Cult Films: They Live (1988)

By Jason Haskins

Imagine finding a pair of sunglasses which revealed that a large portion of the population are actually aliens in disguise and the subliminal messages they've been hosting in all of our advertisements. That's what happens to the main character played by Roddy Piper in John Carpenter's They Live: A vagrant construction worker comes across a group of people trying to spread the word that the world is being controlled by an alien intelligence disguised as humans.

By putting on the sunglasses this man can see the aliens for who they are and see the hidden messages of everything: "This is your God" (money), "Obey", "Marry and Reproduce", "Consume", "Don't Question Authority", etc. However, he gets himself into a lot of crap when he starts calling these aliens out, so with the help of his construction worker buddy, Frank (Keith David), they join the militant human group to take down the signal these aliens are emitting to wake up the city to the aliens' occupation.

John Carpenter used to be the sci-fi/action/horror guy throughout the eighties and this is another stellar concept for him fresh off his awesome Prince of Darkness film, but as the years go by so does the aesthetic value of They Live. While I'm a huge fan of the special effects dealing with the creepy aliens, I can definitely see how people find them corny.

When Roddy Piper's character puts on these sunglasses that cut through the technology the aliens are using, you see who they really are in a skewed black and white world. Their faces are all messed up and weird with their eyes glittering and they look positively creepy as they stare back at him. The aliens are trying to wipe out all forms of resistance with the humans who are waking up and they will stop at nothing to cleanse the rebels.

Because humans are also in on the conspiracy due to power and money, no one can be trusted and Roddy Piper's character (known simply as Nada) only has Frank to rely on. That said, as Nada tries to convince Frank that there are aliens everywhere, Frank doesn't believe him and some moments happen that are a bit ridiculous. After a quick glance on IMDB I found that Carpenter was so impressed with Piper and David's improvised fight sequence that he made it over five minutes long instead of twenty seconds. This is where one of the lamest scenes in Carpenter history is and where his judgment was wrong. The fight scene isn't just long, but it feels long and right when it should have ended, it keeps going. And it's not even excellently shot: it's boring, obviously fake, full of wrestling mumbo jumbo (courtesy of Piper, who used to be a kilt killer in the ring), and it drags the film's pace down with pointlessness.

The pacing is the only other big issue I had with They Live. Back when I watched this with my big brother about several years ago I remembered it being a lot faster, but nothing really happens until half an hour into the movie. Despite the hour and a half running time, it feels twice as long because it doesn't get to the main chunk of action and coolness until about halfway through. When it does, though, you have some awesome one-liners provided by Roddy Piper, which I'm sure some of you may be familiar with. "Mama don't like tattletales" (I'm clueless about this line spoken by Piper). "I got news for 'em. There's gonna be hell to pay. 'Cause I ain't Daddy's little boy no more." Of course, there's also my favorite line: "I came here to chew bubble gum and kick ass...and I'm all outta bubble gum." Only Bruce Campbell could have made these lines better.

While this definitely isn't as good as I remembered it being as an impressionable child, it's still a really good movie. The creepy sci-fi concept of us being watched and controlled by an alien race isn't just original (in my opinion), but it's directly relevant and still holds up in the age we are living in now. While some of the action scenes are a little hokey and Roddy Piper's performance isn't the best (though it works well), this is cool eighties corniness at its golden age. The special effects and ideas presented are still entertaining to watch and the story is mostly good (despite a character named Holly who's not just predictable, but cheapens the viewer's experience and intelligence).


4 out of 5 stars

© Jason Haskins, 2011

John Carpenter

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