They Live

Born from the cultural flamboyance and anxiety of the 1980s, They Live is a hallmark of John Carpenter’s singular canon, combining the aesthetics of multiple genres and leveling an attack against the politics of Reaganism and the Cold War. The decision to cast professional wrestler “Rowdy” Roddy Piper as his protagonist gave Carpenter the additional means to comment on the hypermasculine attitudes and codes indicative of the era. This monograph traces the development of They Live from its comic book roots to its legacy as a cult masterpiece while evaluating the film in light of the paranoid/postmodern theory that came to fruition in the decidedly “Big 80s.” Directed by a reluctant auteur, the film is examined as a complex work of metafiction that calls attention to the nature of cinematic production and reception as well as the dynamics of the cult landscape.

They Live is a cultography published by Wallflower Press, an imprint of Columbia Univesity Press that specializes in books on cinema and the moving image. Cultographies provide a comprehensive introduction to films that have attained the coveted status of cult classic, focusing on their particular appeal, the ways in which they have been conceived, constructed and received, and their place in the broader popular cultural landscape.