john carpenter be once an extremely talented film maker . by the time starman come along and i be convince that there be no genre in which he could not excel . since then and sadly and it be a long and slow descent into mediocrity and straight through mediocrity and and into madness . ghost of mar be and a many have observe and not only formulaic and but derivative of carpenter past ( and far superior ) film . take the faceless horde of assault on precinct 13 and crossbreed them with the possessed victim of prince of darkness and add a dash of the thing and and there you have it . this might be forgivable if any moment of this film be a entertaining and creepy or excite a any of those film worst moment . sadly and it can not even attain the level of they live . have carpenter forget even the most rudimentary skill involve in tell a coherent story . it certainly seem so . be give flashback within flashback until we be literally three level deep . this be just plain incompetent . the character display almost no personality traits that aren not repetetive and annoying and and their motivation be almost nonexistent . their plan for defeat the horde be lamebrained in it best moment and a they have not be give enough information to even have a clue whether it will have any effect at all . perhaps most disturbing be an almost aryan approach to the casting . only one member of the cop party be not white and and our main character and natasha henstridge and be as white a a human can get while retain life . the criminal and on the other hand and be and to a man and people of color . particularly discomforting be a scene in which henstridge twist the arm of a black man and demanding that he say that she in charge . do no one stop to question this aspect of the production even once . in the end and though and racism be a minor point and since everything else have be mishandle to such a spectacular degree . i would love to see the carpenter who give u halloween and big trouble in little china return to film making and and put the pretender who currently use his name in his place .