After the box office and video success of John
Carpenter’s VAMPIRES, Columbia Tristar pictures was ready to give the
cult horror director another new genre project. He presented them his
concept of GHOST OF MARS, a combination of Sci-Fi, horror, and
exploitation film. The executives brought into the concept and handed
Carpenter a $40 million budget to bring the project to fruition.
Courtney Love was originally cast as a tough female cop opposite Ice
Cube. However, she got injured at the last minute and had to pull out.
Natasha (SPIECES) Henstridge came aboard at the last minute as filming
began in the Mexican desert. The cast is rounded out by Jason Statham,
Clea Duvall, and long-time exploitation queen Pam Grier. The result is
Carpener’s most ambitious film eclipsing the budget of ESCAPE FROM
L.A. However, when the film debuted in the crowded Summer 2001
sweepstakes, it got lost in the shuffle (ever notice how any genre movie
that debuts during the month of August bombs?). A film like GHOST OF
MARS can fail at the box office but still make a huge return on home
video. So, Columbia Tristar rushes Carpenter’s biggest budgeted
movie to DVD in a new Special Edition disc.
Police Commander Braddock (Grier) leads a team of
highly trained police agents assigned to track down gang leader
Desolation Williams (Ice Cube). Lt. Melanie Ballard (Henstridge) is a
highly trained operative who is also on the team. A train leads them
across the rugged surface of Mars until they arrive at the mining colony
where Williams is being held. When the team arrives, they find the
mining colony evacuated except for a string of corpses. Immediately,
everyone suspects that Williams (a known killer) is behind the body
count. Melanie finds that some people in the colony are acting strange
and mutilating themselves. She also discovers the former science officer
(Joanna Cassidy) of the mining colony who reveals that the miners
uncovered some alien Pandora’s box. Suddenly, Melanie is startled to
learn that Williams has broken free using a rookie agent (Clea Duvall)
as a hostage. This situation is quickly forgotten as the mining camp
comes under attack by a tribe of alien-possessed warriors. When these
warriors begin taking out her team, Melanie is forced to strike a deal
with Desolation Williams to save all their skins. But is the wanted
felon more dangerous than the killer warriors themselves?
GHOST OF MARS is an over-inflated B movie that
will delight some and disappoint others. Firstly, the acting leaves much
to be desired. Any film that stars Ice Cube and Natasha Henstridge is
enough to send shivers down the spine of acting fans everywhere. The sad
thing is these two are the most talented folks in the film—this tells
you how bad the supporting cast is. The good thing is that GHOST OF MARS
offers nearly non-stop action, violence, and gore. And of course, like
any Hollywood movie, Carpenter has to slip in some humor at the
appropriate moments. I like the idea and concepts behind the movie, and
Carpenter nearly pulls it off. He makes one huge error, though, and that
is the movie is told within a non-linear flashback framework, which
deflates any suspense or tension that Carpenter creates. Many scenes are
replayed over to account for another person’s perspective. Like IN THE
MOUTH OF MADNESS where reality is cast out the window, Carpenter’s
narrative is wholly confusing. Carpenter came up with some formidable
alien foes--a race of Martian ghosts that possess human victims and
cause them to mutilate themselves. This makes for some truly gruesome
moments courtesy of effects artists Berger, Kurtzman, and Nicotero.
These humanoid creatures are essentially zombies however, who lack an IQ
and merely want to attack humans. Even their fearsome leader doesn’t
have anything particular to say. There is a way to save this movie, and
that is to create a director’s cut that occurs in real time. Have
Carpenter reorganize the sequences so they’ll make one cohesive
narrative structure. But as it is GHOSTS OF MARS may not be a good film,
but like a videogame it’s a lot of fun.
GHOST OF MARS is presented in the original ratio
of 2.35.1, with 16x9 enhancement. John Carpenter employs a red filter to
create the Martian landscape from the desert shots. Columbia Tristar’s
transfer recreates the Mars effects shots with stunning clarity.
Overall, this is a good transfer of a medium budget film, but scratches,
grain, and edge enhancement still creep into the transfer. You have to
love that Carpenter forsake the digital effects in favor of analog
makeup effects and miniatures. It gives the film a unique look. The
soundtrack is Dolby Digital 5.1 only. It provides superb ambiance to the
film, but is sadly lacking in power and imaging. It’s a disappointment
really because GHOST OF MARS is littered with constant gunfire,
explosions, warfare, bare-knuckle brawling, and lumbering vehicles. All
these sound effects don’t have directionality nor heavy bass. The
score consists of Carpenter’s compositions and heavy riffing from the
likes of Anthrax, Steve Vai, and BucketHead. The music is perfect for
the movie but is lacking CD fidelity and depth. On the extras side of
things, there is an audio commentary with John Carpenter and Natasha
Henstridge. Some of Carpenter’s commentaries are quite technical and
boring (see IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS) but I’m happy to report that this
ain’t one of ‘em. Carpenter and Henstridge really seem to be
enjoying themselves as they comment on all aspects of the production and
the Courtney Love fiasco. During the commentary, Carpenter gushes over
his new star Henstridge. The disc also includes a few documentaries
including the longest one, Red Desert Nights, which chronicles
the filming of the film in the desert. This documentary is full frame,
DD 2.0, and runs 17:00 minutes. The next one is Special Effects
Deconstruction which is essentially a storyboard-to-screen comparison of
the special effects sequences. This documentary offers widescreen shots
of the effects scenes mapped to the storyboards, and runs 6:00. The last
documentary is kinda cool as it shows Carpenter (himself a musician) in
the studio recording music for the movie with the rock bands/musicians
Anthrax, Steve Vai, and Buckethead. This featurette is full frame, DD
2.0, and runs 6:00 minutes. All three documentaries share some common
ground: they are shot on hand-held video cameras without narration.
Instead heavy guitars riffs play in the background giving these shorts a
less than professional feel. Where the hell is the theatrical trailers
(Columbia Tristar always includes them)?
In terms of staying faithful to his roots, GHOST
OF MARS is every bit as exploitative as his earlier films. Even though
he’s got a huge budget this time out, he still uses his trademark
synthesizer compositions that he himself writes. He still hires
exploitation actors such as Pam Grier. The action in GHOST OF MARS keeps
in tone with ASSAULT ON PRECINT 13, BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA, and
THEY LIVE. If you are a fan of John Carpenter, you should be thrilled
with GHOST OF MARS. Just don’t go expecting greatness like HALLOWEEN,
THE THING, or ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK. Columbia Tristar usually goes out to
deliver an outstanding audio and visual presentation. And while this
disc is good, it’s by no means great. The transfer has it’s problems
and the Dolby Digital 5.1 is a disappointment. What we need is for
Columbia Tristar to consider GHOST OF MARS for a SuperBits edition with
a rocking DTS track. And where is the trailer?
GHOSTS
OF MARS is available from DVDEmpire.com
GHOSTS
OF MARS/JOHN CARPENTER'S VAMPIRES is available from DVDEmpire.com
