John Carpenter's : They live
Year of release : 1988
Run time : 1h35m
Genre : Sci Fi / Action / Horror
The movie is based on the 1963 short story by Ray Nelson "Eight o'clock in the morning".
Nada, a homeless man, comes to Los Angeles looking for a job. After a few failed attempts, he gets one on a construction site. Not having a place to sleep, one of his colleagues invites him to the settlement he lives in, of improvised dwellings, right in front of a church.
Ironically, although they barely have a roof on top of their heads, these people have tvs which they watch all the time.
A hacker keeps on taking over the tv broadcasts but only for a few seconds,maybe, and Nada notices the reaction of one of the men there and the priest,during these hackings, and gets suspicious. He goes inside the church he sees them going inside of, and he realizes they are the ones broadcasting the signal.
One of these times the police comes chasing after the men who run away, and they also tear down the improvised dwellings of the people who had nothing to do with it.
Nada goes back to the church the next day,looking around, and finds a box in a hidden place,which he takes with him. Looking through it, he gets disappointed there's only sun glasses in the box, takes a pair, and puts the rest with the box in the trash can.
Putting the glasses on, he sees a different sight of the world he lives in, all the ads on the street, papers and magazines, being commands in disguise to the public put under a spell or mind control. He sees drones flying around the city,and hears the signal keeping people asleep. He also starts seeing that certain people look like monsters when he has the glasses on, and they talk to each other through a watch-like device on their wrist which can also make them disappear.
One of these creatures calls the police on him, and he manages to get away by k1llling them, taking their guns and k1lling more creatures in a bank. Running away he kidnaps a woman forcing her to take him to her house. The woman has this eerie vibe, she seems like a sort of robot ,her demeanor is strange, as if she is under mind control. She almost k1lls him and he manages to get away, hiding from the cops.
Nada keeps on telling his friend about what's going on, but he wants nothing to do with it, as he wants no trouble. There's a pretty long scene in which the two fight (which took 3 weeks to rehearse), because Nada is asking him to put the glasses on,but the man keeps on refusing.
I personally enjoyed the movie. The director said it was a commentary on his dissatisfaction with the economic policies of the US president Ronald Reagan, and the increasing commercialization in the pop culture and even politics! Ironically, I think the movie is as true today in any country as it was then!
He said he made the aliens who were running the world look like ghouls because "the creatures are corrupting us,so they, themselves, are corruptions of human beings" end of quote.
The visual effects were good, I liked the 'world behind the world'.
The acting was good.
The soundtrack,written by Carpenter and Alan Howarth, was so an so, at times it fit, at times I thought it didn't.
The movie was a minor success when released,debuting at number 1 in the North American box office,spending 2 weeks in the top 10. Although at first it received negative reviews from critics, the movie developed a cult following, and is now regarded as one of the director's best films.
The movie earned 13.4 million dollars at the box office,against a budget of 3 million.
You can watch the full movie here,for free: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2BOU7NDXx0&ab_channel=Stillhuman
Rating : Worth a watch !
A scene from the movie They Live:
