Review – Ghosts of Mars

John Carpenter appears to be trying to recapture a little of the success of his glory days with this horror/sci fi offering. The plot – an odd little tale about colonists on Mars possessed by the evil spirits of the planet’s former inhabitants – comes across as a milkshake made with equal parts of The Thing and Assault on Precinct 13. Natasha Henstridge takes the lead – and manages to keep her clothes on the whole time – as a police lieutenant whose team must transport a supposedly-dangerous criminal (Ice Cube) out of a small mining town where the ghosts have apparently taken over. Occasionally the story gets bogged down with unnecessary nonsense about matriarchal society, drug abuse and other backwater plot points. However, overall Carpenter makes up for the bizarre, recycled script with some decent action and a couple of at least borderline scary shots. Mildly amusing