Sie leben

The worst Carpenter I’ve seen so far, and that also includes Ghost of Mars. Unfortunately, I didn’t look at the genre category and I expected horror and what I got instead was a silly, satirical and almost self-parody of science fiction that becomes increasingly boring with every passing minute. Unfortunately, I can’t even highlight the music, because unlike other Carpenter films, this time it really got on my nerves. (26.10.2008)

The degeneration of contemporary pop culture, which shows us stories of how a humble peasant came upon a great truth and then cleverly defeated it on his own terms, we can feel that They Live is actually a typical victim of 80s primitivism, where the truth is ideally reached with a fist, an elbow, or straight up with a shotgun. At least Carpenter does not mask in any way that the solution to the problem was basically reached by a muscular teenager who doesn't read Nietzsche in the evening, but rather Hustler and Guns & Ammo. The means by which he then seeks satisfaction simply correspond to this. And besides, Carpenter was very good at macho shoot-’em-ups and beat-’em-ups in the eighties, so it's a joy to watch. (29.03.2020)