Ghosts of Mars

Infobox_Film
name = John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars


imdb_id =0228333
writer =John Carpenter
Larry Sulkis
starring =Ice Cube
Natasha Henstridge
Jason Statham
Pam Grier
Clea DuVall
Joanna Cassidy
director =John Carpenter
producer =Sandy King
distributor =Storm King Screen Gems
released =24 August 2001 (Theater)
4 December 2001 (DVD)
runtime = 98 min (1:38)
language =English
music =John Carpenter
awards =
amg_id = 1:250566
budget = US$28,000,000

"Ghosts of Mars" (also known as "John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars") is a 2001 movie directed by John Carpenter, which in its basic themes is similar to his earlier film, "Assault on Precinct 13".

Plot

Set in the second half of the 22nd century, in the year 2176, the film depicts Mars as a planet that has been 84% terraformed, allowing humans to walk on the surface without wearing pressure suits. The story concerns a police officer, Melanie Ballard (Natasha Henstridge), second in command of a small team sent to pick up and transport a prisoner named Desolation Williams (Ice Cube). Arriving at the remote mining town where Williams is being held, Ballard finds virtually all of the people missing. She learns that the miners had discovered an underground doorway created by an ancient Martian civilization. When the door was opened it released "ghosts", disembodied spirits who possessed the miners.

Violence ensues, as the possessed miners commit acts of death and destruction, as well as self-mutilation. Ballard must fight off the attacking miners, escape the town, and destroy the ghosts, if possible. Unfortunately, her intentions are complicated by the fact that killing a possessed human merely releases the Martian spirit to possess another human. The team eventually decides to explode a nuclear reactor to kill the human hosts. Ballard's crew is eventually wiped out by the miners, leaving only her and Williams. Not wanting the authorities to blame the massacre on him, he handcuffs Ballard to her bed and escapes the train, leaving her to return home. While she recuperates at a hospital, the possessed miners attack the city. Williams returns and teams up with Ballard to fight the alien zombies.

Production

Although Mars has a day/night cycle almost identical in length to Earth's, most of the movie is set at night. Mars is shown only once in the daytime, in a flashback when a scientist describes how she found and opened a "Pandora's Box", unleashing the alien spirits.

Much of the movie was filmed in a New Mexican gypsum mine. The pure white gypsum had to be dyed with thousands of gallons of biodegradable red food dye to recreate the Martian landscape.

Casting

* Originally Courtney Love was cast to play Ballard, but after her foot was accidentally run over by her boyfriend's ex-wife, she had to be replaced by Natasha Henstridge.Fact|date=August 2007
* Jason Statham was originally cast to play Desolation Williams.Fact|date=August 2007
* Jason Statham was originally up for the role of Pvt. Cooper in the British horror movie "Dog Soldiers", but instead he opted to do "Ghosts of Mars". The role of Cooper was taken by Scottish Actor Kevin McKidd.Fact|date=August 2007

Reception

The film was met with generally negative feedback, garnering a 19% freshness rating from Rottentomatoes. Rob Gonsalves of eFilmCritic.com suggested that the film was symbolic of 'Carpenter at rock bottom'. According to the press, factors attributing to the box office failure of the film included poor set designs, hammy acting and a poorly developed script.

References

External links

*
* " [http://www.metacritic.com/video/titles/ghostsofmars Ghosts of Mars] " at Metacritic
* [http://www.theofficialjohncarpenter.com/pages/themovies/gm/gm.html Ghosts of Mars at theofficialjohncarpenter.com]