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In the early months of 2025, moviegoers were graced with Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners,” a film poised to be a standout of the year. Set against the backdrop of the 1930s American South, this original horror narrative chronicles the Smokestack Twins as they venture into the juke joint business. Michael B. Jordan delivers a remarkable double performance, embodying both Smoke and Stack with compelling intensity. The film is a wild mix of sultry musical performances, breathtaking fight scenes, and a peculiar ensemble of Irish vampires crooning folk tunes, creating an exhilarating and unconventional cinematic experience.
Warner Bros. Pictures
Amidst the film’s originality and significant box-office success, Coogler acknowledges a classic television series as part of his inspiration. In an interview with SciFiNow, he shared, “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.’”
“The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank,” a memorable episode from the third season of the legendary anthology series, serves as a touchstone for “Sinners.” The episode follows Jeff Myrtlebank, played by James Best, who astonishingly awakens at his own funeral. The small Southern community in the 1920s is gripped with fear, suspecting Jeff to be a “haint,” a term that Coogler cleverly reimagines for the vampires in “Sinners.” Jeff’s peculiar resurrection leads to mysterious events, blurring the lines between life and death—a theme echoed in Coogler’s film.
Ryan Coogler is not alone in drawing creative inspiration from “The Twilight Zone.” The iconic 1959 series has left an indelible mark on popular culture with its cleverly woven narratives that engage audiences with both entertainment and deeper social reflections. Modern filmmakers frequently look to “The Twilight Zone” for its masterful storytelling techniques.
Among those influenced is M. Night Shyamalan, who credited Rod Serling’s creation on X as an inspiration for his movie “Old.” Guillermo del Toro, another admirer, holds a particular fondness for Serling’s subsequent anthology “Night Gallery.” In the introduction to “Rod Serling’s Night Gallery: An After-Hours Tour,” del Toro expressed, “In my heart, his stories for ‘Night Gallery’ are among the most important influences in my creative life and the way I view the world,” as noted by TheWrap.
Plenty of other directors were influenced by The Twilight Zone
CBS
Ryan Coogler isn’t the only director to draw inspiration from “The Twilight Zone.” The 1959 series made an indelible mark on pop culture through its deliciously-twisty stories, trusting not only that audiences would be entertained, but could read into the metaphors and social commentary. As a result, many modern filmmakers look to “The Twilight Zone” as a guidepost for intriguing storytelling.
That includes M. Night Shyamalan, who shouted out the Rod Serling show on X while listing the inspiration for his film “Old.” Similarly, Guillermo del Toro is a fan, though claims that Serling’s follow-up anthology “Night Gallery” is superior. “In my heart, his stories for ‘Night Gallery’ are among the most important influences in my creative life and the way I view the world,” he wrote in the introduction for the book “Rod Serling’s Night Gallery: An After-Hours Tour” (via TheWrap).
It should also come as no surprise that “Get Out” director Jordan Peele is a big fan; after all, Peele hosted a reboot of “The Twilight Zone” in 2019. “Serling’s show is important. He is a master of parable. He’s a master of allegory,” Peele explained to IndieWire. “And what he did was he spoke to society through stories.” Such bold storytelling created a ripple effect that lives on in the works of Peele and Ryan Coogler alike.
Ryan Coogler was also inspired by a Disney Channel Original Movie
The Disney Channel
In the SciFiNow interview where Ryan Coogler revealed other unlikely influences on “Sinners,” including the Stephen King novel “‘Salem’s Lot,” the Robert Rodriguez film “The Faculty”, and some of the best Coen Brothers movies, like “Fargo” and “Inside Llewyn Davis.” Months after the film’s release, however, Coogler confessed to an even less obvious source of inspiration for “Sinners” — a 2001 Disney Channel Original Movie called “The Luck of the Irish.”
The film is about a teenage basketball player (Ryan Merriman) who finds himself turning into a leprechaun. At a Deadline event, he said that movie introduced him to the Irish music that shows up in “Sinners.” He recalled, “That was our first introduction to some of the similarities in Irish folk music to, basically, our music. There was a small Irish community in The Bay, and we would talk about it. That movie was kind of a touchpoint for us to jump off of, crazy enough. We’ve been fascinated with that culture in my family.”
“Sinners” is a great case study of how influence can come from anywhere. Taking inspiration from classic pop culture and merging them with more niche favorites from your childhood, can birth something that feels wholly original.