Movie Review: They Live

Director: John Carpenter

Starring: ''Rowdy' Roddy Pipper, Keith David, Meg Foster

Genre: Sci-Fi/Horror

Year: 1988

Length: 1h30

Rating: 4 popcorn boxes

What do you get when you mix classic one-liners, a 1980s WWF wrestler, Ray-Bans and ghoulish looking aliens?  They Live! An alien invasion cult classic based on the short story 8’ O Clock in the Morning by Ray Nelson.

Former WWF Wrestler Roddy Piper plays the lead character named John Nada, a drifter who goes to different American cities seeking employment. Nada gets a job doing backbreaking construction work in Los Angeles, while toiling in the construction site Nada makes friends with a black guy named Frank played by Keith David (Chronicles of Riddick, The Thing another Carpenter horror). While awaiting their first pay checks, Frank and Nada move into a squatter camp community with other destitute people. 

You see them on the street. You watch them on TV. You might even vote for them this Fall. You think they're people just like you. You're wrong. Dead wrong. They Live's tag line still sounds creepy after all these years

As Nada settles down he finds that things are a bit strange in his new neighbourhood. For instance, an unmarked helicopter constantly fly’s over their camp. There’s also the blind street preacher, played by Raymond St Jacques (Voodoo Dawn, Time Bomb) who rants at street corners about “our masters.”   Then there are the hackers who have figured out how to hijack prime time television with their broadcast signal to warn people of an evil conspiracy to control humanity.

Nada’s curiosity eventually leads him to sneak into the street preacher’s church across the road from the camp, which he discovers to be the hackers’ broadcast station. The next night police raid the hacker’s base and brutally kill whoever they find. 

"I have come to chew bubblegum and kick *ss...And Im all out of bubblegum" This punchline was so bad *ss it even got used in the video game Duke Nukem 3-D and is a part of pop culture

When Nada returns to the church after the raid, he discovers a hidden box containing sunglasses that allow wearers to see that the world is being taken over by corpse looking aliens disguised as the famous and powerful humans in society’s ruling elite, the very same people admired on TV. There’s also the subliminal messages on billboards and magazines which look like normal advertisements to the blind, but appear as commands like STAY ASLEEP, WATCH TV, MARRY AND REPRODUCE to people wearing the sunglasses.

After uncovering the conspiracy, Nada recruits Frank as a sidekick and they embark on a mission to stop the ugly aliens, and the two get into unrealistic gunfights as they attempt to stop the aliens from taking over Earth. The only time we get to see big tough Nada let his guard down is when he is with his crush Holly, played by Meg Foster. She’s the pretty yet suspicious acting assistant director of the Cable 54 news channel.

This film is low budget and it shows. The alien make up looks dirt cheap and the black and white CGI techniques were considered out-dated even by 1980’s standards. Then there is the corny acting and unconvincing shoot outs and explosions.

The aliens maintain their disguise by broadcasting covert frequencies encoded in TV signals that block people from seeing beyond their human camouflage.

Nonetheless, the $3Million movie raked in $13million in America alone. The acting and special effects might be shoddy and out-dated, but the messages it conveys are still relevant now, more so than in the 80s, explaining why the movie has ascended to cult status. They Live definitely deserves it’s plaque in the sci-fi hall of fame.