by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

John Carpenter is one of those directors that I find constantly interesting. At the risk of sounding like a philistine, I was not into Halloween, but I understood its importance for the genre (plus, that’s a good score, Mr. Carpenter). The Thing is a masterpiece of horror; In the Mouth of Madness is pure Lovecraft goodness. Let’s not forget Escape from New York and, of course, an alien invasion effort titled They Live.

As far as alien invasion movies are concerned, this is top notch. Carpenter has a humorous side that shines throughout this film. While the new V delights in the fear of pinko commie efforts like universal health-care, They Live is an anti-capitalism, anti-80s-excess flick. Had it been made today, it might have resounded more powerfully now that we are in the midst of a recession, a fact that must not have passed unnoticed to Hollywood producers, as it is slated for a re-make. In its day, it was but a minor flick with some commercial success and a healthy cult following.

They Live features a laid-off working-class hero called Nada (which means nothing, in Spanish, giving it a bizarre symbolism when I watched it as a kid) who stumbles onto a pair of sunglasses which allow him to see the truth: evil, cadaverous aliens live among us. Banal ads hide messages beneath them extolling humans to “marry and reproduce”, “consume” and “obey”.

It’s a fun movie. There’s an extended, hilarious fist-fight when our hero tries to convince a friend of his to put on the glasses. The protagonist walks into a bank at one point, shotgun in hand and announces that he has “come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass…and I’m all out of bubblegum.” Some critics complained that the flick wasn’t deep enough. If the alternative of shallowness in an invasion movie is Tom Cruise doing War of the Worlds or those folks from Cloverfield, I’ll stick to They Live. At least I liked Nada and I wanted him to kick alien butt. Surprise: unlike V, the resistance in this flick is more effective. Vive la Revolution!

Of course, most of Carpenter’s heroes are fairly-interesting outsiders, so it’s no surprise that Nada works. Nowadays, lots of protagonists are unlikable and get eaten by something far too late in the film. They Live gave us a hero who was a little nuts, deservingly paranoid and who faced an invasion without any whiney crap. Also, Nada is – shocker considering most horror films are firmly grounded in a middle-class setting – a homeless drifter. The initial sequences, with Nada wandering in search of work, contrast vividly with the moments when we witness the aliens in all their happy, martini-drinking glory. It’s not the world of Sex and the City and I, for one, am grateful for that.

Don’t get me wrong; there’s a point where They Live starts to drag, but for most of its run, it is a satiric ball of fun. Video signals that control our minds? Sun glasses that reveal alien invaders? A wrestler action hero? Why not?

Based on a short story titled “Eight O’Clock in the Morning” by Ray Nelson, which describes the aliens as reptilian.

You can buy They Live through Amazon.com

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