Carpenter Trio: The Bogey Man Will Get You
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signs: “They Live, We Sleep;” “Obey;” “Marry and Reproduce;” “No
Independent Thought;” “Consume;” “Watch TV;” “Do Not Question Authority”
{They Live). He discovers that the glasses also enable him to see that many
beings who appear to be human are actually robotic figures with skull-like heads
and glowing eyes. One character notes that “most of us just sell out right away . .
. Our bank accounts get bigger” (They Live, 1988). Stimulated by aliens seeking
total domination, along with a manic obsession with television, we have become a
nation of plodding, non-thinking robotic beings, interested only in self-serving
gratification and consumption. Muir describes this film as:
A depiction of the post-Reagan malaise, an America suffering
serious consequences for the prosperity of the few: a shrinking
middle class, increased homelessness . . . [a land where]
corporate America and the ‘free enterprise’ aliens seek to gain
wealth by separating men from their consciences (Muir 148-9).
In contrast, the community of Justiceville, where people have not been
“taken over,” is shown as a utopia:
. . . an oasis of decency in a world dominated by selfishness
and greed . . . Children of different races play together in peace,
a mother reads to her child, people cook for one another and
share responsibilities . . . As its name suggests, this is a place of
liberty and equality (Muir 149).
As does The Thing, this film questions the validity of the Reagan dream.
Like the protagonists of other Carpenter films, Nada will not submit to authority;
he stands up for individuality versus the evil establishment, and he sacrifices his
life to uncover the alien plot. For this filmmaker, we are, as a society, vulnerable
to enslavement by those who seek to take over and eliminate our freedom. The
only hope for repelling such forms of evil comes, not in collective action, but
through the efforts of brave individualists.
Village o f the Damned (1995) focuses on the strange aftermath of an
alien invasion. All of the women of childbearing age in the village of Midwitch
turn up pregnant at the same time, and all give birth to blonde, look-alike children
who seem to lack emotion or soul. After they reach school age, as Dr. Alan
Chaffee (Christopher Reeve) tutors them, he notices that the children exhibit
strange powers. They have the ability to read minds. As their eyes light up, they
concentrate mental energy in ways that cause those working against them to selfdestruct through suicide or to have unusual accidents. The children only seem to
be “like us.” Reflecting the themes of other Carpenter films, official authorities
(in the form of scientists, police, and the military) offer not help, but only further