They Live

An extraordinary return to low-budget sci-fi for John Carpenter who, after thrilling us with the theological-metaphysical notions of “Prince of Darkness” (1987), draws inspiration from a Ray Nelson short story (“Eight O’Clock in the Morning” – 1963) to make the most overtly political work of his career.

The hypothesis is clear: the current elite capitalistic class is made up of a group of power-hungry aliens who, in cahoots with high-status human subordinates, are subjugating the remaining population through silent, widespread, mass brainwashing. To that end, they employ the most influential and powerful means of control: mass media and the police (‘People are joining up with them [the aliens]?’ ‘Most of us just sell out right away. […] We’ll do anything to be rich’). The only route to liberation comes from “below”, and that’s why it’s two members of the working class who stumble onto the situation and decide to fight the inequities of the consumer society.

On a figurative level, some scenes explicitly recall sci-fi movies of the 1950s, although conveying a diametrically opposite message, veering from echoing McCarthyistic “red scare” fears to voicing a populist, anti-Reaganomics polemic. The director entrusts the role of the protagonist to Canadian wrestler “Rowdy” Roddy Piper (stage name of Roderick George Toombs), who doesn’t really need to do much acting since his appearance and bearing are a perfect fit for the spirit of the film. There’s also no lack of snarky and ironic dialogue, like when a human unknowingly complains to one of the skull-faced imposters about the fact that everything is going wrong for him and he can’t get a promotion at work.

The film’s sole blemish is that on the narrative level, “They Live” is a tad choppy: after a formidable first act rich in suspense, the plot stumbles several times before finally reaching a rushed epilogue in which budgetary constraints take a heavy toll.

Countless memorable scenes: the city strewn with subliminal commands, the prophetic alien on the TV screen, the interminable street fight between Armitage and Nada, etc.