Ryan Coogler has always pushed the boundaries of any given genre. Black Panther is more than a superhero movie, Creed is more than a sports drama — and his latest film, Sinners, is more than a vampire thriller. The horror film is a crowd-pleasing, densely-layered story about a myriad of subjects, from the burden of the supernaturally gifted artist and the fear of “selling out,” to the nuances behind colonization. It’s fitting, then, that Coogler poured so many of his disparate influences into the film, citing everything from Puss in Boots: The Last Wish to a deep-cut episode of The Twilight Zone.
“Truthfully, the biggest influences are not in cinema,” Coogler explained in an interview with SciFiNow. “The novel Salem’s Lot is a massive influence on the film. Then there’s a real deep-cut influence. My favorite thing ever made is The Twilight Zone, and my favorite episode is called ‘The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank.’”
