Doctor Who has visited horror on Mars many times, most recently with "The Waters of Mars" (2009) and "Empress of Mars" (2017). Notably, one of the few times we see the Doctor truly afraid is when he learns he is facing the Martian Grand Marshal Skaldak in "Cold War" (2013).
Even the optimistic Star Trek is not immune, with one of the greatest terrorist acts committed against the Federation happening on Mars' Utopia Planitia.
Mars has gotten to us.
So it is not a big surprise that there are still today sci-fi horror movies featuring Mars.
One would assume I would start with War of the Worlds. At least the classic or maybe even one of the remakes. But I want movies ON Mars and for better or worse, this is a classic. I have seen it before, but it is a good one to start the night and it is on every streaming service I have. This one takes place sometime after the first moon landing. No date is given but you can assume it is the 1970s as seen through the eyes of the 1950s (Time Delta, 11 or so years).
Again, while I typically avoid movies from the 1950s, there are exceptions. A couple of things make this one stand out. The giant wolf-bat-spider creature being one and the "CineMagic" effect used when they were on the surface of Mars was another. The CineMagic could look cheap by our standards of today, but I actually thought it had some charm to it.
The acting isn't bad, though it suffers from all the casual sexism of the time, though to it's credit it has Naura Hayden as biologist Dr. Iris "Irish" Ryan. She isn't so much there as eye-candy (plot wise) and has a role. It is also noted that only Americans seem to bring guns into space. It does avoid the trope of one of the scientists being secretly evil or wanting to establish his own empire on Mars.
The film is a bit silly for our times, but there were what appeared to be some good (for the time) scares. The CineMagic effect really covers up a lot of special effects shortcomings.
I am sure I have seen this one before, but there are a lot of parts I don't remember. I am only giving myself ½ a credit for this one.
I actually started this one first. Stopped it because it was just not good and came back to it tonight. While there is 30 years between this one and Angry Red Planet, it sure has improved much in attitudes. This one takes place in the year 2030 to 2033 (Time Delta 44 to 41 years).
Let's be entirely upfront about this. This one is bad. I spaced (heh) out a lot writing other things. Here is the gist. Two dufuses bring back some rocks from Mars expecting some of them will give them a good payday. One of the rocks cracks open and something slimy comes out. Fast forward to NASA on Earth in the later 2030s where everyone is smoking like it's...well 1986. The first crew is dead so they send another crew after them.
After some not-scares and other nonsense we learn the alien, named Gar, used the computer to learn about humanity including reading a Bible, and has decided to depart in peace. What the actual fuck? Anyway, that's the movie. There is more like the shitty effects, the toy Millennium Falcon used for close-up shots of the starbase and the misspellings on the computer screen. An aside, here in the real 2021 I am using more computer power than they displayed in their fake 2033 just write these words. I also have the benefit of a spell check.
Anyway, I am embarrassed I watched this movie.
By the way, this site Explore Mars wants us on Mars in the 2030s. I don't think they saw this movie.
2001 should have been a bigger year for sci-fi movies. Just saying. This one takes place in 2176. The Time Delta on this is 175 years now. As we move further and further away from the Apollo missions our optimism about colonizing nearby space is waning. Or maybe we just have a better understanding of how bad the void of space really is.
I also admit this is the one I was looking forward to. I mean John Carpenter right?
Well...
The pluses. The film stars Natasha Henstridge, Ice Cube, Jason Statham, Pam Grier, Clea DuVall, Robert Carradine, and Joanna Cassidy. All of whom have delivered good performances in the past. The key with any movie with Ice Cube and Jason Statham in it is you never take their characters seriously. Jason Statham has more or less likened all his characters to cartoon characters.
The soundtrack is great, if for no reason other than the inclusion of Stevie Vai whom I have been a fan of since his days with Frank Zappa.
Some interesting bits. Mars' government appears to be a Matronage or rule by women. The Mars here reminds me of Total Recall or Doom before the Demons arrive.
The story revolves around a group of police officers attempting to do a prisoner transfer of James 'Desolation' Williams, played by Ice Cube. They get to the boomtown to find him but instead, they find everyone dead and Williams still locked up. They find a couple of people still alive but possessed.
The ghosts just repossess other humans and attack the city.
The Martian possessed humans reminded me a lot of the Futurekind from the Doctor Who episode Utopia. In fact, the scenes of Mars at night also remind me of the planet Malcassairo at the end of the Universe.
October 2021
Viewed: 25
First Time Views: 12
Much as I liked Angry Red planet, my personal favorite "Mars scifi horror" flick from that era is It! The Terror From Beyond Space! I mean yeah, most of the film takes place on the rocket ship after it's left Mars on its way back to Earth, but the monster is a Martian and they do spend a fair amount of time on the Red Planet in the early part of the film. Easily found online if you haven't seen it, well worth a watch.
ReplyDeleteAside from being a fun watch, the similarities between it and Alien are pretty remarkable.
According to Wikipedia, Statham was initially supposed to play the main character, who was also supposed to be Snake Plisken in the third installment of an "Escape from" triology but was rewritten as Ghosts of Mars instead.
ReplyDelete