Ghosts of Mars

Ghosts of Mars (2001) is John Carpenter's sci-fi action horror you can watch online on iFILM. The year is 2176, Mars has long been colonized, and a small police squad rides a train to a remote mining station to collect a dangerous prisoner.

Lieutenant Melanie Ballard (Natasha Henstridge) expected a routine pickup. Instead she finds the outpost nearly deserted, and the inmate known as Desolation Williams (Ice Cube) turns out to be the least of her worries. Something ancient slept under the red dust, and now it pours into the miners, turning them into a painted horde determined to take their planet back. The crew includes a young Jason Statham, genre veteran Pam Grier and Clea DuVall.

Carpenter stages the whole thing as a Western on another world: a handful of people holding a line against an enemy ordinary bullets can't stop. The story unfolds in flashbacks at a tribunal, driven by the director's own snarling guitar score. This is late, underrated Carpenter — blunt, bloody and proud of it. Stream Ghosts of Mars (2001) online on iFILM.