The original: Speaking of Spielberg, he finally nailed his whole Amblin aesthetic with 1982's ET The Extra-Terrestrial. Striking out on some of the same themes as his earlier Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, but with a much more family-friendly feel (well, that puppet was sometimes pretty haunting), ET was the start of his singular blend of sci-fi, nostalgia for small town childhood, and Reese's Pieces. It's become a stone-cold classic. But that puppet is still pretty haunting. The sequel: Unlike most, Spielberg wasn't out to produce a carbon copy sequel. In fact, he decided to go in the exact opposite direction with the follow up to ET, to the point that he was probably actually going to ruin a lot of childhoods. But genuinely, not like when idiots complain about Ghostbusters sequels. Because ET II: Nocturnal Fears was basically the same plot as the first film, except instead of friendly extraterrestrials, Elliot and his family were visited by...well, something out of Alien. Seriously, the majority of the script for Nocturnal Fears is Elliot being tortured for information as to where his pal ET is. In the third act the friendly alien and his pals come back to save the day, but everything prior to that? Pure childhood trauma.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
