Summertime in mid-80’s America – – Reaganomics are in full swing across the nation, as illegal arms deals are significantly escalated, tax cuts for the wealthy hit their modern zenith, and insidious commercialization is at an all time high – – all seems hyper-normal and well inside the soft, insulated, billowy bosom of the United States.

As the golden era of the 70’s filmmaking had taken its last gasp, many filmmakers with bold visions were left wondering what to do. Enter two filmmakers by the names John Carpenter and Robert Altman, filmmakers who had made a significant number of films for the studio system (a couple which became moneymakers) and found themselves at odds with this new model of box-office driven productions. Altman, no stranger to pushing the envelope, took the first plunge into the unknown with his MAD Magazine short story adaptation, O.C. & STIGGS in 1983. This full on-assault against the burgeoning teen comedy exploitation trend, couldn’t resemble films like PORKYS, or PORKYS 2: THE NEXT DAY, any less. On the surface, its plot suggesting the antics of two mischievous teens, is turned all the way to the right on the negativity dial, resulting in one of the blackest comedies of the era, a nihilistic napalm drop on the mores and attitudes of 1980’s society, where the idea of proper adulthood finds itself assaulted from all sides. Altman’s satire (an almost retelling of M.A.S.H.) didn’t find distribution until 4 years later.

Just across town in Los Angeles, John Carpenter was adapting a short story of his own (written by the inventor of the propeller beanie), this one from a science fiction magazine, which became the 1987 film THEY LIVE.

Less covert than Altman’s acidic expose of America, Carpenter lets his middle finger extend pronounced, as his unsuspecting anarchic duo of Roddy Piper and Keith David, descend on L.A. armed with special sunglasses that reveal the invisible dictatorship lurking behind every advertisement, billboard, and sometimes, the people around them. As they uncover an alien plot to drain America of all of its mineral, cultural, and economic resources, they decide to wage full on war with their surroundings.

Carpenter and Altman may have cloaked their very personal visions under the guise of “adaptations”, but modern audiences today can feel their burn scorching hotter than ever, revealing cauterized scars across the vast belly of America, between the people at the top and the rest of us.