Sometimes when a movie is made, and does really well at the box office and with the audience and critics, it sends a message throughout Hollywood that that specific format works. This message can be used as a reference point in future productions, or it can be used to rip off the original work.
The term “rip-off” has a bit of a negative connotation and is usually used in reference to works that don’t live up to the original and come off as unwatchable. Take Ghoulies, for example. This horror/comedy is a twisted rip-off of the successful '80s classic, Gremlins. While Gremlins was a major hit and is still well-loved to this day, Ghoulies did not experience the same attention. Instead, it was quite the flop and sits at an 8% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, serving as a lesson that ripping off the greats isn’t always a good idea.
However, sometimes it does work out and ends up being a great success — whether it’s a direct rip-off, or just takes heavy inspiration from a previous movie. This can happen in any genre, but it’s very common in horror movies. Sometimes certain tropes just work really well, like killer sharks and murderous babysitter-stalkers, leading them to be ripped off and reimagined in later films.
Here are five instances where a classic horror film was ripped-off, but turned out to be pretty good.
Updated in May 2023: If you are a fan of classic horror film rip-offs, you'll be pleased to know this article was updated to add more entries by Danilo Raul.
10 Pitch Black (2000)
Universal Pictures
This sci-fi/horror from the 2000s really put Vin Diesel on the map as the dangerous criminal Richard Riddick. Pitch Black is essentially about a group of people that stumble upon a desert planet that's inhabited by predatory aliens. Upon its release, critics didn't love the movie and found it to be a tired attempt at the scary alien genre. However, it became a hit among general audiences, amassing a sort of cult following that led to the sequels The Chronicles of Riddick in 2004 and Riddick in 2013.
Following the success of Ridley Scott's revolutionary sci-fi/horror movie Alien in 1979, the killer extraterrestrial trope became a fan favorite, leading to several different takes on the concept — like Pitch Black. Even the alien creatures in Pitch Black slightly resemble those in the original Alien. Pitch Black doesn't feel like a rip-off in a bad way. For its time, it's pretty good, and it features a few different elements than Scott's Alien did, making the movies similar, but both are good in their own right.
9 Dog Soldiers (2002)
Dog Soldiers is an action-packed werewolf horror movie by British director Neil Marshall (Hellboy). There are plenty of subpar werewolf movies out there, and in 2002, when Dog Soldiers was released, the werewolf genre was really on its way out. But despite all the corny werewolf flicks out there, Dog Soldiers is actually really good. It's funny, full of quality action and frights, and just a good time all around.
When interviewed about the movie, Marshall said Dog Soldiers takes a lot from horror classics like Night of the Living Dead and others like The Howling, An American Werewolf in London, and even some shot ideas from Alien. Even though it may be a ripped-off, reimagined movie made from a cocktail of horror classics, Dog Soldiers is one of the best werewolf movies out there, and it holds up even 20 years later.
8 REC (2007)
When The Blair Witch Project debuted in 1999, it completely revolutionized the horror genre by introducing the "found footage" storytelling method. This shaky camera work made the characters feel real and genuine and attempts to put the audience in the center of the action, seeing scenes unfold just as the actors are. The Blair Witch Project led to similar works like Paranormal Activity and Cloverfield, but one of the most obvious rip-offs is the 2007 Spanish horror movie, REC.
REC is about a TV reporter and her crew who accompany a team of firefighters into an apartment building where they become locked inside and soon realize a zombie-like infection is spreading. Despite being extremely similar to its source of inspiration, REC was very successful and spawned a series with three sequels following the original. REC was also remade in the U.S., under the title Quarantine, in 2008, though its reception didn't beat out the original Spanish version.
7 Piranha (1978)
Jaws is the movie that brought us the summer blockbuster, thanks to Steven Spielberg in 1975. The movie about a killer shark terrified people off the beach for the summer and was a major success. The success of Jaws led to a rise in creature features, with other directors and producers looking to capitalize on the monster movie craze that Spielberg's shark reignited.
Piranha follows the Jaws plot pretty closely, just replacing the shark with man-eating piranhas and adding a little comedy and low-budget charm. However, Joe Dante's (The 'Burbs) Piranha, which was released in 1978, feels a lot more like a love letter to Jaws rather than a direct rip-off. However, the other movies, like Orca and Lake Placid, that feel more like rip-offs really aren't worth the watch today. Piranha, on the other hand, is clever and funny and became a cult film, spawning sequels and remakes in later years.
6 House of 1000 Corpses (2003)
This 2003 dark comedy/horror was written, directed, and co-scored by musician/filmmaker Rob Zombie. It's about a group of teens on a road trip who wind up in the middle of nowhere and get kidnapped and tortured by a creepy, psychotic family — all during Halloween. The plot may sound a little familiar, and that's because you've likely seen it before in the 1974 horror classic The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.
House of 1000 Corpses was Zombie's directorial debut. Zombie is known for his gritty, gorey style, and aesthetic, which may turn off a lot of viewers, but nonetheless, the movie amassed a cult following and was successful enough for Zombie to build a trilogy featuring some of House of 1000 Corpses' signature characters. Critics reacted pretty negatively to the movie upon its release, but that didn't stop fans from loving it and turning it into a Halloween season must-watch. On top of the two sequels, House of 1000 Corpses was also a themed haunted house at the coveted Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios in 2019.
5 Beyond the Door (1974)
Italian films are always ripe for rip-offs, especially since many ideas in the genre are easy to copy and paste with a brand-new character pursuing a similar concept. This time, we have the cult classic Beyond the Door, a 1974 film written and directed by Ovidio G. Assonitis and Roberto Piazzoli. We dare you to find the differences between Jason Voorhees and Michael Myers. The premise for both characters is so close is almost awkward. To say this single entry is packing a lot would be an understatement.
The basic plot of Beyond the Door takes multiple elements from The Exorcist and Rosemary's Baby. It all begins with a young pregnant woman named Jessica, who suddenly experiences violent mood swings, hallucinations, and poltergeist phenomena. Her confident obstetrician, a man named George, discovers the baby she's carrying is evolving at an abnormally fast rate. Jessica's behavior becomes increasingly horrific and demonic as many supernatural occurrences terrorize the Barrett household.
4 Dolly Dearest (1991)
Child's Play sparked numerous copycats after becoming an overnight hit. However, not many clones achieved much success. Only a single film makes a dent in going beyond the special effects department. Dolly Dearest is a film written and directed by Maria Lease, featuring working actors Denise Crosby, Sam Bottoms, and Rip Torn. Although the film was a box office bomb, it gained cult status as time passed. Many people praised the doll for achieving the maniacal appearance of a deranged killer using only practical effects.
The film's plot takes us to Mexico, where a man named Elliot Wade is the new owner of a Mexican factory near the undergrounds of a Mayan tomb. The spirit of a local deity named Sanzia is released and takes refuge in a porcelain doll named Dolly. When Elliot's family visits, the man's daughter becomes fixated on the doll while influenced by evil spirits. The girl is possessed by Dolly and forced to do heinous acts, while the father has to do everything in his power to save his daughter and expel the demon.
3 Demon Wind (1990)
If there's one film that's been influential in the horror genre is Evil Dead. The misadventures of Ash Williams in the original trilogy marked a visual style many copycats tried to replicate. One such attempt was Demon Wind, a small-scale rip-off written and directed by Charles Philip Moore. Starring Eric Larson, Francine Lapensée, and Rufus Norris. This movie follows the basic plot of the original Evil Dead beat by beat, and while there are some differences, it's hard to oversee how many elements made the transition from one film to another.
Demon Wind is another beloved cult classic that succeeded in the home format. The film's plot begins in 1931 when the demonic presence is revealed to the audience. Years later, a man named Cory, with some of his friends, investigate the murders of the past. The location of their research is charged with demonic entities possessing them individually and making them kill each other. In the aftermath, only two people survive (but no one gets thrown into space-time hijinks)
2 The Frighteners (1996)
The 90s was a great time to see borrowed concepts transition from one film to another. The premise of 1990s Ghost is a romantic drama with small horror elements as the story touches upon the subjects of ghosts as beings who dwell in the world because they still have pending business with the living. The use of ectoplasmic representations was realistic, and the film was very tasteful. Peter Jackson, however, had a whole different set of ideas about the concept.
Enter The Frighteners, an underrated gem of the late '90s with Michael J. Fox, Trini Alvarado, Peter Dobson, and John Astin. Fox plays Frank, a man who can see ghosts after his wife dies in a car accident. Frank becomes fast friends with three spirits who help him "exorcise" haunted houses for a fee. This doesn't bode well with the Grim Reaper, who begins killing people and marking them for death with numbers only Frank can see, which of course, leads the authority to believe he has something to do with the killings. It's a fun film that will keep you on your toes until the end.
1 The Meg (2018)
Jaws is the blueprint for every shark film you have seen since 1975. The movie was highly influential in creating a new horror genre based on natural phenomena. Multiple copycats are changing the source of the menace (as seen in our Piranha entry), yet there are hundreds, if not thousands, of shark films trying to replicate what Jaws did. The shark in Jaws has no real motivation to do what he does. It's just an animal hell-bent on killing people because he's found a food source in a small beach town.
While several attempts are outright unashamed at their attempts, (with movies like Great White, for example), others are subtler. Such is the case for the film The Meg. This 2018 entry is directed by Jon Turteltaub with a script by Dean Georgaris based on the novel of the same name; it's the first big-budget film about sharks made by a large studio since Deep Blue Sea. The plot is pretty simple. Humans disrupt the ocean's depths, and a giant shark gets pissed that people are messing with his environment; the animal escapes to the surface and begins killing everyone. It was a massive box office hit, with a sequel in development.