Invasion of the Individual:
John Carpenter’s Modernization of the Myth of Identity-Theft
in The Thing, Prince of Darkness, and They Live
The science fiction and horror genres have as a recurring theme the
concept of the invasion of the human body by non-human entities. The ultimate
threat is realized when a human host is used to help further the evil plans of
whatever creature has inhabited it. The fear of being unable to correctly
distinguish between our friends and our foes has struck different generations in
different ways, with the attribution of the evil inhabiting the human often used as
a metaphor for prevailing social fears of that time period. John Carpenter’s The
Thing, Prince o f Darkness, and They Live are one director’s attempt to identify,
and at times satirize, the faults of 1980s “me decade” American society.
One of the earliest cinematic examples of this horror/sci-fi subgenre is
the film Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The good Doctor is, on the outside, a member
of genteel, late nineteenth century society. Even his friends cannot predict that
Jekyll’s body, effectively controlled by Mr. Hyde, has caused the rash of violent
outbursts. Interpretations of the many Jekyll-and-Hyde films often tend toward a
Freudian analysis, where Hyde’s malevolence is an expression of Jekyll’s
repressed id. Likewise, stolen-identity films of other eras utilize this genre to
describe or even blame the origin of evil on the corruption of the human mind and
body.
The films of the fifties, sixties, and seventies are the forerunners of John
Carpenter’s trio of stolen-identity films of the eighties: The Thing, Prince o f
Darkness, and They Live. Stolen-identity films from the fifties, such as Invasion
o f the Body Snatchers, have long been considered metaphors for the “red threat,”
where even neighbors and friends could secretly be communists lurking among
us, waiting to take over the American way of life. The threat originated outside of
America, but infiltrated the consciousness of the nation. Another major theme
from fifties sci-fi films was the threat of nuclear power. Our friend the atom
bomb had indeed helped end the second World War; however, the American
public quickly became afraid of the incomprehensible power of nuclear energy
and its potential for use against us. The original The Thing (From Another World)
and Godzilla: King o f the Monsters are two of the many films that explore the
potential side effects of the misuse of nature.
Closer to Carpenter’s films in its attribution of evil is the classic Texas
Chainsaw Massacre, in which a lower-class family of meat packers devolves into
flesh-eating lunatics. Initially, several members of this psychotic family appear
normal, albeit as normal as Texans manning a remote desert gas station can be.
Soon, the viewer realizes just how awful this chainsaw-toting clan truly is when
they exercise their profession on humans instead of animals. Texas Chainsaw