diff --git a/changes/362.bugfix.rst b/changes/362.bugfix.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..0af2f58a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changes/362.bugfix.rst
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Fix ``INTERNALERROR`` when ``only_rerun`` or ``rerun_except`` is given a bare exception class instead of a list.
diff --git a/src/pytest_rerunfailures.py b/src/pytest_rerunfailures.py
index 279d8360..c50fecd7 100644
--- a/src/pytest_rerunfailures.py
+++ b/src/pytest_rerunfailures.py
@@ -527,7 +527,9 @@ def _get_rerun_filter_regex(item, regex_name):
 
     if rerun_marker is not None and regex_name in rerun_marker.kwargs:
         regex = rerun_marker.kwargs[regex_name]
-        if isinstance(regex, str):
+        if isinstance(regex, str) or (
+            isinstance(regex, type) and issubclass(regex, BaseException)
+        ):
             regex = [regex]
     else:
         regex = getattr(item.session.config.option, regex_name)
diff --git a/tests/test_pytest_rerunfailures.py b/tests/test_pytest_rerunfailures.py
index 092556fb..f77460be 100644
--- a/tests/test_pytest_rerunfailures.py
+++ b/tests/test_pytest_rerunfailures.py
@@ -1765,6 +1765,10 @@ def test_fail():
         ("only_rerun=[ValueError]", False),
         ("rerun_except=[AssertionError]", False),
         ("rerun_except=[ValueError]", True),
+        ("only_rerun=AssertionError", True),
+        ("only_rerun=ValueError", False),
+        ("rerun_except=AssertionError", False),
+        ("rerun_except=ValueError", True),
     ],
 )
 def test_rerun_filter_accepts_exception_classes(testdir, filter_kwarg, should_rerun):