John Carpenter’s horror classic Halloween ended with Jamie Lee Curtis questioning if it was, in fact, the boogeyman who had hounded them, and then Donald Pleasance responding, “As a matter of fact, it was.” That exchange is pretty much responsible for writer/director Ulli Lommel’s film The Boogeyman, an attempt to cash in Carpenter’s film, only…
Tag: rip-off
Tornado! (1996) – Review
When a major studio has a high-profile project in the pipeline it’s not unusual for smaller production houses to try and piggyback their own similar-themed films to capitalize on these bigger releases, especially if that larger film is getting a lot of good buzz, such was the case in 1996 when Hallmark Entertainment made-for-television tornado…
Orca (1977) – Review
With the success of Steven Spielberg’s Summer Blockbuster Jaws, many a film producer scrambled to cash in on that hit with various rip-offs and famed Italian filmmaker Dino De Laurentiis wasn’t going to miss his shot at this burgeoning subgenre, so he turned to his producer friend Luciano Vincenzoni and requested that he “Find a…
The Perils of Gwendoline in the Land of the Yik-Yak (1984) – Review
When you watch Raiders of the Lost Ark one thing is clearly missing, and that would be gratuitous nudity and bondage, which was an oversight that director Just Jaeckin sought to correct with his film Gwendoline (later retitled The Perils of Gwendoline in the Land of the Yik-Yak), and by using a character created by…
A*P*E (1976) – Review
APE practically defines the term “quickie rip-off” as the South Korean film industry, teaming up with an American production company, rushed their Kong rip-off to the screen just ahead of Dino DeLaurentiis’s multi-million dollar King Kong remake.