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I'm chasing rip-offs and wondered if you'd be kind enough to help with some recommendations. I'm interested in anything released vaguely during the VHS era that rips off a successful movie (not just the usual suspects like Star Wars, Mad Max, Alien, literally anything!). Obviously I've seen many of the better known ones but don't worry about that, theres on harm in recommending something obvious. But it's the lesser known and foreign ones that I don't want to slip through the cracks. I thought I had a pretty good handle on these things but, man, it's harder researching some of them than I expected!

Wanna make a terrible ET ripoff but with a limited budget?

Save BIG BUCKS on makeup by hiring some poor kid with Progeria (accelerated aging disease) to play the alien.

AURORA ENCOUNTER

! No longer available (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEhG4hHxuWs#)

Based on a true story!

I know your Bad Movie-Fu is strong, but this thread I made last year on THE EXCORCIST and THE OMEN rip-off's might mention a few you haven't seen...
http://www.badmovies.org/forum/index.php/topic,149237.0.html (http://www.badmovies.org/forum/index.php/topic,149237.0.html)

 
.NIGHT OF THE ZOMBIES (1981) is  a SHOCK WAVES (1977) rip off directed by Joel ( BLOODSUCKING FREAKS) Reed and starring porn star Jamie Gillis trying to go legit, so that gives ya an idea of the level of acting.

http://youtu.be/-5h2oYc343c (http://youtu.be/-5h2oYc343c)

You can watch the whole frushlugginer thing here-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-n2cdARFpTA (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-n2cdARFpTA)

Of course the Nazi zombie genre also includes Jean Rollins ZOMBIE LAKE (1981) and Jess Franco's OASIS OF THE ZOMBIES (1980).

 1943's REVENGE OF THE ZOMBIES and the FROZEN DEAD (1966) were precursor's to SHOCK WAVES-and later films include the BLOOD SNOW series and the OUTPOST series.

I might suggest The Vampire Bat (1933.) http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024727/ (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0024727/)

Now, I don't think they were ripping off Dracula per-se, but I'm fairly sure it was made to capitalize on other horror films' successes. It does seem to mix bits of Dracula and Frankenstein's stories.

I've read that Unknown Island (http://www.badmovies.org/movies/unknownisle/ (http://www.badmovies.org/movies/unknownisle/)) is a King Kong ripoff. Still need to see it. (Island, not Kong.)

Speaking of Kong, you might want to check out Konga, tho that might've had some sort of license.

And there's always Gamera, the other giant Japanese monster. Yes, he's fairly well known, but the shear craziness of the franchise is interesting. You might want to pay special attention to Super Monster Gamera, which could be considered a rip-off of three movies. Review: http://www.badmovies.org/othermovies/supergamera/ (http://www.badmovies.org/othermovies/supergamera/)

Also note that some popular movies are themselves ripoffs; Star Wars was Lucas' attempt to make his own version of Flash Gordon; King Kong is arguably a  loose re-working of The Lost World, and Ray Harryhausen felt Godzilla was a bit too close to The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN VS. ZOMBIES is one of my all-time favorite ripoff movies!

The scifi channel openly described. 'Leviathan' as 'the greatest alien rip off ever made'.  Yes,  in those words.  Trust me.

Battle beyond the stars was a good star wars rip off.  Plus Sybil Danning's b3wbz were a lot bigger and better displayed than carrie Fisher's.

Ultraviolet was the only rip off of Aeon Flux ever made so I guess that makes it the best one.

A.P. E. X.  Had time travelling killer machines from the future so it was a terminator rip off with kinda cool robot costumes.

Back in the olden days when JAWS ripoffs didn't involve lousy, tongue-in-cheek CGI but did involve some old Hollywood stars, wet Italians, and a visit to the local fisherman's market for your monster.

! No longer available (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6IgJ56adJaU#)

That's horrible in more ways than one.  :buggedout:

You could likely write a book on Bond rip-offs alone, but the most insane is the Double O Weng Weng movies- FOR Y'UR HEIGHT ONLY (1981) and the IMPOSSIBLE KID (1982)

http://youtu.be/9OxB-jq5XLY (http://youtu.be/9OxB-jq5XLY)

Could karloff's "the mummy " be called a rip off of lugosi's Dracula?  Consider:

Both movies had an undead creature seeking his lost love's reincarnation.
Both movies had the undead masquerading as a foreign human.
Both had Edward Sloan as a wise educated man determined to stop the undead creature.

And both were written by the same person- John L. Balderston.

I wouldn't say Lugosi's Dracula is seeking the reincarnation of a lost love-it's not in the story line-but the movies are quite close .

Filmed right here in historic Savannah!

I thought about signing up to be an extra - but I didn't.

I may be wrong but wasn't that movie made because the kid wanted to be in a movie and tyey made it so he could be in it? It's been a very long tie since I heard about it though.

ET clones seem to be surprisingly thin on the ground once you get beyond the couple of famous ones. I've never heard of The Aurora Encounter so that's a great one to seek out.

I'm a huge fan of Weng Weng so Double O will feature heavily! Zombies too, but it's kind of tricky laying out a simple timeline of influences. Same goes for slasher movies. You want to say Halloween kind of inspired everything that followed (not saying it was the first slasher, just the one that blew the genre up and became a template). But Friday the 13th kind of popularised just as many slasher tropes (the isolated location, revenge as motive, elaborate kills becoming the entertainment). But even Sean Cunningham admits it was a rip-off of Halloween itself... there's a lot to chew on.

There are a few others here for me to check out too. More are welcome but thanks for this little lot.

Reptilian (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0272425/) was a pretty watchable Godzilla rip-off, especially compared to the 1998 Godzilla movie.

For awhile now I've thought ET itself may have been a ripoff of The Cat from Outer Space (1979.)

How about a rip off of a rip off.

Claws (not the 2017 or 2018 films, but the 1977 film) which was a rip off of Grizzly (1976) which was itself a rip off of Jaws (1975.)

And I've never seen it, never want to see it, but the porn version of E.T., where E.T. stands for Extra Testicle.

think I saw some merchandise from that one...

(https://static.squarespace.com/static/51b3dc8ee4b051b96ceb10de/51ce6099e4b0d911b4489b79/51ce61d8e4b0d911b44a34cc/1341357953577/1000w/ET-Light-Finger.jpg)

 :teddyr:

I can see why. I've read that in Hollywood circles it's widely believed ET shamelessly rips off a script written by Indian arthouse darling Satyajit Ray. Arthur C. Clarke is one of many high profile people who saw the Ray script and then called out ET as a straight up copy.

In many ways RESERVOIR DOGS (1992) rips of KANSAS CITY CONFIDENTIAL (1952).

Of course Tarantino rips off all sorts of movies in ALL of his films. Though I like his movies-he's never had an original thought in his brain.