They Live (1988; John Carpenter) is the premiere example of the type of movie that, had it been 45 to 52 minutes in length, would have made a perfect episode for The Outer Limits, that legendary early-1960s sci-fi/thriller/horror anthology TV show (revived in the 1990s).
There are several sci-fi films, mainly contemporary, usually lower
budget B-movies, with off-beat sometimes controversial takes on genre
situations; I’m not talking “tentpole” flicks like the Transformers movies—(partial
list below)—
and all these movies could be edited down to 45 to 52 minutes, and would be great as an episode of The Outer Limits.
But while those movies would need trimming throughout to make the grade
(but especially in their early sections), you could let They Live unspool uninterrupted from the beginning until a specific, certain moment roughly 40
minutes in, and like I said before, it’s perfect.
