carpenter also wrote his own music for this film. In the early stages of the movie, while the crew is exploring the deserted town, his patented slow, brooding score heightens the suspense. This time there is a slightly electronic feel to his music, which suits the futuristic setting well. But it gets better — Carpenter also colloborated with Anthrax for some of the tunes on the soundtrack. About halfway through the movie, as it changes gears from a suspense horror movie to all out action, the heavy metal rains down a thunderous din that sort of spoils the atmosphere, but on the other hand, is pretty damn funny.

A lot of the imagery in the movie is some of the freakiest stuff I’ve seen in a long time. The zombies look like something out of a White Zombie or Marilyn Manson video (and this actually melds well with the heavy metal soundtrack), but despite how that may sound, they don’t look cheesy. At least not until they get set on fire. They are menacing and grotesque, with pieces of metal pushed into their faces, and other various forms of self-mutilation evident on their bodies. The “leader” of the zombies is this huge monstrosity that towers over everyone else, and emits howls of rage while chasing down people with a big ass club.

The action scenes are at times overwhelming. I can’t remember the last time I saw this many huge co-ordinated fight scenes that just made my jaw drop from the sheer magnitude of on-screen chaos. There is also one scene where they are trying to hold off the zombies from getting into the building, and they take turns loading their guns and shooting, and the zombies just keep pouring through the doors in huge numbers. The way it is shot and edited keeps you on the edge of your seat.

I think the only weak point of the movie was the beginning. The first 5 or 10 minutes had me squirming in my seat because the characters all seemed really lame and cliched, and there was a lot of bad dialogue. In particular, Pam Grier was pretty terrible in her role as the commanding officer, who apparently was also a lesbian. Don’t ask me what that was all about. Luckily she isn’t around long enough to bring the whole movie down.

Ghosts Of Mars is a little rough around the edges, but it still redeems Carpenter in a big way. This is what I love about John Carpenter: He makes horror movies that are genuinely frightening (in itself, a difficult task in this day and age), and he also adds good old testosterone fueled action and elements of westerns. His movies may not have any sort of message or artistic statement, but they’re just good fun.

If you are a John Carpenter fan, a horror movie fan, or an action movie fan, then you should consider checking out this film.As long as you approach it with an optimistic point of view and a sense of humour, you should be quite pleasantly surprised by John Carpenter’s Ghosts Of Mars. I know I was. — Sean