B-movies either become cult classics or unmitigated flops. Ghosts of Mars is more than likely a candidate for the latter.

It's Mars, 2176 AD. Clusters of human colonies are living and working at far flung outposts all over the red planet, mining it for its abundant resources.

But one of those operations releases a long-dormant Martian civilisation which starts taking over the bodies of human intruders.

Five cops, led by Helena (played by the buxom Pam Grier), are on a mission to transport notorious prisoner James "Desolation" Williams, t to stand trial.

There is little meat to dig into in the first half an hour except for a few one-liners, funny only because they are incongruous.

When fellow-cop Jericho Butler (Jason Statham) discovers Helena's bloody head on a stake beside dozens of other similarly decapitated humans, all hell breaks loose, prompting Jericho to alert his companions with typical British understatement: "We have got a situation."

The mining town they have reached has been overrun by Martians and their mission turns into a battle of survival.

Meat-slice

They are up against a formidable force of meat-slice throwing warriors, looking more like a mob of mentally-retarded Goths, with poxy tribal make-up and piercings, led by a Marlyn Manson-look-a-like Neanderthal, than an advanced Martian civilisation.

The heavy-metal ambience is reflected in the original score, which is suffocating and unrelenting, as if someone had forgotten to press the stop button.

The action culminates with a massive and bloody shoot 'em up as the humans try to escape.

What makes a B-movie a cult-classic is that its flaws become inseparable from the film's artistic creation.

The problem with Ghosts of Mars is precisely that it flounders on its flaws.

December 3, 2001 15:00