Directed by: John Carpenter
Starring: Keith David, Meg Foster, George 'Buck' Flower, Roddy Piper
(5 votes)
2/10. One of John Carpenter's worst movies. It could've been better had it not been a gripe session about commercialism and Reaganomics. Surely Carpenter didn't think Jimmy Carter's economic policies were better, did he? Now as to the gripe about commercialism, that's funny. This from a guy who, without it, wouldn't have the mega box office successes that he'd had with "Assault On Precinct 13","Halloween","The Fog", and "Escape From New York. "I admittedly like Roddy Piper in this but even he knew it was probably not very good. This maybe why he really didn't do any more big movies outside of the small B movie"Hell Comes To Frogtown. "Aliens living among us, having taken over, and secretly sending us subliminal message was interesting and could've been great were it not for Carpenter's personal gripes. If he'd avoided putting his views into the movie it would've been much better.
Revealing mistake: During the big fight scene, you can tell easily that Frank is wearing knee pads (try looking when his pant leg is wet). Construction workers will often wear knee pads for work but most often they wear them on the outside of the pants to save the knees of their pants. (00:58:50)
Trivia: The big fight scene is spoofed in "South Park" when the crippled kids Timmy and Jimmy fight, instead of the film's Nada and Frank. The episode is called "Cripple Fight".
Question: Why did all the police officers destroy the shantytown? And why did they beat the blind priest to death?
Answer: As part of the alien takeover, they're suppressing any resistance and discussion of the plot. They know there's a group, led by the preacher, who are onto the conspiracy and that they're somewhere in the camp. They destroy the camp to disburse them and prevent word from getting out.