10 Horror Movie Ripoffs That Are Worth Watching

“It’s just a ripoff” is an easy dismissal for a movie that you don’t like. However, film history is littered with titles that have liberally ripped off hits that came before them and reconfigure those stolen elements into something truly special in their own right.

On this list, we’ll break down 10 of the horror genre’s greatest ripoffs, including multiple titles that are all-time classics. After all, while good artists borrow, great artists steal. (I didn’t come up with that quote, because I too am a great artist.)

10. Disturbing Behavior (1998)

The post-Scream 1990s teen horror movie Disturbing Behavior, which is a Stepford Wives-style story about the new kid in town (James Marsden) discovering a strange conspiracy to turn teenagers into squeaky-clean perfect students, isn’t even a Stepford Wives ripoff. Well, it is, but another movie got there first.

1981’s Strange Behavior (which was co-written by Dreamgirls director Bill Condon!) translated Stepford to the high school milieu first, and Disturbing Behavior steals so much from it that it couldn’t even deliver a 100% original title. However, it’s still a slick, cool, fun horror movie in the The Faculty mold, and it boasts a surprisingly deep bench of stars in its cast, including Katie Holmes, Bruce Greenwood, William Sadler, Steve Railsback, and Ethan Embry.

9. Orca: The Killer Whale (1977)

One of the first ripoffs of Steven Spielberg’s 1975 killer shark hit Jaws is also one of the best. In addition to being one of the few ripoffs to feature an aquatic terror that isn’t just another giant shark, this delightful film produced by schlockmeister Dino De Laurentiis features yet another star-studded cast, which includes two-time Oscar nominee Richard Harris (the original Dumbledore!), Will Sampson, Bo Derek, and Oscar nominee Charlotte Rampling.

8. Friday the 13th (1980)

There’s no denying that Friday the 13th is a blatant ripoff of John Carpenter’s 1978 slasher hit Halloween. In fact, the movie’s screenwriter, Victor Miller, later told Horrornews.net that director Sean S. Cunningham called him around 1979 and said, “Halloween is making a lot of money, let’s rip it off.” Even without that admission, Friday the 13th’s knife-wielding killer, teenage characters who have sex then get murdered, and special occasion-themed title speak for themselves.

However, Friday the 13th ramped up the gore, putting the impeccable work of special effects maestro Tom Savini front and center. In doing so, it cemented itself as a horror classic and ignited the slasher boom of the 1980s. Not too shabby for a cheap little ripoff.

7. Sleepaway Camp (1983)

Appropriately, Friday the 13th got a ripoff of its own in the form of the later summer camp slasher Sleepaway Camp. While the 1983 movie has elements that rightfully render it controversial (to the point that it forms the thematic spine of Jane Schoenbrun’s 2026 slasher riff Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma), it’s a fun, nasty-minded horror movie that frankly admits that kids can be truly awful to one another, particularly in the lawless realm of summer camp.

6. Bad Dreams (1988)

Another notable slasher ripoff is Bad Dreams, which came out four years after Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street reinvigorated the 1980s slasher boom. The movie, which was directed by The Craft’s Andrew Fleming, is essentially a remix of the entire Elm Street franchise up to that point. It steals Freddy Krueger wholecloth, as it focuses on a dead killer with a burned face returning in an incorporeal form to kill teenagers. It also takes its setting (a psychiatric hospital) and its lead actress (Jennifer Rubin) from 1987’s A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors. However, that doesn’t prevent it from being an enjoyable supernatural horror movie in its own right.

5. Strait-Jacket (1964)

William Castle’s 1964 movie Strait-Jacket is a ripoff twofer. In addition to being one of many 1960s proto-slasher movies to rip off Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, it also steals liberally from the hagsploitation classic What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, including featuring one of its stars - Joan Crawford - in the lead role. This worked out great, because it’s a heady combination of the two subgenres that is anchored by a terrific performance from an Oscar-winning actress. No complaints here!

4. Midsommar (2019)

While Ari Aster’s Midsommar is a blatant riff on the “outsider being drawn into an isolated pagan cult” storyline of 1973’s The Wicker Man, it still packs a wallop. Thanks to the disorienting atmosphere that Aster drums up, Florence Pugh’s star-making lead performance, and a rich vein of hilarious comic relief, the 2019 movie very much holds up as a modern classic.

3. Slither (2006)

James Gunn’s feature directorial debut, Slither, is as naked a ripoff as they come. While the characters and setting are different, the entire premise of alien worms taking over people’s brains and turning them into zombies comes from the 1986 cult movie Night of the Creeps. However, Gunn ups the ante with his signature dark humor, retro soundtrack (he was doing that long before Guardians of the Galaxy!), and updated special effects that are stomach-churningly grotesque.

2. Nosferatu (1922)

F. W. Murnau’s Nosferatu is one of the most well-respected horror movies in history. The 1922 silent movie is one of the prime examples of the aesthetic and atmospheric power of German expressionism. However, the movie is a ripoff to the degree that it was almost lost forever.

The story that Nosferatu tells is basically just Bram Stoker’s Dracula but with a coat of paint on it and the characters’ names changed. Bram Stoker’s widow, Florence Stoker, thought so too. She sued the production successfully and the verdict was that all prints should be destroyed. Thankfully, this initiative wasn’t entirely successful.

1. Godzilla (1954)

Ishirō Honda's Godzilla is, in a word, a masterpiece. It’s a satisfying giant monster movie that is also resoundingly melancholy and terrifying thanks to the ways that its storyline evokes the devastating impact of the nuclear bomb on Japan. However, it wouldn’t exist if not for the 1953 Ray Harryhausen movie The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, which features (get this) nuclear testing unleashing a rampaging dinosaur.

So what are some horror ripoffs that you love, and did they make the list? Sound off in the comments below!