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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.