Popular Culture Review Vol. 15, No. 1 | Page 141

137 Carpenter Trio: The Bogey Man Will Get You Carpenter’s 2001 film, Ghosts o f Mars takes place in the year 2025. Melanie Ballard (Natasha Henstridge) is the sole survivor of an accident that took place at a mining colony on Mars. In a flashback, we see that the human occupation and mining operation have set off retribution by a deadly army of previously dormant Martian spirits, who take over the bodies of humans. The converted then massacre the still-human, cutting off their faces and wearing them as masks, taking revenge on the interlopers who tried to claim their planet. A known criminal, James “Desolation” Williams (Ice Cube) joins Melanie in subduing the Martians. After they save each other’s lives, Williams is set free by Melanie, raising the question of what constitutes morality and carrying forward one of Carpenter’s ongoing themes. Ghosts o f Mars also repeats the “government is corrupt” concept. The other central thesis here, clearly and repeatedly one of this director’s favorite themes, is the eternal omnipresence of core evil. We cannot be sure that all of the attacking vicious Martians were actually destroyed in the final explosive action in Ghosts o f Mars. The evil may be stopped, but only temporarily. As for Carpenter’s likely legacy, Kent Jones notes that: The many forms that evil can take, the many places in which it can appear, the infinite ways it can announce itself, the ease with which it can blend into the rhythms and atmospheres of everyday life—this is Carpenter’s focus, and the moral clarity that he brings to that focus is what makes him a great director (Jones, 26). In Carpenter films, we see that evil is portrayed over and over again as an actual, even tangible, force. The institutions designed to protect us, such as government and religion, may only further advance the interests of the dark side. Authority in any of its forms is more likely to represent threat and conquest than truth or hope. Modem science and technology offer only feeble and ineffective efforts to confront evil. Its existence is no less real than humanity itself, and although mankind is frequently the instrument for its execution, evil lies before, after, and beyond the mere presence of the living. Central Michigan University B.R. Smith Works Cited Cumbow, Robert. Order in the Universe: The Films of John Carpenter. Lanham, Maryland: The Scarecrow Press, 2000. History Channel Exhibits: The History of Halloween. http://www.historychannel.com/exhibits/halloween/hallowmas.html Jones, Kent. “John Carpenter: American Movie Classic,” Film Comment, 35 (1), January 1999.