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#28 - Ghosts of Mars
John Carpenter, 2001
On a futuristic Mars, a small squadron of soldiers investigates a remote colony only to find that its populace is largely possessed by evil ghosts.
Though I might consider John Carpenter one of my favourite directors, I won't deny that he's done his fair share of duds, and none of those duds stand out quite so much as Ghosts of Mars. The fact that the opening credits eschew Carpenter's trademark Albertus font for cheap-looking Impact indicates that this is more likely to miss than hit, and it's borne out by the plot coming across as an uninspired pastiche of Carpenter's past glories. The most obvious way to sum up the plot would be "Assault on Precinct 13 in space" as it involves law enforcers and criminals reluctantly joining forces to fight off a mutual foe - in this case, an army of malevolent ghosts who have recently been uncovered beneath the Martian surface. One can easily pick up the various call-backs to previous Carpenter works, whether it's the fact that the main enemy ends up being body-snatching aliens or the presence of an anti-hero who wears a sleeveless black top and camouflage trousers. The problem with Ghosts of Mars is that none of these call-backs (or any other factors) ever coalesce into a satisfactory whole. Even the introduction of potentially interesting ideas (such as the fact that 22nd-century Martian society is driven by matriarchal government and values) never realise that potential. The decision to have Natasha Henstridge's clean-cut (but hetero!) heroine describe the film's events to a mostly-female tribunal is overshadowed by the scene's general redundancy, while the extent of the so-called matriarchy involves a handful of throw-away references to lesbianism in the middle of a film where most of the cast still consists of men anyway (most prominently Jason Statham as Henstridge's relentlessly lecherous squadmate).
Even taken as the simplistic B-movie pastiche that it is, Ghosts of Mars is still an awfully trite and poorly-done mess. It assembles a relatively promising cast but doesn't do much with them - B-movie legend Pam Grier is wasted, as is Ice Cube as a legendary convict in the same vein as Snake Plissken. The film's attempts to build fear and tension do tend to fall flat not just through the admittedly silly appearances of the possessed colonists (with the main villain looking like a Marilyn Manson wannabe), but also the fact that the ghosts' tendency to find new hosts upon being killed renders the heroes' continued attempts to fight and kill the hosts especially pointless and ridiculous (and that's without bringing up one extremely forced action climax). This is reflected in the shoddiness of the general technique - there is a distracting reliance on dissolves rather than cuts, while the schlocky quality of the special effects lacks charm due to the poorly-handled action and questionable character development. There were even instances of what appeared to be re-used footage (to the point where I had to pause the film and rewind it to make sure - even if it wasn't re-used, it shouldn't make me think that it is anyway). Ghosts of Mars is not a good movie by any stretch of the imagination; even the many nods to Carpenter's past films aren't enough to mask the man's apparent inability to provide a decent B-movie. I'd say it's only worthwhile for Carpenter completionists, and even then it's probably the strongest contender for the man's worst film.
John Carpenter, 2001
On a futuristic Mars, a small squadron of soldiers investigates a remote colony only to find that its populace is largely possessed by evil ghosts.
Though I might consider John Carpenter one of my favourite directors, I won't deny that he's done his fair share of duds, and none of those duds stand out quite so much as Ghosts of Mars. The fact that the opening credits eschew Carpenter's trademark Albertus font for cheap-looking Impact indicates that this is more likely to miss than hit, and it's borne out by the plot coming across as an uninspired pastiche of Carpenter's past glories. The most obvious way to sum up the plot would be "Assault on Precinct 13 in space" as it involves law enforcers and criminals reluctantly joining forces to fight off a mutual foe - in this case, an army of malevolent ghosts who have recently been uncovered beneath the Martian surface. One can easily pick up the various call-backs to previous Carpenter works, whether it's the fact that the main enemy ends up being body-snatching aliens or the presence of an anti-hero who wears a sleeveless black top and camouflage trousers. The problem with Ghosts of Mars is that none of these call-backs (or any other factors) ever coalesce into a satisfactory whole. Even the introduction of potentially interesting ideas (such as the fact that 22nd-century Martian society is driven by matriarchal government and values) never realise that potential. The decision to have Natasha Henstridge's clean-cut (but hetero!) heroine describe the film's events to a mostly-female tribunal is overshadowed by the scene's general redundancy, while the extent of the so-called matriarchy involves a handful of throw-away references to lesbianism in the middle of a film where most of the cast still consists of men anyway (most prominently Jason Statham as Henstridge's relentlessly lecherous squadmate).
Even taken as the simplistic B-movie pastiche that it is, Ghosts of Mars is still an awfully trite and poorly-done mess. It assembles a relatively promising cast but doesn't do much with them - B-movie legend Pam Grier is wasted, as is Ice Cube as a legendary convict in the same vein as Snake Plissken. The film's attempts to build fear and tension do tend to fall flat not just through the admittedly silly appearances of the possessed colonists (with the main villain looking like a Marilyn Manson wannabe), but also the fact that the ghosts' tendency to find new hosts upon being killed renders the heroes' continued attempts to fight and kill the hosts especially pointless and ridiculous (and that's without bringing up one extremely forced action climax). This is reflected in the shoddiness of the general technique - there is a distracting reliance on dissolves rather than cuts, while the schlocky quality of the special effects lacks charm due to the poorly-handled action and questionable character development. There were even instances of what appeared to be re-used footage (to the point where I had to pause the film and rewind it to make sure - even if it wasn't re-used, it shouldn't make me think that it is anyway). Ghosts of Mars is not a good movie by any stretch of the imagination; even the many nods to Carpenter's past films aren't enough to mask the man's apparent inability to provide a decent B-movie. I'd say it's only worthwhile for Carpenter completionists, and even then it's probably the strongest contender for the man's worst film.