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.

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.

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. Hail, Caesar! is the latest sardonic work from the Coen brothers, and it joins a long lineage of movies made within Hollywood about Hollywood that stretches back to the silent era.

One of the most delightful and most peculiar of these films is Jerry Lewis’ anarchic 1961 comedy The Errand Boy. In a succession of outlandish gags, the eccentric Lewis sends up and pays tribute to the movie industry.

Watch the second episode of Under the Influence above and subscribe to our YouTube channel for more.

Hail, Caesar! is in cinemas now. Read our five-star review.

With its snowed-in setting, homicidal bounty hunters and original Ennio Morricone score, Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight bears a striking resemblance to Italian director Sergio Corbucci’s blood-soaked Spaghetti western from 1968, The Great Silence.

In a brand new series of video essays, Adam Cook looks at the similarities between these two politically-charged epics, starting with its cynical, gritty subject matter.

Watch the first episode of Under the Influence below and if you like what you see be sure to subscribe for more.