10 Hidden Meanings Behind Famous Horror Movies

Admittedly, the allegory in John Carpenter’s blistering assault on the economic policies of Reaganism that dominated the 1980s might be the least subtle in this list. In fact, the director has been known to rant lyrical about the movie’s message to this day: “I just love that it was giving the finger to Reagan when nobody else would”, he said at a 25th anniversary screening of They Live in 2013.

The movie stars the late, great wrestler-actor Rowdy Roddy Piper as down on his luck drifter John Nada who discovers a job lot of sunglasses that when worn reveal reality as it really is: a world in which the wealthy elite are actually skull-faced aliens hellbent on global domination and billboards, magazines and TV shows hypnotise the masses with subliminal messages commanding them to obey, conform and consume. A full-on takedown of the powers that be, Carpenter critiques all echelons of authority by having his alien race infiltrate and collaborate with politicians, the judicial system and the media.

While its campier elements – the best of which is no doubt Roddy Piper’s six-minute long street fight scene with co-star Keith David – might suggest it’s simply a fun sci-fi horror romp, the satire persists. As a scathing parable warning against the material excess and conservative Republican dominance that typified the 1980s, it’s rightfully been hailed as ‘the most anti-Reagan film to ever come out of Hollywood’.