It's an invigorating chase thriller, but where Spielberg once seemed to be leading the culture, he's now following decades of lore and mythology.

As a child, Steven Spielberg stared at a meteor shower and began his love affair with the sky. The director of the 1977 classic "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" returns with "Disclosure Day," which imagines closely-held secrets surrounding alien visitations.

What Roy Mauritsen remembers about seeing Steven Spielberg’s "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" as a boy is the looming shape of Devils Tower. For a kid growing up in Suffolk County, the peculiarly flat-topped rock formation in Wyoming — which serves as the site of a mind-boggling meeting between mankind and alien-kind — was a mysterious and mesmerizing image.

The legendary director says he's still waiting for his own alien encounter.

With Steven Spielberg’s new extraterrestrial film Disclosure Day just out, it’s the ideal time to watch Close Encounter of the Third Kind – perhaps the perfect UFO film, says film columnist Bethan Ack

The release of the film comes amid the release of numerous UFO files from the US government over the last few months.

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. If you're seeking the best UFO documentaries, we have done a deep-dive into aliens ...

Steven Spielberg’s fourth film about alien encounters is “Disclosure Day,” following “ET: The Extra-Terrestrial,” “War of the Worlds,” and “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.” That inspired us to take another look at what Roger Ebert thought about some of the most famous and infamous alien movies,