10 Recent Movies That Were HUGE Ripoffs
1. Scream VI
A bit of a controversial choice to end this list, then, because Scream VI asks fans to consider where the line between "homage" and ripoff lies, and unlike every other film mentioned here, it overzealously borrows from a prior entry into the franchise.
If 2022's fifth Scream film was basically a soft reboot which held a mirror up to the original 1996 slasher film, it at least had enough new ideas of its own to not feel like a pure retread.
Scream VI, however, tests the audience's capacity for familiarity, given how egregiously it goes the disappointingly lazy path of just... lifting elements wholesale from Scream 2.
Like the original Scream sequel, Scream VI shifts the setting away from Woodsboro to college, Gale (Courteney Cox) gets punched in the face, Sam's (Melissa Barrera) boyfriend is suspected of being Ghostface but ultimately innocent, the third act takes place in a theater, one of the killers is a parent of a prior Ghostface, and the killers' motive is good old-fashioned revenge.
It's just leaning too heavily on what came before, and while it's clearly not trying to disguise that fact, it does come off as rather unimaginative, if not outright lazy, after successfully bringing the series back to prominence with the previous film.
Needless to say, if Scream 7 does ever actually happen, it'll need to try harder than just rehashing the broad plot beats of Scream 3.