I’ll always have nostalgia for E.T., but Close Encounters of the Third Kind reminds my favourite out of the films of his I’ve seen. It’s an enchanting film, and I’ve glad I first saw it in a cinema because of its visuals, but it’s bloody terrifying as well. I don’t think Spielberg knew his own strength when making this movie. The child abduction/home invasion scene was really the one that made me paranoid of UFOs for months when I was around 11 or 12. There was one night I spent half an hour staring worriedly at a mysterious hovering orange light seen from my bedroom window, which turned out to be a streetlamp.

Then again, E.T. freaked me out too when I was young, so maybe I’m just easily scared…