Polygon.com / 19.04.25

This lesser-known Twilight Zone episode was a major inspiration on Ryan Coogler's Sinners

Ryan Coogler, the Academy Award-nominated director of Creed and Black Panther, hasnt been shy at all about citing the various inspirations behind his new horror thriller Sinners. In the weeks leading up to the films premiere, Coogler has been making the rounds along the press circuit, drumming up excitement and talking at length about the creative process behind his latest original feature. Its a genre-fluid film, Coogler told SciFiNow in January. There are vampires in the film, okay, but its really about a lot more than just that. Its one of many elements and I think were gonna surprise people with it. Cooglers right; theres a lot more to Sinners than first meets the eye, and thats especially apparent from the breadth of influences Coogler has pulled from while writing the films script. Hes cited From Dusk Till Dawn, The Faculty, the oeuvre of the Coen brothers, and even Puss in Boots: The Last Wish as inspirations behind Sinners, though the most intriguing reference hes nodded to mig...
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