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The glory days of "Halloween" and "The Thing" far behind him, cult director John Carpenter now seems content to trade on past glories and exhausted genres.
Like "Escape from LA" and "Vampires" before it, "John Carpenter's Ghosts of Mars" has a tired, slightly apologetic feel - the work of a visionary turned mere journeyman. Undemanding sci-fi addicts and those who think the sun still shines from his proverbial may find something of merit here, but most audiences will wish these ghosts had stayed undisturbed.
The film is set 175 years in the future, when Mars has become a far-flung outpost for Earth's druggies, crooks and lowlifes (a space version of the cordoned-off Manhattan in "Escape from New York"). One such individual is 'Desolation' Williams (Cube), the most notorious criminal on the planet. But when Lt Melanie Ballard (Henstridge) arrives in Shining Canyon to take him into custody, she and her team find the locals have been possessed by long-dormant alien forces.
At the mercy of a legion of face-mutilating, head-hunting goths and the unseen powers that control them, Ballard and Williams must team up to see off the ghoulish threat. Cue 97 minutes of bloodthirsty mayhem which freely borrows elements from "Invasion of the Body Snatchers", "Night of the Living Dead", and Carpenter's own "Assault on Precinct 13".
With the bland Henstridge in the lead - the scenery's more charismatic - it's no surprise that Brit actor Jason Statham steals the show as her tough-talking deputy. But it's a hollow victory, in a movie that would look more at home gathering dust on your local video store shelf.
