FLASHBACK: John Carpenter’s Ghosts Of Mars (2001)
Originally intended to be the third film in John Carpenter’s Snake Plissken series—(which would have been titled ESCAPE FROM MARS)—GHOSTS OF MARS follows a Martian police unit sent to retrieve a dangerous criminal from a remote mining post. On arrival, they discover that ghosts of ancient Martians have possessed all the miners.
Written, directed and scored by Carpenter, the film stars Natasha Henstridge, Ice Cube, Jason Statham, Pam Grier, Clea DuVall, and Joanna Cassidy.
Carpenter says he made GHOSTS OF MARS an over-the-top action movie in the tradition of 1980s action movies COMMANDO, PREDATOR, and RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD PART II. He was frustrated that audiences expected it to be a serious horror movie. "The name of the movie is GHOSTS OF MARS, I figured the campiness would be self-explanatory."
Following the film's weak reception at the box office, Carpenter decided to retire as a filmmaker. He didn't make another feature until 2010's THE WARD.
The Rondo Awards honor the best in classic horror research, creativity and film preservation. This year's winners include the reissue of ROBOT MONSTER, the movie GODZILLA: MINUS ONE, the TV series WHAT WE DO IN THE SHADOWS, and more! Find out the details here.
Over the decades, there have been LOTS of robots on TV—including helpers and heroes, plus warnings about evil robots. We look at robots from a couple dozen TV shows, including sci-fi series, cartoons, and sitcoms.
The founder of 3D Film Archive talks to Monster Complex about the reissue of 1953 alien horror movie ROBOT MONSTER—including why he’s following it with a 3-D comic book anthology.
With tech so common now, we take a look at some of the best movie robots of all time—from charming co-workers who just want to help us out to menacing monsters planning to stomp on us.
Want to see some monster movies that are technically bad but are fun to watch? These may never live up to the standards of applauded horror movies, but you can’t say they aren’t fun to watch…
Did people misjudge the Mel Brooks movie “Dracula: Dead and Loving It”? Looking at several behind-the-scenes elements of the 1995 vampire comedy movie to see why people have been warming up to it in the years since its release.
British supernatural comedy-drama Being Human revolved around supernatural roommates. Watch how it wasn’t easy to turn actor Russell Tovey into a flesh-eating werewolf...
Dracula is one of the most famous monsters in literature! But does what we remember about Dracula actually come from ANOTHER vampire from a DIFFERENT book altogether?
In the classic, a teen horror film addict is shocked to discover his neighbor is a vampire. Find out how the original movie’s writer and director is revisiting the whole story with a new book trilogy and a new comic book series!
Chris Well been a writer pretty much his entire life. (Well, since his childhood.) Over the years, he has worked in newspapers, magazines, radio, and books. He now is the chief of the website Monster Complex, celebrating monster stories in lit and pop culture. He also writes horror comedy fiction that embraces Universal Monsters, 1960s sitcoms, 1980s action movies, and the X-Files.
In the latest episode of our show, we go over the uncanny similarities between the influential comic book legacy of the FANTASTIC FOUR and the monstrous (but beloved) television sitcom THE MUNSTERS!