There's an one-time saying that every story has been told. It is basically incommunicable to write a film that is one hundred pct unique, as every type of plot has been thought of in some course or another.

On the other hand, it is easy to forget that filmmakers are movie buffs as well, and many of them want to create an homage to the films that inspired them to make movies by recreating them in some way, which is fine. They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, after all. Most of the time, audiences volition take this and simply lookout the motion picture.

However, there are films that wait like they are not even trying to hibernate the fact that they are copying some other film that was made before it. These films accept left people with their jaw wide open at the audacity of these filmmakers who did the verbal same thing some other filmmaker had already done, and probably better. Information technology is films like these that brand people say that Hollywood has run out of ideas.

Below are films that pretty much flat out copied and pasted text from one screenplay to another with some "pocket-size edits" hither and in that location to somewhat differentiate the ii. Just recall, with the big budgets some of these movies have, it seems equally though lilliputian of it goes toward writing the screenplay if they are making piddling to no effort to create an original story.

10. Friday the 13th (1980) / Halloween (1978)

Mrs. Voorhees (Friday the 13th)

The slasher subgenre in horror films may be seen every bit cheesy nowadays, but back in the late 1970s, they were brand new and revolutionary. It was horror maestro John Carpenter'southward 1978 film "Halloween" that both launched his filmmaking career and the slasher genre that changed the face of modern horror for years to come, especially with its focus on teenage characters.

It only took two years for one of the primeval rip-offs of "Halloween" to be released in the course of "Friday the 13th". In both films, sex-crazed teenagers are the victims of a deranged serial killer with a troubled past that led upward to the murders in the films. Neither motion-picture show had much of a plot, merely it was much more than most the scares, the gore, and the gratuitous sex activity scenes than anything else.

Fifty-fifty "Friday the 13th" director Sean S. Cunningham and writer Victor Miller have since admitted that the film was made to cash in on the success of "Halloween" and the dawn of the slasher genre.

To be fair to "Friday the 13th", information technology took the different route of the original killer being the mother of a young, deformed male child who was victimised. At that place was no sign of a big, creepy masked man with a knife. It was not until the sequel that the more famous Jason Voorhees donned the hockey mask and slaughtered anyone that crossed his path, exactly similar Michael Myers in "Halloween".

nine. Mac and Me (1988) / East.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

The aforementioned "Raiders of the Lost Ark" was non the only Steven Spielberg film from the early on 1980s to have an inferior version of information technology made by other filmmakers who were out to make a buck. Only a yr after "Raiders", Spielberg made another memorable blockbuster with "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial", where an ambrosial alien gets separated from his fellow aliens and befriends a male child named Elliot (Henry Thomas) and his California-based family, who try to help the lost conflicting notice a fashion dorsum to his abode planet and must face off confronting government agents out to capture East.T.

"E.T." was released in 1982, a whole six years earlier "Mac and Me" was released, so it cannot claim its similar plot is but a coincidence. A family moves to California and come into contact with an alien who got separated from his family, who is later named Mac. Two government agents endeavor to capture Mac, who is helped by the human family in thwarting them and in finding his family.

"E.T." is known for being a tearjerker of a film, utilising the theme of a strong friendship at its cadre. "Mac and Me" tries to pull at the heartstrings fifty-fifty more than "E.T." did by having that picture show'due south young boy, Eric (Jade Calegory), be paralysed and confined to a wheelchair. Unfortunately, Calegory is actually paralysed in existent life; information technology could be argued either manner that the filmmakers wanted authenticity or were really trying to maximise how sad the film would be past featuring a actual paraplegic boy.

If that wasn't enough, "Mac and Me" fifty-fifty tries to outdo "E.T." in its employ of product placement. E.T. would ever eat Reese'south Pieces candy and used a Speak & Spell toy to communicate, while Mac would swallow Coca-Cola and Skittles. To make matters worse, as the filmmakers had a profit sharing understanding with McDonald's, in that location's a lot of blatant production placement, including a goofy dance scene at a McDonald'due south restaurant, and even a cameo from Ronald McDonald himself.

With the alien Mac itself, the creature effects in "Mac and Me" are poor and apparently fake, which is extra cringeworthy since the film really had a bigger budget than "Eastward.T." did (probably due to its funding from McDonald's and Coca-Cola). It is one of those films that make viewers wonder where the money from its budget went; it certainly did not go toward the screenwriters to come up upwards with an original story.

8. The Magician (1989) / Rain Man (1988)

"Rain Man" was ane of the almost critically acclaimed movies of 1988, where Dustin Hoffman gives an incredibly believable functioning every bit an autistic human being named Ray who has lived in an establishment for many years, abroad from the real world. His brother Charlie (Tom Prowl) takes him away from the institution on a cross-country bulldoze to obtain the millions of dollars that Ray inherited.

While travelling together to Los Angeles, they bond and Charlie learns that Ray is great at counting cards, so he takes Ray to Las Vegas to win money through gambling. This was a pop and well-received film that won Oscars for Best Actor, Best Picture, All-time Managing director, and Best Original Screenplay.

What was even more than popular during the 1980s was the Nintendo Entertainment System, a video game console that needs no introduction. The famous console pops up throughout the 1989 family moving picture "The Wizard", which is closer to existence a feature-length Nintendo commercial than a feature film. In fact, it pops upwards in scenes where in that location is no need for a Nintendo to be there, such as Christian Slater'southward character plugging in his Nintendo into a TV at a mechanic'due south workshop.

Only what does the tale of a man bonding with his estranged autistic brother have to do with Nintendo? Well, the plot of "The Wizard" is practically a re-create of "Rain Man". Nintendo and "Rain Human being" should in theory be worlds apart, nevertheless they have been united cheers to this film. Akin to the aforementioned plot of "Rain Man", a scheming boy named Corey (Fred Savage) breaks his mentally disturbed brother Jimmy (Luke Edwards) out of a mental institution.

As they travel to "California", the only give-and-take Jimmy can say, Corey discovers that Jimmy tin can easily win at any video game, a talent that Corey wants to utilise to win the Video Armageddon tournament in Los Angeles to prove that Jimmy does not need to be institutionalised, and to win the big prize money.

Despite sounding overly critical of "The Magician", the rip-off of a film is really quite enjoyable if yous are a fan of Nintendo games. The motion picture is a nifty time capsule of the era where this viii-flake panel was truly a marvel of the gaming world. It is too funny and mannerly in its ain correct. Yet, it goes without saying that "Rain Human" is the superior film, and "The Wizard" heavily copied it.

vii. King Solomon's Mines (1985) / Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)

Indiana Jones is ane of the most iconic characters in picture show history, charismatically portrayed by Harrison Ford and created past Steven Spielberg and George Lucas, two of the most powerful figures in Hollywood. Although Spielberg and Lucas were successful before the Indiana Jones series, these films further cemented their reputations as cinematic geniuses.

However, whenever someone makes a highly successful flick, other filmmakers will attempt to emulate that film'southward concept to make a profit. This happened only two years after "Raiders of the Lost Ark" with "Rex Solomon's Mines", made in 1985, where the fortune hunter Allan Quatermain explores Africa to find his client'southward missing father while facing off against hostile tribes and rivals. However, in the outset Indiana Jones film, made in 1981, Indy has to notice his former mentor in Egypt while fighting off Nazis.

The original Allan Quatermain novel, "Male monarch Solomon's Mines", was published in 1885, a full century earlier, starting the fence that the Indiana Jones grapheme is a copy of Quatermain, which is a valid betoken.

However, the 1985 movie "Male monarch Solomon's Mines" was made subsequently 2 Indiana Jones films had rummaged the treasure that is the box office, as the makers of the first Allan Quatermain film circa the 1980s wanted some of that treasure themselves. While the character of Allan Quatermain had been around for a long time past that point, the films were definitely made to capitalise on the success of the Indiana Jones films.

6. Critters (1986) / Gremlins (1984)

Critters

"Gremlins" is one of the most mannerly family unit movies of the 1980s, with creatures chosen Mogwai that can go from existence adorable to vicious in nearly no time. Regardless of what state they were in, these creatures were both hilarious and memorable and fabricated "Gremlins" a popular film. Studios realized that these small assisting creatures defenseless on with audiences, and only 2 years afterwards "Gremlins" was fabricated, "Critters" was released.

In "Gremlins", the first Mogwai creature Gizmo is an innocent and cute niggling brute that could be kept as a pet, provided that the owners followed the strict instructions of the shopkeeper who sold Gizmo to them. Naturally, these instructions were not followed, and Gizmo multiplied and its clone wreaked havoc all over the city. In "Critters", some alien prisoners make their mode to World and cause trouble for the humans that encounter them.

Despite the fact that the origin of the creatures were different, "Gremlins" and "Critters" mostly follow the same basic plot; moving picture studios feel no shame when there is money to exist fabricated from shameless rip-offs. But to be fair to "Critters", there were other "Gremlins" rip-offs in the forms of the Ghoulies, Troll, Hobgoblin, and Munchies films.

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