John Carpenter is one of my all time favourite directors. When I first saw John Carpenter’s Ghosts Of Mars (2001) on DVD when it came out, I was pretty disappointed. Then, later, when I found out it was originally intended as another Escape movie that was rewritten after Escape From LA’s lack of success, it feels like a missed opportunity. I was recently riding a wave of revisiting late-90s/early-00s sci-fi action, and Ghosts Of Mars turned out to be the perfect Friday 5pm flick. When the title card appeared as the armoured train approached the camera head on, everything cast in red dust with the pumping nu-metal score (by Carpenter with Buckethead and Anthrax), I was truly delighted.
In the near future, a mining colony on Mars receives one survivor, Lt Ballard (Natasha Henstridge). In the matriarchal society envisioned, Ballard retells the events to a panel: on a routine mission to collect a notorious criminal, Desolation Williams (Ice Cube), Ballard’s squad of future cops including commander Pam Grier, rookie Clea Duvall and new recruit Jason Statham, find a ghost town and evidence of massacre. Soon enough, evil spirits from an ancient race are possessing people and turning them into freaky self-mutilating goths. Using cascading perspectives to keep the story moving and the intrigue building, this is another remix of Carpenter’s original siege movie, Assault On Precinct 13, a neo-western delivered with 1950s sci-fi paperback cover imagery, overlaid with a 2000s-era Screen Gems clunky sheen. I loved the use of dissolves in the editing, a poetic flourish, in what is a sturdy genre flick with that Carpenter touch. Henstridge is solid in the lead, but Cube definitely gives it that anti-authoritarian edge that it needs (and is part of Carpenter’s M.O.) and Statham is hilarious as the horned up grunt who can’t stop being sleazy even when surrounded by imminent danger. The practical set is excellent to observe and the make-up gore special effects are still great; there’s the back-lot feel of a sturdy B-picture.
Maybe we all need a decade or two to fully appreciate a cult genre flick outside of its context, particularly with Carpenter now happily retired from directing movies, just playing video games and making music. This feels like a summation of his interests, all delivered in a pumped-up, energy-drink,heavy-metal mood; when the leader of the Mars aliens gets set on fire, he can’t help but look like Michael Myers for a flash. Consider this reappraised in my book! But don’t please don’t mistake me: this is still a completely meatheaded flick. Rented on iTunes. Recommended.
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