Director John Carpenter recycles one of his best films, Assault on Precinct 13, in this race-along story of human colonists on Mars.

An assortment of cops and villains find themselves under siege from hordes of miners taken over by semi-visible Martian microcosms bent on expelling human invaders from their planet.

Despite lots of clunky dialogue, constructed in disconnected phrases, this works pretty well as an old-fashioned sci-fi thriller, until the survivors, escaping by train, elect to go back and put a stop to Martian nonsense.

Natasha Henstridge is credible enough as the cop leader and the effects are all that a sci-fi zealot could wish for, with lots of people literally losing their heads.

Carpenter keeps it going with lots of rapid editing, though you'll need to be sharp to keep up with the flashbacks within flashbacks.