THEY LIVE is a 1988 film starring Roddy Piper and Keith David, written and directed by John Carpenter. The film travels with Nada, a mononymous drifter who discovers that aliens have disguised themselves in society as the upper class attempting to manipulate the population into conformity and admiring the status quo, with Nada there to stop them.
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They Live is arguably
not horror, leaning towards science fiction, but what it is –
that’s a different story. A recurring theme within the horror
category, satire is used to great effect within this John Carpenter
classic, the dread being generated from the wonder of aliens
controlling our society, disguised as humans. Silly yet extremely
disturbing hilarity ensues.
The cast of They Live
honestly isn't impeccable, casting a wrestler as your lead man John
Nada doesn't call for a mind bending performance, what he does
bring however is strangely an Everyman feel on the basis of his
non-descript look but also bringing the physique to seriously do
damage to the “aliens” that are out there. Now veteran actor
Keith David makes a beloved appearance also as Nada’s sidekick,
Frank. Watching him in this you just get the feeling that he’s
hamming it up and to great effect, he stands perfectly besides Nada
to challenge some of his motives but to follow him where ever he
leads. Their meeting is one of the most exaggerated, lengthy yet
incredible fight scenes of all time within film, they seriously have
a fist fight that goes on for longer than 5 minutes. The rest of the
cast honestly isn’t worth mentioning to a great extent, they do
their jobs but don’t provide anything special.
Written by John
Carpenter, the script delivers a generic structure but with the
satirical twist on consumerism that is what makes it really memorable
and also carrying his script with his own directorial flair, surely
taking what was written in the script as one line describing the
fight between Frank and Nada and extending that into this elaborately
choreographed fight sequence that will forever stick in your mind as
a defining moment of his later career. Without that tongue-in-cheek
attitude to themes as simplistic as violence and consumerism, They
Live might have sufficed as nothing more than forgettable. It’s
that idea of being able to see into that otherworldly setting
consisting of nothing more than “OBEY. CONSUME. THIS IS YOUR GOD,”
that creates that unsettling tone that there is more to society than
what we may think. The exaggerated fight scene albeit likely
unintentional, could serve to parody the violence seen within
American culture also being exaggerated within the time period and to
this very day. The bite is what keeps it from fading into obscurity.
Direction is competent as you’d expect from Carpenter who had
already by this point crafted his name as one of the masters of
horror with Halloween and The Thing as well as proving his muscle in
other genres with films like Big Trouble in Little China and Escape
from New York, the look that he crafted for the consumerist dystopia
is chilling, the black and white style with the bold text on
billboards and aliens aplenty. It is bold to say the least.
Score is always an
interesting thing when it comes to Carpenter’s films as he does it
himself, this time with frequent collaborator Alan Howarth. From the
very beginning after that title screen fades into the film with that
distinct bass line playing away, you know you’re in for a good
time. It drills into the monotony that is drifting with our lead
traversing train tracks, slums and abandoned areas. At key points
within the film such as action sequences the score plays a big part,
but it displays intelligence to know when not to utilise sound and
music to further increase the impact of a scene, such as yet again
that elongated fight scene to highlight the meeting between Frank and
Nada. There is nothing but the soundscape of the city in the
background, cars passing by and blasting their horns, the sounds of
people commuting to really rub in the fact that they’re beating
each other down in a grubby back street within the cityscape that is
New York. It reinforces that with this scene they as characters are
somewhat hitting the bottom of the barrel.
Overall, They Live is a
mish-mash of genres, action, comedy, horror, sci-fi, it is how it
combines all of these elements to satirise consumerism and American
culture is what makes it that little bit more special. There are the
one-liners that the lead spits to accentuate the comedy of a scene
and to show his badassery such as the infamous “bubble gum” line,
the next minute then mowing down what could actually be innocent
people. Are they really aliens? It’s unsettling either way, knowing
that Nada could be killing innocents or cleansing the world of aliens
hidden in our society. It’s this conflicting emotion and themes is
what rises They Live from trashy sci-fi horror comedy to classic
satire of what was then present in culture and is still as relevant
today. Relevance through time is a hallmark of a great film, but not
to give it too much credit, it still has some of those trashy
elements thrown in for good measure.
Good work Josh. Adam by the way.
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