10 Ripped Off Characters Movies Didn't Even Try To Hide

This one stings, admittedly, because we all love effects maestro Stan Winston’s iconic contributions to genre filmmaking. The monster man has a place in our hearts alongside Tom Savini and the grandad of onscreen monster-dom Ray Harryhausen for his superb work on everything from the Terminator series to the Alien movies to the era-defining effects he contributed to Jurassic Park.

And there’s nothing wrong with cribbing a bit of inspiration here and there, like sneaking the odd answer on a test you pretty much answered by yourself. Pumpkinhead’s plot, for example, is fun and inventive, a gruesome, darkly comic, cautionary folk tale which could have come from the pen of Stephen King or one of Tales from the Crypt’s more inspired outings.

The flick follows a grieving father who summons the titular monster to exact extrajudicial revenge on a gang who killed his young son, only for the ghoul to wreak more havoc than anticipated. Which should come as no surprise since, from his first appearance onscreen, it’s pretty clear Pumpkinhead bears as close a resemblance to Alien’s eponymous Xenomorph as any piece of produce.

The exoskeletal spine and pointy limbs are strike one, but his elongated skull pretty much seals it. Still, Winston had a hand in the original Alien, so we can excuse a bit of self-plagiarism.