Ghosts Of Mars
Terror is the same on any planet.
From John Carpenter, the master of horror behind 1998's hit John Carpenter's Vampires and classics like The Thing and Halloween, comes a sci-fi thriller full of explosive action and bone-chilling suspense.
Natasha Henstridge (Species) is Melanie Ballard, a headstrong police lieutenant on Mars in the year 2025. Humans have been colonizing and mining on the red planet for some time, but when Ballard and her squad are sent to a remote region to apprehend the dangerous criminal James "Desolation" Williams, played by Ice Cube (Three Kings), they discover that he's the least of their worries. The mining operations have unleashed a deadly army of Martian spirits who take over the bodies of humans and won't stop until they destroy all invaders of their planet.
With a stellar cast including Pam Grier (Jackie Brown), Jason Statham (Snatch) and Clea Duvall (The Faculty), as well as explosive special effects, John Carpenter's Ghosts Of Mars is an intergalactic terror fest like you've never seen.
Member Reviews
Worst John Carpenter Movie EVER! - kevo64
Carpenter is easily one of my favourite horror directors, I loved almost everything he did til the 90's (almost!). So watching repetitive dreck like this is so disappointing, not even the great Pam Grier can save a scene in this crap fest. The absolute lowest point of what was once an original, exciting movie maker. The acting is so so bad, its hard tom actually stay in the movie, it takes you out of the story (what little there is!) time and again. I can only image that we haven;t heard from him in so long because of this a true career killer. The Blu-Ray transfer is pretty poor, but to be honest I can't understand why they would even bother, the movie is that bad.Ghost of Mars - PowaPete
I wish I could say Ghosts of Mars stacks up with Carpetner's best work, but it lacks in a few key areas. Firstly, neither Henstridge nor Cube (who has been extraordinary elsewhere) seems able to suggest the humanity or humor that Kurt Russell, Jeff Bridges, or James Woods brought to earlier Carpenter efforts like Escape from New York, Starman, or Vampires. Secondly, it features an improbable plot twist near the end. After several of the principals finally escape the deadly compound, they decide to go back and risk their lives to blow the place up. Perhaps it's a suggestion of an appropriately Bush-era style ending?He USED to make good movies - Ernst_Bitterman
This film represents the thud at the bottom of John Carpenter's slide into gore and misogyny. When compared to his earlier works, it lacks the charm of being a ground breaker (Hallowe'en set the mold for the slasher film, so often used thereafter by Friday the 13th and Elm Street), it fails to engage audience and character (as The Thing and The Fog managed effectively), and rather falls to the level of basically shouting "BOO! LOOKIT! GROSS STUFF!" There's the potential for a good movie hiding under this nonsense, and perhaps one day a director whose talent hasn't undergone some kind of half-life transformation into bitterness will be able to refine it out of the stink Carpenter has laid down here.
Member Reviews
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Worst John Carpenter Movie EVER! - kevo64
Carpenter is easily one of my favourite horror directors, I loved almost everything he did til the 90's (almost!). So watching repetitive dreck like this is so disappointing, not even the great Pam Grier can save a scene in this crap fest. The absolute lowest ...Ghost of Mars - PowaPete
I wish I could say Ghosts of Mars stacks up with Carpetner's best work, but it lacks in a few key areas. Firstly, neither Henstridge nor Cube (who has been extraordinary elsewhere) seems able to suggest the humanity or humor that Kurt Russell, Jeff Bridges, ...He USED to make good movies - Ernst_Bitterman
This film represents the thud at the bottom of John Carpenter's slide into gore and misogyny. When compared to his earlier works, it lacks the charm of being a ground breaker (Hallowe'en set the mold for the slasher film, so often used thereafter by Friday ...