THEY LIVE

   Film (1988). Alive Films. Dir John CARPENTER, starring Roddy Piper, Keith David, Meg Foster. Screenplay Frank Armitage (pseudonym of Carpenter), based on "Eight O'Clock in the Morning" (1963) by Ray NELSON. 94 mins. Colour.

   After several not very successful films for major studios (STARMAN [1984], Christine [1983]), Carpenter went independent again for this, his best film for years and, though it did not do much in the marketplace, most popular with the critics. Based on a 6pp story about the USA being controlled by disguised ALIENS (partly a satirical attack on tv), it expands its original cleverly, and is a model of taut, B-movie narrative skills. In a depression-ridden, conformist USA, Nada (Piper), a labourer, is puzzled by intimations of something not quite right. He accidentally discovers a cache of sunglasses that, when worn, reveal subliminal codes all over the city, urging submission to authority, and also finds that many wealthier-looking citizens are in fact skull-faced aliens, exploiting what to them is a Third-World colony. An excellent formula film, TL is almost something more ambitious as well - but settles for action.

   PN

   See also: MONSTER MOVIES; PARANOIA.