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John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars (2001)

5 Votes: 13

Director

Starring

Last On

22:55-00:50 Wed 6th Oct 2021 115m
Horror Channel

Synopsis

John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars (2001) box art With this sci-fi offering, Dark Star and The Thing director John Carpenter has been reduced to repeating his own movies. Set in the year 2176, this has feisty cop Melanie Ballard (Natasha Henstridge) arrive at an isolated Martian mining town to transport notorious killer "Desolation" Williams (Ice Cube) to a high-security prison. The colonists are being possessed by the spooks of the title and transformed into zombies that look as threatening as refugees from a Kiss reunion concert. These Martian living dead then swarm in a siege hugely reminiscent of Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13 - itself a homage to Howard Hawks's classic 1959 western Rio Bravo. There are moments of tension thanks to the director's self-penned soundtrack and the rusty-red hues in which everything is bathed. But there are no real surprises here, leaving only regrets that such a talented director is responsible.