Lots of parodies of Spielberg in this movie.

The frog-dissection sequence makes fun of a similar scene in E.T., and the scene where Bud Cort tries to be friendly with the aliens (and gets zapped instead) seems like a response to the sci-fi optimism of Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

I guess Tobe Hooper was still smarting from the rough partnership he had with Spielberg during the making of Poltergeist -- though Spielberg later did give Hooper some directing jobs on both Amazing Stories and Taken.