Matty Beckerman’s Alien Abduction hits select theaters and VOD platforms Friday, April 4, so we figured now would be as good a time as any to have him weigh in the films that inspired him to choose this subject matter for his directorial debut.

In the film, “A vacationing family encounters an alien threat in this pulse-pounding thriller based on the real-life Brown Mountain Lights phenomenon in North Carolina.” Katherine Sigismund, Corey Eid, Jillian Clare, Peter Holden and Riley Polanski star. Beckerman’s film is produced by Shark Night 3D, Hostel, Hostel: Part II and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)‘s Mike Fleiss along with Reservoir Dogs‘ Lawrence Bender.

Check out his 6 Favorite Alien Movies below!!

“I love this movie. They use a technique I like to call squiggle porn. I’m sure you all remember watching cable tv and seeing the scrambled spice channel. If you stared at it long enough you might make out a boob or a butt. That is squiggle porn. I watched my fair share of it before the days of the internet. The Fourth Kind does a brilliant job of never showing what is actually happening yet you catch glimpses of images that freak your senses out. You never actually see anything but it scares the crap out of you.”

“Christopher Walken is amazing. The first hour of Communion is captivating, and freaky. Then somehow it goes completely off the rails. When he’s at a dance party with the aliens it’s straight out of an SNL sketch. I hear “more cowbell” in my mind. This movie is equal parts interesting and hilarious.”

“Yeah, Yeah, Yeah, some people hate the twist at the end of this film with the glasses of water, but there are moments that just kick ass. When the group of kids at the birthday party in Mexico see the alien walk across the alley, a friend next to me in the theater grabbed my arm so hard that she left claw marks that wouldn’t go away for a week.”

“I was not allowed to see Alien as a kid – my parents thought it was too scary for me. But tell a kid NOT to watch something and it’s like telling a junkie that he can only have half a hit of the crack pipe. The plan was in motion. I went to a friend’s house (Dan Goodman) and our parents were going out to dinner, it was on HBO and he taped it. As soon as they left the driveway we raced upstairs and started watching. When my parents came back from dinner I was pale as a ghost and jumpy, they thought something happened to me, my dad caught on quickly and decided to hide in the bushes and jump out at me any moment he could. I’m still not ok. I should have listened.”

“This movie completely freaked me out as a teenager. The scenes on the ship were incredible. I still never enter the woods without looking into the sky. Travis Walton’s story influenced me so much that I sought out the same editor, Steve Mirkovich, to edit Alien Abduction. His credits also include Big Trouble In Little China and Con Air, how bad ass is that shit? Steve is an incredible talent and thank God we had him on board to help me organize my madness. Thanks to Steve, I was given one of the original Alien heads from the ship of Fire In The Sky and I sneak around my house with it scaring the crap out of guests.”

The master, Spielberg at his very best. I have watched Close Encounters over 300 times. It’s one of those films that I buy every time a new format comes out. Growing up we had it originally on BetaMax, then VHS, Laser Disc, DVD, iTunes, and when the holographic virtual reality chamber comes out it will be the first film I get implanted directly into my cerebral cortex. DA,Da,Da,da,daaaa – The song is the first thing I played on a piano, guitar, banjo, and harmonica. I know each scene so well I feel like I lived it. Check out the banjo in Alien Abduction it’s a not so small nod to one of my all time idols. Growing up as the only Jewish kid in an Italian and Irish neighborhood, Mr. Spielberg gave me hope.”