John Carpenter, the visionary behind eerily prophetic science-fiction horrors like “They Live” and “The Thing,” is sharing his unfiltered ideas about Donald Trump and the “return of racism” following the previous president’s divisive ascent into politics.
In a podcast episode earlier this month, “It Happened In Hollywood” host Seth Abramovitch argued that the Republican presidential nominee may’ve simply been a villain in “They Live,” Carpenter’s 1988 satire of Reaganomics and consumerism, prompting the director to agree.
“It makes total sense,” Carpenter replied, including, “There’s so much of what we’ve turned into as a country that just makes me heartsick. This return of racism and xenophobia.”
Explaining that he grew up within the Jim Crow South, Carpenter added, “It’s been brought back by Trump, I think. And ugh, it’s horrible. The world is just horrible now.”
The director added, “I have hope for mankind. I have hope that things will get better. But I worry, I worry, I worry.”
Left: Frazer Harrison/Getty Photos; Proper: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Photos
“They Live” famously starred then-pro-wrestler “Rowdy” Roddy Piper as a person on the lookout for employment in an economically devastated Los Angeles, solely to find that an alien race has infiltrated the federal government and mainstream media.
The sci-fi flick has lengthy been treasured as a cult traditional, however some right-wing trolls have seized on the movie’s lizard-like aliens, who disguise themselves as human politicians, to unfold antisemitic conspiracy theories.
Carpenter has pushed again, insisting that the movie is a satire of “unrestrained capitalism.”
“The ’80s never ended,” he informed Abramovitch on his podcast. “I couldn’t kill it with my movie and nobody could kill it. The ’80s is still with us, and that’s why you see all this stuff today — it’s never going away.”
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Carpenter additionally presciently mined fears about fascism and personal prisons in “Escape From New York” (1981) and about viruses in “The Thing” (1982).
Requested what recommendation he’d give aspiring administrators, he instructed, “You have to come up with your own vision, how you see things, how you tell a story visually,” he mentioned. “I can’t tell it for you.”
He concluded with a cheeky jab on the identical unrestrained capitalism “They Live” criticized, telling Abramovitch: “I can continue talking like this, but you need to send me money. And I will teach, but I will only teach for money.”
