10 Rip-Off Movies (That Messed Up What They Copied)

When Joe Dante’s beloved horror comedy masterpiece Gremlins hit screens in 1984 it was a bona fide phenomenon. Comparable only to the same year’s Ghostbusters in terms of enduring pop culture popularity, the movie was adored by audiences, prompting a slew of inevitable rip offs in coming years.

Much like the easily adapted slasher formula set out by Halloween, the enduring appeal of little monsters wreaking havoc after accidentally being freed by irresponsible youths proved popular enough for many of the knock off franchises to have long runs of their own.

Matthew Lillard’s onscreen debut came in the form of Ghoulies 3: Ghoulies go to College, whilst Leonardo DiCaprio first starred in Critters 3 (wherein the titular beasts do not, regrettably, attend any institution of higher education).

Alone among these flicks, though, is 1986’s Troll, which replaced the eponymous pack of pint-sized ghouls with an individual creature, who is himself actually a cursed wizard.

So, within minutes it becomes less of a Gremlins clone and closer to a Harry Potter predecessor - close enough that legendary producer Charles Band was asked about the suspicious similarities years later.

The film did fine (and clearly inspired some authors greatly), but without a pack of titular threats to terrorize kids it sank from public memory soon after release, best recalled for its technically-actually-totally-unrelated “sequel”, the infamous Troll 2.