"They Live"

Outside the limit of our sight, feeding off us, perched on top of us, from birth to death, are our owners! Our owners! They have us. They control us! They are our masters! Wake up! They're all about you! All around you! ~ The Preacher man, from They Live.

John Carpenter's 1988 They Live is a combination of bad 1970s type TV show, and scary documentary. (There are some similarities to Roger Corman's 1963 The Man With the X-Ray Eyes, with Ray Milland, for example, the idea that glasses, eye drops, etc can alter someone's vision, allowing them to see the "hidden" reality.)

The plot, for those unfamiliar, goes like this: man finds pair of glasses that, when worn, reveals who is, and who isn't, an alien. Without the glasses, the aliens look, speak and behave like humans. With glasses, you can see their creepy repto skull like faces. The aliens are greedy and ruthless and have subliminally plastered messages everywhere: "OBEY," "CONSUME," etc. These aliens have joined with some humans, who are repaid for their treachery with money. Tons of money.

Sounds painfully just like what's really going on out here in reality land. A lot of the dialogue in the movie is eerie, for its spot on statements about global corporatism, etc.

I'm not a big John Carpenter fan, but I realize I don't get him like others do; he's supposed to be campy, etc. I did like his version of The Thing, and have to say, I loved his 1998 Vampires movie.

As silly as Carpenter's They Live is, or maybe "dated" is a better term, it does have cool music and the movie itself, as a horror aliens take over the planet theme, works. I say, watch it and have a good time, in spite of the fact it's closer to the truth than we might like.