Ghosts of Mars - 08.09.2001

Ghosts of Mars is a fantastic movie, through and through. There is so much great humor, action and horror... I have some renewed faith in the genre of science fiction and horror again.

Over the past three or four years (maybe longer), we've been inundated with crap teen horror films that re-hash plots that Carpenter and his crew (Tobe Hooper, Wes Craven) created 20 years ago. We've been forced through recycled crap with no originality.

Well, Ghosts of Mars is a re-hashing, in a way... but done with Carpenter's originality, his flair for detail and his sense of humor.

If you're a fan of Carpenter, you've undoubtedly seen Assault on Precinct Thirteen. If you haven't, rent it. It's a prime example of a classic genre film...

Mars is a re-hashing of Carpenter's love of the Western, specifically Rio Bravo. Both Assault and Mars have undertones of this fine movie (directed by one of Carpenter's favorites, Howard Hawks), along with the singular creepy style of Carpenter, giving the film both a deja-vu sense and a feeling of, well, like a new car feeling. I guess...

Natasha Henstridge and Ice Cube headline this film. Both played their respective roles well... though the roles weren't stretches for the two actors, which was most certainly why they were chosen. In a Q/A at the end of the screening, Carpenter told the crowd that the casting choice of Cube was strictly that of the studio. They wanted him in the seat of an action movie, and they handed him over to Carpenter.

Regardless, with Cube in one of the lead roles, there were some obvious lines and great laughs from him. Henstridge, this time, played the human (instead of Sil or Eve in the Species films)... and she played a total badass, perfectly. I hope, in the future, she'll get more choice lead roles. She's a beautiful woman, Carpenter went so far as to say "I can't get a bad angle on her, she's so beautiful."

Jason Statham, who played in Guy Ritchie's Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrells and Snatch (and also starring next to Jet Li in The One), came off well in his role as the 'other' character that almost makes it... I enjoyed his work, and he seemed to have a great charisma with the other actors.

Clea DuVall, Pam Grier and Joanna Cassidy... I could take or leave. None of them wowed me... their roles (especially Grier's) were not huge, in that they were key to the plot, but they were pretty forgettable.

Richard Cetrone played Big Daddy Mars. The name itself doesn't mean anything... but it's a neat name. Cetrone has mostly been a stunt man. From Blade, Fire Down Below and The Glimmer Man... this is his first real mainstream work. He was there, mainly for atmosphere, as a scary looking dude that is possessed by the leader spirit... I won't give away too much... but his acting was mainly there as a focal point for the mob of pissed off spirits. He played his part fine, but as I said, he was mainly there to be mean... to add to the scary atmosphere.

Robert Carradine and Peter Jason both showed up in the film, as well. Carradine, from Revenge of the Nerds fame, was also in Escape from LA and Body Bags... and Jason, who's played in almost every other Carpenter film, since Prince of Darkness, both played their parts fine. Their roles were memorable only because of their previous work. Jason is a staple, and it just wouldn't be a Carpenter film without him.

One thing that I do look forward to Carpenter's films is the music. I love his music. It's fun, it's creepy sometimes, and it usually highlights the films perfectly. This is no exception. Carpenter went into techno-mode with this film, along with a huge guitar sound... using Buckethead and Anthrax to help create what he was looking for. It sounded great... and helped elevate the movie to a higher level for me. Not only did it look good, it sounded good.

From what I've come to understand, from the Official Carpenter Site, this is not the first time he's collaborated with Larry Sulkis, the other writer of this film. IMDB has Sulkis listed as a commercial producer for They Live, but that's it. Regardless... after submitting a treatment to Miramax owner Harvey Weinstein (who turned it down), Carpenter and Sulkis went out on their own to write the film. It's filled with some classic moves, lines and some familiar characters... specifically the Napolean Wilson character from Assault. There was some clever work, some great linear narration (the entire movie is told in flash-back)... and, as a side note, Carpenter added that Cube, who prepares for his roles a certain undivulged way, helped re-write and add scenes to the film... which Carpenter worked with to produce the final version. All in all, a great collaborative effort.

Brom, who has been illustrating fantasy and science fiction for the past decade, was responsible for creating the design of the characters... mainly those of the possessed miners. Fantastic work... and if you know his work, you will see the heavy influences in his style that became Big Daddy Mars.

Gary B. Kibbe is a great cinematographer. I really enjoyed his work in this film... as I have in all of his other work with Carpenter. Prince of Darkness, They Live, Body Bags, Village of the Damned, In the Mouth of Madness, Escape from LA and Vampires. I think he's got a real eye, and a trust for the man, the actors and the special effects people, which was heavy in this film. His other work doesn't really wow me... but I'm sure that's just because I'm biased. I think Carpenter has gotten the use out of Kibbe... he trusts the man behind the camera, and has gotten the look, feel, the imagery he's looking to create. Stick with what works... if it's not broke, don't fix it... insert analogy here.

This is Paul Warschilka's first editing job, though he did work as an assistant editor on Mouth of Madness and Body Bags. I think, with the script being in a non-linear fashion, working with a stylized form of editing that we've seen in many films over the last five years, it brought a slightly different feel to the movie. Not so much a breath of fresh air, but a kind of evolution in Carpenter's work. He's stuck with the same DP, but he switched editors... it showed, and that's not such a bad thing. Just different.

Something that should be noted is that the other editor of his previous work (Vampires, LA, Madness, Damned, Body Bags, Big Trouble in Little China) was Edward Warschilka. So, I don't know what to tell you. I guess it runs in the family... and Carpenter really sticks with what works.

In the Q/A, Carpenter went on to talk about how the film wasn't test marketed. It was one of the things he negotiated, when it came to the terms of the release. It was a smart move. Movies like this are designed for a strict nich in the movie market. It's unfair to bring in people that are not part of the target audience, to view a film that is for a fan base... a rather large fan base. Carpenter has been entertaining movie-goers fully for over two decades. He mentioned a group of three men, the big three... Hitchcock, Hawks and John Ford... who were pioneers during their reign in Hollywood. I would be hard pressed not to add Carpenter's name in a list of top directors of the last twenty years.

This is a really neat film, and it'll be a treat for Carpenter fans. There are some great gore scenes, some great action, one or two jumps... I wouldn't call it your typical Carpenter movie... but it's got all the great Carpenter trademarks.