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.
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5 Pitch Black (2000)
Universal Pictures, Focus Features, & Gramercy 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.
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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 good in their own right.
4 Dog Soldiers (2002)
Pathé
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.
3 REC (2007)
Filmax International
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.
2 Piranha (1978)
New World Pictures
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 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.
1 House of 1000 Corpses
Lionsgate Films
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.
