Most genre work isn’t exactly known for its originality, so when fans of a movie get totally up in arms about a current release being a rip-off…er, reused concept, then the similarities have to be pretty damn close.
Now I’m not talking about Asylum Films who have their own cottage industry of purposely releasing films with titles and concepts curiously similar to megabudget new releases. They are gleefully on this side of piracy and are doing their own unique thing. I’m talking about when you see a trailer, synopsis, or actual movie and think to yourself, “That was just like …”
So let’s check out some flicks that obviously decided another movie was just too kick ass not to copy. Some of them are decent in their own right, most aren’t, but to a pick they certainly weren’t worried about comparisons. Make sure to share your favs by spitting bullets, too!
WARNING – CURIOUSLY SIMILAR IDEAS BELOW!
10. EVE OF DESTRUCTION (Terminator)
I don’t know if it’s fair to call this a redo since it could be argued that it served as inspiration for T3, but either way, what a waste of a great title. Of course instead of featuring a cyborg as hunter, this one gives us action star Gregory Hines (you read that right) trying to chase down a chickbot who is locked in wartime mode and set to self-destruct in a nuclear type fashion. It’s actually even stupider than it sounds.
9. THE COLLECTOR (Saw)
Written and directed by FEAST and later SAW entry writers Patrick Melton and Marcus Dunston, this is pretty much what you’d expect from someone who has found a trick that works and is a bit scared to do anything else. While the concept of two bad guys working a house at the same time is novel, the result in this case becomes a SAW-like trap fest and adds little to that idea that hasn’t been exhaustively covered in the perennial Halloween franchise.
8. CRITTERS (Gremlins)
In the late 80’s I saw a comedienne who looked marginally like Cindy Crawford, and she said that guys dug her because she was the Cindy Crawford they could get. CRITTERS is kinda like that to GREMLINS. A film that is a lot cheaper in style and execution, but that has wisps of the spirit and intent of the original. While the subsequent entries got progressively ridiculous, there is a fair amount of silly fun to be had with this one.
7. FRIDAY THE 13TH (Halloween)
It’s hard to think of slashers as anything other than ubiquitous when it comes to horror, but much like SAW and HOSTEL launched a score of imitators, HALLOWEEN, the first movie of its kind since PSYCHO, kicked off a sub genre that would soon get tramped into the mud. But before it all got so played out that SCREAM had to rebirth that baby, F13 came in and snagged just enough of that glory to make us all love us some Jason (ironic, no?) and launch another towering franchise based on the simple idea of a hulking masked killer.
6. 28 DAYS LATER (Night Of The Living Dead)
Buy the 28 DAYS LATER DVD here
Zombies were, no pun intended, a dead genre outside of comedic half-efforts until Danny Boyle decided to change the rules a bit – he made those f*ckers run! Gone was the general feeling that a zombie apocalypse would be OK because we would be able to outrun those shuffling bastards. I’ve never been as big a fan of the flick as many horror fans, but there’s no denying that this one was a game changer.
STAY TUNED FOR PART 2!