Ryan Coogler is one of the most exciting filmmakers working today. He’s the rare writer/director who actually managed to make the jump from doing small independent movies to tackling massive blockbuster franchises without losing his style. Quite the contrary, in an era where the pipeline of Sundance darling to pawn in a superhero or big franchise machine has all but ruined the future of many a once-promising filmmaker, Coogler gave us not one but two exciting creative-driven properties.
First, he revitalized the “Rocky” franchise with the phenomenal “Creed,” one of the best movies of the century and a nuanced and thrilling exploration of nature and nurture, with boxing thrown in for good measure. Coogler’s legacy sequel approach worked wonders, kickstarting a trilogy, allowing Sylvester Stallone to do his best work in the franchise, and making Michael B. Jordan a star.
Next, Coogler went even bigger with “Black Panther” and “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” Once again, even within the Marvel machine, Coogler made these films his own; his “Black Panther” movies are all about grief, joy, and community. Both films also introduced massive worlds with their own cultures and societies, established side characters that became fan favorites, and delivered as many big-scale blockbuster moments as they did intimate ones, including emotional moments comparable to those from Coogler’s celebrated breakout movie “Fruitvale Station.”
Leave it to Coogler to then follow up two superhero movies and a boxing drama not with a small Sundance indie or yet another superhero blockbuster, but with a vampire flick in the form of “Sinners.” Granted, this is not just a vampire film; it’s a Ryan Coogler vampire film starring Michael B. Jordan (playing two roles!), and by the looks of its trailers, we can expect a moody, atmospheric period piece that brings something fresh on the genre. This is true of Coogler’s inspirations for the movie, too, which are a bit outside what you’d expect for a vampire flick.
A little bit of the Coen Brothers and a whole lot of Robert Rodriguez went into Sinners
During a press conference ahead of the release of the new “Sinners” trailer (which you can watch right here), Coogler talked about some of his inspirations while making the film. Surprisingly, rather than looking at some of the most influential vampire movie ever made, like “Nosferatu” or the 1931 film version of “Dracula,” or even any of the more subversive vampire films out there (like “A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night” or “What We Do In The Shadows”), Coogler drew from some pretty outside-the-box titles.
“I drew on so many [inspirations],” Coogler explained. “And it is a very genre fluid film.” Among the ones the filmmaker named were the Coen Brothers, particularly “Inside Llewyn Davis,” “Fargo,” and “No Country for Old Men.” Granted, these make sense given the gritty, Western-like feel of the “Sinners” trailer footage. But while Coogler also named John Carpenter as an influence, he specifically (and unexpectedly) cited Robert Rodriguez as being an even bigger source of inspiration thanks to his film “The Faculty,” one of the best horror movies of the 1990s. It’s a great film, mind you, with an incredible cast and a killer score by Marco Beltrami, but it also make sense that Coogler would take some cues from “The Faculty,” especially for the way it portrays an ensemble of characters slowly coming to terms with an invasion by horror creatures.
Outside the realm of cinema, Coogler indicated he also got a lot of ideas from the Stephen King novel “Salem’s Lot,” which he confirmed was a “massive influence on the film.” According to the filmmaker, it was the fact that the book “is about the town” that inspired him. He added that a major aspect of “Sinners” is the community depicted in the film, rather than the actual vampire aspect of King’s book.
“Sinners” opens in theaters on April 18, 2025.
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