Unless you suffer a head injury and partial amnesia, you can never see a favorite movie for the first time again. But… what if you could? This month, we asked our team to share which flicks they’d love to see completely fresh if they had the chance.

Justin: How cool would it to be able to go through the original Star Wars trilogy for the first time if you’d never seen or heard about it? Or what about getting the thrill of experiencing Jurassic Park in the theater in 1993 as you see dinosaurs for that first time with Grant and Settler? Or to go through some mind-twist of a movie, like Knives Out or The Game, without knowing how it ends? I’d totally be on board for any and all of that.

Sitting Duck: This was a tough one for me, as it’s something I’ve never really thought on. But think on it I did, and I came up with Rough Magik.

There are two scenes in particular that could benefit from seeing again for the first time, though they both hold up reasonably well under multiple viewings. The more obvious choice is the prologue wherein Mrs. Machen sacrifices her children to a Cthulhu idol and her conversation with the constable afterwards, where she remains calm rather than engage in hammy looniness.

The other is the scene where Reese Warren meets Not Wilson, which calls for a bit of background courtesy of the director’s commentary. Partway through the auditions for the character, one performer had an amazing readthrough, giving the character a fitting offness. Even so, it was decided that the rest of the hopefuls would be seen so they wouldn’t feel that they had wasted their time coming. That’s when they got to Michael Poole who, during his readthrough, belted out a laugh that gave everyone the screaming heebie jeebies and was featured in the final product.

Like I said, both scenes are still quite effective. Even so, there’s the nagging sense that they would be far more potent if experienced without any foreknowledge.

Drake: This is an easy one for me to answer: Alien. I was too young to see it when it came out, so I missed it in the theaters, and unfortunately that meant hearing about THE crucial scene long before I ever saw it.

And, admittedly, my curiosity forced me into picking up the novelization by Alan Dean Foster and reading that as well. So, by the time I finally did see Alien, I was already hip deep in spoilers.

Still, seeing it the first time was pretty amazing nonetheless, and I’m still blown away by the film today. But I have to admit that I’m jealous of anyone who caught it in 1979, and who went in with zero idea of what they were about to see. And I don’t just mean the special effects or the brilliant H.R. Giger designs. Audiences who saw Alien without knowing what they were in for were no doubt completely shocked as each and every cast member that they would have recognized was mercilessly killed off over the movie’s two hours. Yaphet Kotto, the villain from Live and Let Die? Dead. Longtime character actor Harry Dean Stanton? A goner. Tom Skerrit, the obvious triumphant hero of the flick to probably 99% of that late ‘70s audience? Dead as a doornail. But, wait, not Veronica Cartwright? She survived Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds! Surely she’ll be fine? Yeah, not so much.

The fact that a little-known stage actress not only survived, but killed the alien itself when no one else could (and saved the cat!) was a gutsy filmmaking decision that not only ensured Alien a place in the movie hall of fame, but also set the stage for the also excellent Aliens seven years later.

Now that one I did see in the theater. In 70mm with 6-track Dolby Stereo. I can feel your envy from here.

Thomas: Initially I thought about some memorable experiences I’ve had at the cinema, like being blindsided by the reveal at the end of Split (2016), or walloped by emotional revelations in Arrival (2016), or delighting at the mystery of 10 Cloverfield Lane (2016). (Yeah, I had a good time watching movies in 2016!)

But in those cases, the crux of the experience came from a twist or reveal right at the end of the movie. I wanted to think of a movie that bowled me over from start to finish the first time I saw it…

And I found a clear answer. There’s one movie that I’d love to experience all over again from start to finish. And that movie is Speed Racer. Yep, the Wachowskis’ divisive sports action comedy certainly isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but if you’re a fan, you’re a BIG fan (and there are dozens of us!).

Speed Racer is how everything feels when I drink too much coffee: bright, colourful, chaotic, exciting. This is a movie that embraces cheap aesthetics in pursuit of unrelenting visceral delight. It’s filled with shockingly ridiculous hyper-fast animations, actors standing against green screen pulling ridiculous faces, and overly sentimental montages. What’s not to love!?

It’s just so shocking, so unlike anything else, and I’ll never forget the day I first watched it, and how low my jaw hung for all 135 astounding minutes. I’d love to experience that again. It’s just one of those movies where (if your expectations are appropriately calibrated) staring at a screen for two hours feels like being truly alive!

Anthony: There’s a ton of movies I’d love to re-experience again for the first time on a big screen, but I’ll go with my biggest recent regret, not experiencing one specific movie in theatre. Because I only get to do that maybe three times a year, so I go with movies I wanna see badly or I know for a certain fact that I should get the multiplex treatment for. Last year I only did two: Dune Part II and Deadpool & Wolverine. I would have been three if I had not read a rare bad review… for Saturday Night.

So unpopular opinion: Even though I’m a child of the ’80s, I still prefer Jason Reitman’s work over his dad’s. I’m a big fan of what he did with his Ghostbusters revival (not the frozen one though, that one just bored me), and I was looking forward to seeing Saturday Night for one of my rare chances to go out.

I didn’t, shame on me, and when I finally saw the movie on streaming, I was blow the EFF away. I loved every second of it, and yes I know it’s mostly fictional versus what really happened on the night depicted in the movie, but there’s a magic to it that swept me away and never put me down until the end credits were done. Every role is perfectly cast, every performance is a love letter, every music cue gave me tingles.

I honestly hate myself for having let one bad review get to me, and I wish I could get a mulligan on first viewing it, this time on a BIG screen!

ZombieDog: I think is probably the best question so far. This question cuts right to the core of the experience of watching movies. We’re looking for that movie that touches our soul, that makes us laugh out loud, gives us insight into existence, and basically adds to our lives. This is without question why I love movies and why I write about them.

I’ve actually been thinking about it since the moment I first heard it. It’s not as easy as it sounds. I was sitting at the dinner table, and I asked my family the question and all members of my family took just a few seconds, and they had an answer. This surprised me because generally they don’t participate in my writing endeavors, although on this one it seemed like the question resonates.

My problem is that this question dropped me into a paradox. I instantly came up with a list of about 10 movies that I wish I could watch for the first time, the problem is those movies influenced me to a degree that if they were missing their absences would most definitely be felt. Furthermore, many of the movies on the list I watched multiple times, maybe even 10 times or more. With each viewing I gained more insight not just into that particular movie, just as importantly into other movies as well.

It’s more than that though, every movie I watch (especially the ones that mean something) has a story attached to them. Either I watched it with people I loved, watched it during a blizzard, when I was drunk, when I was lonely, or just the sheer power of being enlightened by a film and wherever that took me. The film doesn’t stand by itself; it sticks with me sometimes for days, even weeks.

My answer is this, and I know it’s a copout — my answer is I would rewatch all of them or none of them. To start pulling blocks from the Jenga pile is a dangerous thing. Movies are a cornerstone of my life, along with music, art, and any other thing that enriches my journey.

This is a great question because it not only defines our shared passion, it shows us the importance of growing as a human being. The wonderful (and dreadful) experiences that we have permeate our life with texture and spice. And I wouldn’t trade it for the world.