Five movies better than the films they blatantly ripped off
For as long as there have been movies, there have been rip-off movies: from subtle copies to some of the more audacious ‘mockbusters’ like Chop Kick Panda and Ratatoing, if there’s a quick buck to be made, you best believe they’ll be someone there to make it.
Most of these knock-offs are, unsurprisingly, awful paper-thin copies of much better efforts. These films usually find themselves consigned to the bargain bin, if they’re even remembered at all, but sometimes, you get the odd example of a copycat that’s just as good, if not better than the original.
These five films all clearly took inspiration from existing IP, but did such a good job that they’ve managed to carve out lives of their own. Whether they were good in their own right twist or just taking advantage of a serious dropped ball from the other side, they are definitely worth your time, regardless of how they may look.
Do not adjust your screen, as this double vision is entirely intentional.
Five rip-offs that are worth your time
‘Palm Springs’ (Max Barbakow, 2020)
We’re getting the most controversial one out of the way early, because everybody loves a bit of Groundhog Day. The classic comedy featuring Bill Murray reliving the same day over and over again is so popular, it’s become a part of our everyday lexicon. Harold Ramis didn’t invent the concept of a time loop, but anything with that concept released after this was always going to draw comparisons, and of all the Groundhog Day-esque movies to hit theatres since 1993, Palm Springs is easily the best.
Starring Andy Samburg and Cristin Miloti as two wedding guests, this romantic comedy follows many of the same conventions set out by Phil Connors almost two decades earlier. There’s a greater element of mystery to this story, however, as the two leads have great chemistry and the story’s self-awareness puts it a step above so many of the other, more direct clones. Also, and I hate to be that guy, but Groundhog Day has not aged particularly well, for the way Phil pursues Rita is kinda creepy, that pure boy Andy would never.
‘Willy’s Wonderland’ (Kevin Lewis, 2021)
When the original Five Nights at Freddy’s game first came out, people immediately latched onto the creepy, yet simple horror experience with a deep lore and engaging gameplay, and it quickly blossomed into a full-blown franchise, such that a film adaptation was released in 2023, years after it was first teased. Unfortunately, in that time, several contenders emerged from the shadows, and one of them was of course Nicolas Cage.
Two years before the FNAF movie finally saw the light of day, Cage starred in the outlandish comedy horror Willy’s Wonderland, the premise of which is almost identical to the game series. With a group of people trapped in a venue full of creepy animatronics that come to life at night after being possessed by the souls of serial killers, cue a whole load of bashing, crashing, and buckets of blood as Cage and his pals fight to survive the night. The FNAF movie was a bit of a disappointment when it first came out, as fans decried it as too tame and safe, but there were no such complaints about Willy’s Wonderland, a balls-to-the-wall splatter-thon that pushed the concept to its logical extreme, and people loved it.
‘Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror’ (FW Murnau, 1922)
A creepy vampire living in an abandoned castle who lusts after the wife of his estate agent is a tale as old as time, or it’s actually as old as 1897, for that’s when Bram Stoker published Dracula. The Irish author’s seminal text eventually led to a string of movies, the first official one of which was released in 1921, but it wouldn’t get its first major rip-off until one year later. Renaming the title character Count Orlok was about the only thing FW Murnau altered when he made his most famous work, Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror.
Little did Murnau know that, despite not officially being affiliated with the Transylvanian terror, his movie would have just as big a legacy. Nosferatu has also become a major part of the horror canon, as anyone who saw Robert Eggers’ big-budget 2024 remake will know, and given how similar they are, it’s a minor miracle that the two entities have managed to exist separately for as long as they have. Maybe we could get a Freddy vs Jason-style crossover movie at some point…or maybe not.
‘Coco’ (Lee Unkrich, 2017)
The Mexican tradition of Día de los Muertos (‘Day of the Dead’) has inspired storytellers for generations, and it wouldn’t be fair to lump any two movies that centre the holiday in the same category. However, in the mid-2010s, two films came out that were way too similar to ignore, with the first being 2014’s The Book of Life from 20th Century Fox, an animated story centering Manolo, a young man with dreams of becoming a musician who journeys into the afterlife. Three years later came Pixar’s Coco, an animated story about Miguel, a young man with dreams of becoming a musician who journeys into…wait a second!
This is almost certainly a case of parallel invention, but, on paper, the similarities are eerie, which is made even weirder when you remember that Fox would become a part of the Disney fold just a few years later. While The Book of Life is fun, it cannot hold a candle (no pun intended) to its accidental twin, Coco‘s gorgeous animation, beautifully unfolding as a story about family, aspiration, and legacy with one of the best plot twists in Pixar history, which is seriously saying something.
‘The Incredibles’ (Brad Bird, 2004)
One is super strong, one is super stretchy, one can go invisible, and one can set themselves on fire: that’s right, it’s the Fantastic Four! But no, it isn’t, as for this Pixar double bill, we’re looking at one of the company’s most beloved entries, The Incredibles. And while this story about a dysfunctional super-powered family is a total blast, even its most ardent support would have trouble claiming it was truly original.
The comparisons between the Parr clan and Marvel’s first family are clear as day, with even Syndrome, the movie’s tech-savvy, electrically-powered villain, bearing at least a passing resemblance to Doctor Doom. Again, this was years before Disney acquired Marvel Studios, so they had absolutely no right copying Stan Lee’s homework this hard. Nobody cares, though, because The Incredibles is awesome, way better than any of the Fantastic Four movies that have followed it, and was certainly an improvement on the weird, cancelled film from the 1990s. It turns out that, when you’ve got something as good as this, you can be as brazen as you like.
