John Carpenter's newest film is a HUGE disappointment, cannibalizing ideas and characters from his own ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 and ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK. Natasha Henstridge, who is best relegated to non-speaking roles, portrays the 'Kurt Russell' character, a policewoman on Mars in charge of transporting a prisoner to another colony. Yet when they arrive in the mining town to pick him up they find most of the inhabitants slaughtered and missing their heads. It seems that some of these colonists are possessed by the long dead martian spirits--and they want to rid Mars of the human invaders. When the possessed humans attack, Henstridge and her colleagues take cover in one of the buildings and try to figure out how to get out alive. Although very similar to ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13 there is no sense of danger, no attachment to the characters. GHOSTS OF MARS also features some of the worst looking miniatures I've seen since METEOR.