IceboxMovies — 10 years ago(October 18, 2015 09:52 PM)

The frog-dissection sequence makes fun of a similar scene in
E.T.
, and the scene where Bud Cort tries to be friendly with the aliens (and gets zapped instead) seems like a response to the sci-fi optimism of
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
.
I guess Tobe Hooper was still smarting from the rough partnership he had with Spielberg during the making of
Poltergeist
though Spielberg later did give Hooper some directing jobs on both
Amazing Stories
and
Taken
.