10 Movie "Ripoffs" That Actually Weren't

The case of The Exorcism is an especially curious one as it's the only film on this list where both the "original" movie and the accused ripoff star the same actor - Russell Crowe.

The Exorcism was a supernatural horror film released this past June, but the moment its first trailer dropped, it bore enough similarities to last year's Crowe-starring romp The Pope's Exorcist that some even believed it to be a sequel.

Though The Exorcism was accused of being a lazy imitation of The Pope's Exorcist, which was a solid box office success, the reality is that The Exorcism was actually shot way back in late 2019, under the title The Georgetown Project.

Additional photography required to complete the project was continually delayed, in part due to the pandemic, until 2023, with post-production not being finished until this past January.

Compare this to The Pope's Exorcist, which was shot in late 2022 and in cinemas by April 2023.

The only thing that The Exorcism is really guilty of is blatantly renaming itself to create an association with The Pope's Exorcist, hoping that audiences would draw the natural conclusion that the two films were related. 

But no, a ripoff it ain't.