Blu-ray Film Review

They Live (1988) • Collector’s Edition 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray [StudioCanal]

A drifter discovers a pair of sunglasses that allow him to wake up to the fact that aliens have taken over the Earth.

John Carpenter grew up on a diet of 1950s science fiction B Movies where the rampaging monsters and invading aliens were playing-out the nation’s Cold War paranoia. But they were still great movies and left a big enough impression for Carpenter to remake The Thing (1982), updating one of his favourites, The Thing from Another World (1951).

With They Live, Carpenter wanted to push the envelope of what a science fiction film could do and redress the balance by using the theme of alien invasion to highlight the threat of capitalism at home, instead of communism from abroad. In the midst of rampant Reaganomics, he felt impelled to fight against the insidious invasion of the ‘yuppies’ and the brand of money-motivated amorality they espoused. Along with Repo Man (1984), The Terminator (1984), and RoboCop (1987), They Live was at the vanguard of cyberpunk counter-culture cinema.