10 Rip-Off Horror Movies (That Messed Up What They Copied)
5. L’UItimo Squalo
Before you leave this page to open up Google Translate in a different tab, "L'Ultimo Squalo" means "The Last Shark" in Italian.
You'll never guess what this movie rips off...
Originally set to be directed by Ruggero Deodato (the man responsible for Cannibal Holocaust), 1981's L'Ultimo Squalo was eventually made by director Enzo G. Castellari.
Well, in actuality, it was made by Stephen Spielberg and Castellari just copied what he saw.
The film is Jaws, no questions asked. A beachfront town is terrorised by a giant shark, but the corrupt mayor won't take action to stop its killing spree. All it's missing is the phrase "Avremo bisogno di una barca più grande!"
That's "We're going to need a bigger boat" in Italian.
The two films were so identical that Universal Pictures were successfully able to cancel the Italian movie from being shown in North America just one month into its run. See! We aren't the only ones who noticed.
What's even stranger is that, in 1995, another Italian shark movie called Cruel Jaws spliced footage from this film and the actual Jaws together to create a brand new movie!
A plagarism of a plagarism, now we've seen everything.