John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars [DVD] [2001] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

The premise of the movie is relatively simple. It is the twenty second century and Mars is colonized by humans who live in some sort of matriarchal society, an issue which is never addressed nor explained, though reference is made to it. The Mars police are given a mission. They are to send a team of officers to a remote mining outpost, where there is a prison and bring back one of Mars most wanted, "Desolation" Williams (Ice Cube), to stand trial for murder.

The team, headed by two women (Pam Grier and Natasha Henstridge), arrives at the remote outpost, only to be greeted by apparent desolation (no pun intended). A closer look reveals indescribable carnage. They soon discover that many of those from the miming operation and from the prison have become possessed and turned into a frightening band of Marilyn Manson and Kiss doppelgangers who have pierced their bodies in indescribable fashion and are looking to finish off anyone who still looks human, all while roaring, howling, and screaming gibberish. Of course, the police joins forces with the surviving mining personnel and prisoners, including "Desolation" Williams, in an attempt to survive. Predictable carnage and action scenes follow.

Pam Grier is pathetic as the commanding officer, as her acting is so bad. Natasha Henstridge is better and has potential, though it is difficult to assess with the lousy dialogue she has been given. Moreover, why Joanne Cassidy accepted a part in this movie is beyond me, as it will definitely do nothing for her career. Ice Cube plays the part of a bad guy with enough panache that he leaves the viewer rooting for him. While most of the film is so-so, there are some truly chilling and interesting scenes. Unfortunately, the film also has more than its share of bad scenes.

If you enjoy sci-fi, horror, or John Carpenter films, you will probably enjoy this one somewhat. If not, deduct one star from this review.

I mean, there's 200 psychos on the rampage and you're not supposed to kill them! So what do our heroes do? They blow the consequences! That's John Carpenter!

It's not the best film he has ever made but to his credit he's constantly renewing the framework he builds his films around.

This film has been denegrated by many reviewers but have these people forgotten how cliched his films can be? Surely this is one of their main attractions: they don't pretend to be anything else!

It has many similarities to a legion of other films (eg. Assault on Precinct 13, Mad Max and Rio Bravo). Carpenter has never worried about these things- take 'The Thing' for example which is a remake of Howard Hawk's 'Thing from another World'.

Ultimately though it's not scary - it's 'safe' really despite the threat of extinction and there's not enough time in the film to build tension and suspense.

Natasha Henstridge is a revelation in the lead role - she's a good actress! Jason Statham is brilliant too as the Cockney Sergeant (although I've yet to see him as anything else but 'streetwise)

The fighting (and there's a lot of it) is stylised and well choreographed (especially Henstridge).

Once again Carpenter writes the music and this time it's courtesy of Anthrax- I now see them in a new light.......

And finally, the DVD extras good- giving you a real insight into how the film was made.