"Rants & Ravings About Horror" - Week 12: “Horror in Space”

Week 12: “Horror in Space”

Last week I talked about having watched John Carpenter’s Ghost of Mars (2001) but what I failed to mention was that it started a domino effect and I ended up watching Red Planet (2000) and Supernova (2000) as well.  What you may also not know is that I saw all of these at the theater and enjoyed them like they were the greatest films ever made.  Unfortunately, time has not been kind to any of them.

I won’t go into the details of Ghosts of Mars again (you’ll have to go back to last week’s column for that) but let’s start off with the Val Kilmer as “space janitor” movie Red Planet.  This film had the greatest chance of being a great film.  It had a suspenseful premise about a group of astronauts sent to discover a mystery on Mars that could save humanity.  Their ship has a malfunction forcing most of them to crash land on Mars where hope vanishes when it is not what they were expecting and they are hunted by a rogue robot.  It’s action packed and its funny and did I mention it had a robot (because robots make all films better)?  Unfortunately, it was released after the abysmal Mission to Mars tanked at the Box Office.  Studio heads thought that they needed to retool the film and add in more action while taking out all the philosophical ideas and things that made it unique.  The end result was a film that was a mishmash of smart space travel movie mixed with action and suspense and even horror in the disguise of an alien creature which really only shows up in the final third of the film.  It was a film that tried to speak to everyone but spoke to no one.  On a production budget of $80 million it grossed only $33 million worldwide and was a Box Office dud in a huge way.   Mission to Mars may have cost $100 million to produce but it at least made $110 million worldwide.  Things being as they was (I saw both at the theater) I hated Mission to Mars but loved Red Planet.  It wasn’t until the film found its way on DVD that I realized just how much of the movie was truly cut out as all the important and thought provoking scenes that glued the themes and ideas together were all cut out and replaced with dull action sequences (although I still like the robot).  Red Planet had a charm that few other films about Mars ever had…at least that’s what I used to think.  Watching it now, I realize that it is a good-bad movie that aged poorly.

I just have to say I loved the trailer for Supernova when I first saw it.  I loved the music.  I loved the way it was edited. And it had Angela Bassett and James Spader in it not to mention one of my childhood favorite actors Lou Diamond Phillips!  This had to be the greatest film ever made.  Then…I heard that director Walter Hill took his name off the film (to Thomas Lee) and the film was re-edited and turned into a bastard of its former self.  This did not deter me from seeing it on opening night.  Spader was the man and Bassett could do no wrong!  Well…almost no wrong.  The film was a mess with uninspired action that looked childish compared to other Hill movies and Spader was more than usually “wooden” in his performance.  This still didn’t stop me from loving the film because I do love a good cheesy bad film and there is little to nothing good about this film.  The other thing I hated about the film is the fact that some scenes that were in the trailer and that I had read about in Fangoria magazine were nowhere to be found in the final film.  You would need to watch the special features and deleted scenes on the DVD to see all that.  This was a horrible film…but I still loved it.  This was a film that was so bad it was good because all the actors seemed to be having fun making the film (even the “wooden” Spader) and there is actually a fair amount of sex and sexual tension throughout the film.  When I watched it again the other day I was even more aware of the sexual themes of the film and just how much it permeates through every character and pore of the film.  This film even has a robot in it that plays an important role to the plot of the film.  No one will ever claim that this is a good movie because it’s barely a watchable film that I’m sure all the actors try to forget is on their resume.  This film cost an estimated $90 million to produce and only grossed $14.8 million worldwide.  What do you expect from a film in which no one wanted to be released.

Now having seen Ghosts of Mars, Red Planet, and Supernova again you’re probably wondering, “Why?”  Well, to be honest, they’re all a hell of a lot of fun and a triple feature of bad fun sci-fi horror films is exactly what a person needs sometimes.  I own all three and they’re sitting on the shelf now gathering dust until I decide to once again get into the sci-fi horror mood.  I could have watched Alien (1979) or Species (1995) or Pitch Black (2000) or Event Horizon (1997) but I consider all of those to actually be good and sometimes you just want to sit back and turn the brain off and watch a bad movie.

"Rants & Ravings About Horror" - Week 11: “The Music of John Carpenter & Ghosts of Mars”

Week 11: “The Music of John Carpenter & Ghosts of Mars”

I don’t know about you but I absolutely love the music of John Carpenter.  Ever since seeing his film Halloween (1978) for the very first time his music was what nightmares come from.  I remain not only a die-hard fan of the Halloween franchise but of Carpenter’s music as well.  I would even go as far as to say that I love his music more than the movie.

I recently pulled three of Carpenter’s scores from off the shelf – In the Mouth of Madness (with Jim Lang), Prince of Darkness (with Alan Howarth), and Ghosts of Mars.  It was In the Mouth of Madness that prompted me to pull out the scores but it was Ghosts of Mars that I had on constant repeat for three days.  If you’ve never seen Ghosts of Mars then you’re probably not a die-hard horror fan and should go no further.  If you are of the initiated then you know what I’m talking about when I say that this is one of Carpenter’s most satisfying scores that can exist on its own away from the movie.  It’s not just a score but a rock ‘n roll nightmare as only Carpenter can do.  Some of this feel and mood was in In the Mouth of Madness but not so much in Prince of Darkness (despite the film having “The” Alice Cooper in it).  I remember seeing Ghosts of Mars on opening night in 2001 and was completely blown away.  Not only was it a futuristic version on Carpenter’s Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) but it also had Ice Cube, Pam Grier, and Natasha Henstridge (not to mention a who’s-who of up and coming actors like Clea DuVall and Jason Statham and some of Carpenter’s repertoire Joanna Cassidy, Robert Carradine, Peter Jason, and more).  I absolutely loved this movie!

This isn’t saying much as I generally love every John Carpenter film.  I do love some more than others.  If there is one thing you can always depend on with a Carpenter film is that they are never dull and that they are always exciting and entertaining and never predictable.  The same can be said of his scores.  Sure Halloween is a classic but you cannot deny that he’s done better work with Escape from New York, Christine, and Big Trouble in Little China (all with Alan Howarth), to name a few.

Ghosts of Mars’ score holds a special place with me as it is one of the few that Carpenter did not collaborate with another composer so you get a sense that this is pure Carpenter at his finest.  Carpenter’s collaborations with Howarth produced some of the best scores for horror films but hearing Carpenter “pure” is always a treat.  It also happens that Assault on Precinct 13 is one of my favorite films of Carpenter’s and doing a futuristic remake was a brilliant idea (at the time).  Unfortunately, the film doesn’t play as well now as it did when it was first released but that doesn’t mean the score doesn’t!

Like I said, Carpenter’s scores can exist outside the film better than most other film scores and I can testify that I’ve listened to all of his scores a hundred times more than I’ve seen the movies.  The great thing about his scores is that they never feel like they’re only for a movie.   Listen to his score for Vampires (1998) or They Live (1988) or The Fog (1980) and don’t tell me those aren’t some amazing scores.

When I watched Ghosts of Mars the other day it felt dated.  It felt old school Carpenter (but then again there isn’t really a new school Carpenter).  The film doesn’t hold up nearly as well as The Thing (1982), They Live, or Prince of Darkness, but remains one of his more fun films like Escape from L.A. (1996) or Body Bags (1993) or Memoirs of an Invisible Man (1992).  I guess it doesn’t really matter since his music is timeless like the feeling you get from watching Big Trouble in Little China and They Live.  The music exists outside of time itself creating a flawless quality signature to his music.

Whether you’re a fan of Carpenter’s films or not his music and film scores are up there with Hans Zimmer, John Williams, Danny Elfman, Jerry Goldsmith, Bernard Hermann, Harry Manfredini, Basil Poledouris, Tyler Bates, and countless others who have contributed to some of our favorite horror films over the decades.  Even if Ghosts of Mars is no longer one of his greatest films Carpenter’s score for that film is one of his greatest as a composer.

Plus, I have a dream of hearing Carpenter and Prince do an album of just those two jamming together.  Now that would be a dream come true!