Night Skies (Steven Spielberg) – The Horror Movie That Almost Was

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

In the late 1970s, Steven Spielberg began developing Night Skies, a horror movie follow-up to his alien contact classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Spielberg was going to produce this film, with Texas Chainsaw Massacre legend Tobe Hooper directing from a screenplay by John Sayles (Piranha, The Howling), and An American Werewolf in London's legendary FX artist Rick Baker providing the alien designs. This sounds like it would have been an awesome movie – and that's why Night Skies is the subject of the new episode in our The Horror Movie That Almost Was video series. 

If the creative team listed above isn't enough to get you interested in Night Skies, how about the fact that elements from the concept did end up getting brought to the screen in other Spielberg productions? They were scattered throughout E.T., Poltergeist, and Gremlins, and we've got all the info in the video embedded above.

As happy as I am to have E.T., Poltergeist, and Gremlins to watch, I would like to be able to take a peek into another universe where Night Skies was actually made so I could see how it would have turned out.

The Horror Movie That Almost Was series focuses on 

the various horror projects that could never seem to get things off the ground, be it for budgetary concerns, creative differences, or just an ever evolving Hollywood landscape. We dive into every aspect and see just how close these films had come to cameras rolling.

This episode was Written, Narrated, and Edited by Tyler Nichols, Produced by John Fallon, and Executive Produced by Berge Garabedian.

Some previous episodes of The Horror Movie That Almost Was can be seen below. To see more, head over to the JoBlo Horror Videos YouTube channel – and why not subscribe while you're at it?