How Midnight Special evokes the pure emotion of… | Little White Lies

Under the Influence

How Mid­night Spe­cial evokes the pure emo­tion of Starman

19 Apr 2016

Words by Little White Lies

Jeff Nichols’ stel­lar sci-fi para­ble draws inspi­ra­tion from John Carpenter’s 1984 film.

Under The Influ­ence is a video series that traces the themes, inspi­ra­tions, or oth­er con­nec­tions from a new release to a great film of the past. Mid­night Spe­cial is the lat­est film from Jeff Nichols, the direc­tor of Take Shel­ter and Mud. This time he’s teamed up again with Michael Shan­non, but with a sci-fi twist.

Nichols has acknowl­edged the influ­ence of Steven Spielberg’s E.T. and Close Encoun­ters of the Third Kind. Anoth­er point of ref­er­ence is John Carpenter’s under­rat­ed 1984 film Star­man, which fol­lows as its main char­ac­ters evade the gov­ern­ment on a cross-coun­try chase.

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Watch the third episode of Under The Influ­ence above and be sure to sub­scribe to our YouTube chan­nel for more.

Mid­night Spe­cial is in cin­e­mas now. Read our review.

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LWLies 107: The Sin­ners issue – Out now!

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