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With a handful of genuine horror masterpieces (including HALLOWEEN, THE FOG, and THE THING) to his name, the balance of John Carpenter’s credits read like a litany of near misses and undernourished inspiration. No doubt, even his lesser works show a sense of style and atmosphere most genre filmmakers never come close to attaining, but too rarely are they shored up by a good, smart story.

Sadly — enjoyable as it is — THEY LIVE (1988) is no exception. This oft-forgotten excursion into paranoid science fiction has all the right elements for a terrific and suspenseful action flick, but they never quite come together to any great effect.

When Nada (Roddy Piper, HELL COMES TO FROGTOWN) rolls into Los Angeles looking for construction work, he stumbles onto a strange underground movement scheming to expose a dire conspiracy threatening all of mankind. Despite losing his job and having no real prospects of a future, Nada proclaims himself an idealist who believes in the American dream of hard work and pulling one’s self up by the bootstraps. At least until he discovers a special pair of sunglasses that open his eyes to the true forces controlling society. He then finds himself caught in the crossfire of a secret battle to save the Earth.

The most appealing aspect of the film may be Carpenter’s use of Nada’s visual experience to convey the two realities that exist around us all—one, the surface reality of our daily lives, and the other, the sinister underpinnings of those lives. In the second world, not everyone is who they appear to be, and even the most mundane everyday items, such as magazines and newspapers, pose a threat to our well-being and individuality. Simple as Carpenter’s execution of these sequences is, he manages to achieve an eerie, absurd mood, mostly due to unnervingly music-less soundtrack (ironic for a director like Carpenter who often composes the music for his films) and use of black-and-white footage.

By the end of the show, the audience has been treated to some of the most memorably bad one-liners the genre has ever heard (listen for Nada’s clever quip when he storms into the bank). They’ve also learned the truth about modern society and been thoroughly exposed to the film’s ham-handed commentary on class politics. But all in good fun.

Carpenter is taking on some classic sci-fi themes in THEY LIVE, and the result is an entertaining throwback to films like INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS and INVADERS FROM MARS, albeit watered down and at times just plain dumb as a box of rocks. However, it does feature what may be the most wondrously gratuitous final scene in B-movie history.

So, kick back with a few beers on a Saturday night, set your brain on low, and watch in bemusement for an hour and a half.

Oh, and if you’re wondering about the DVD details and features, here ya go: it plays the movie. (Okay, there are chapter selections, too, but that’s it! Watching this disc is like going camping in the rain—be prepared to rough it.)

– James Chambers

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