Thanks to Netflix’s Stranger Things, classic movies of the 1980s have reached wider audiences, with the likes of A Nightmare on Elm Street, Friday the 13th and James Cameron’s Terminator becoming all-time favourites.
Inspired by the sci-fi adventures of 1980s filmmaking in films such as The Goonies, Halloween and Stephen King’s It, Stranger Things has become Netflix’s flagship show, growing stronger and stronger with every new season. With the changing tone of each new series, the films on which the show is inspired have also shifted, moving away from the child-friendly adventures of the past and onto new sci-fi influences.
However, this hasn’t changed the lead cast’s favourite movies, who revealed their picks for the best films of the 1980s in an old Facebook live video, naming a couple of classics from Steven Spielberg and Richard Donner.
Millie Bobby Brown was the first to choose in a group that included Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin and Noah Schnapp, with the actor, who plays Eleven in the series, going for an iconic family movie. “I was told to sort of relate myself to E.T., so my favorite movie is probably E.T.,” the young actor stated, picking Spielberg’s 1982 classic about an alien who seeks comfort in the company of a young boy after he’s stranded on earth.
Truthfully, there wasn’t much variation outside of Brown’s pick, with Gaten Matarazzo opting for the beloved Richard Donner flick The Goonies, starring Corey Feldman, Josh Brolin, Sean Astin and Ke Huy Quan. While Noah Schapp quickly agreed with his fellow co-star, Matarazzo added to his somewhat conventional choice by stating, “And no judging, I love Pretty in Pink. Pretty in Pink is awesome. I love that movie”.
Of course, there’s no judgment from us when it comes to Matarazzo’s alternative favourite, after all, the John Hughes coming-of-age flick is one of the director’s very best. Though, whilst we love Pretty in Pink, we’ve got far more time for the trendy rom-com Ferris Bueller’s Day Off that Hughes also helmed with the help of leading stars Matthew Broderick, Mia Sara, Alan Ruck and Charlie Sheen.
Elsewhere, the Stranger Things breakout star, Finn Wolfhard, gave his thoughts on the same question in an interview with That Shelf, stating, “I think probably The Goonies and E.T. overall… or Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Those are all great movies!”.
Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind is something of a forgotten gem in his glittering filmography, with the influential science fiction flick causing quite a stir when it was released back in 1977. Starring Richard Dreyfuss, Melinda Dillon, and the iconic French filmmaker François Truffaut, the sci-fi tale is about a UFO sighting that turns the life of an electric lineman on its head.
