Sleepy Brain: They Live

by Andrés Vaccari

Sleepy Brain: They Live

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Retrospecto is an irregular series raking over the coals of the past… (originally published in Abaddon magazine)
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John Carpenter makes two kinds of film: brilliant ones and absolutely awful ones. They Live, fortunately, is one of the former. In this criminally underrated sci-fi classic, the evil aliens have surreptitiously invaded earth and camouflaged themselves behind a worldwide holographic veil which is nothing other than our everyday reality. Thus the subjugated masses carry on their daily business, ignorant that their bosses, presidents and most of the police force are aliens in disguise having a jolly good time at their expense. The only way to detect them is to wear special sunglasses developed by a group of rebel humans.

And so our unsuspecting working-class hero (played by former pro wrestler “Rowdy” Roddy Piper) stumbles upon the sunglasses and into the nightmare that hides behind the alien projection. As he walks down the street, his special sunglasses reveal the whole of reality in black and white. Magazines, newspapers and billboards everywhere reveal their real secret messages: SLEEP. NO INDIVIDUAL THOUGHT. OBEY. BUY. MARRY AND REPRODUCE. Bank notes show as white paper with THIS IS YOUR GOD printed in large black letters. The aliens walk among humans, driving police cars, wearing suits and getting all the promotions.

Sleepy Brain: They Live

Reading like a cross between Karl Marx and Philip K Dick, They Live works on many levels. On one hand, it is an homage to fifties B-grade sci-fi (and in this department, the aliens’ hilarious rubber masks are worth the price of admission alone). On the other, it is the closest this remarkable, if erratic director has come to giving us a piece of his own mind. In the final analysis, however, Carpenter cannot decide between humour or social critique. To him, reality really is black and white: “They Live, We Sleep”. The tongue firmly planted in cheek sometimes barely dissimulates the anger beneath. However, this indecision is part of its appeal, and Carpenter ends ujp winning on the sheer power of attitude alone.

Needless to say, They Live vanished in the box office without the slightest ripple, although a few people at the time got the joke.