Movies

Obey! – Go See THEY LIVE Midnights This Weekend at The Hi-Pointe

By Tom Stockman | December 7, 2015

“I have come here to chew bubblegum and kick ass… and I’m all out of bubblegum!”

THEY LIVE Midnights This Friday and Saturday (December 11th and 12th) at The Hi-Pointe Theater (1005 McCausland Ave, St. Louis) as part of Destroy the Brain’s Late Night Grindhouse film series.

Remember when Al Pacino said that bubblegum line three years ago in STAND UP GUYS? He said it with such gusto and confidence, I’m sure he had no idea that it was stolen verbatim from John Carpenter’s 1988 classic THEY LIVE. It bugged me then but STAND UP GUYS is long forgotten while THEY LIVE lives on and has developed an ever-growing cult following.

Wondering what you world would be like if it were run by aliens that were trying to control your minds through subliminal messaging? Well, look no further than John Carpenter’s cult classic THEY LIVE, which is screening this weekend at the Hi-Pointe as part of Destroy the Brain’s monthly Late Night Grindhouse Film Series. The late wresting legend Roddy Piper stars as Nada, a drifter who stumbles upon a pair of sunglasses that show him the truth about his society and the world he inhabits. He discovers that humans are not the only beings to be living on the planet Earth. Nada also knows what he must do to save the human race from complete invasion of these creatures. Does he have enough time and manpower to stop these culprits of communication or will Nada only help them enslave the human race? It will all teeter on the amount of ‘bubblegum’ that he carries with him!

Visionary director Carpenter creates this world not unlike today’s society. Glued to the television and void of independent thought, he shows us a human race that resembles cattle in the fields waiting for the farmer’s next decision. Carpenter shows us that we can live in a world, even a city, and not realize what is happening around us. How hidden are those subliminal messages in our culture? Maybe John Carpenter has the answers. Or lighten up and don’t take THEY LIVE seriously. It’s a lot of fun without trying to read too much into it. This is the first John Carpenter movie that they’ve shown at the Late Night Grindhouse show, so here’s your chance to see one on the big screen (his first since GHOSTS OF MARS in 2001 to play theatrically in St. Louis)