Coogler didn't just watch John Carpenter's The Thing in preparation for Sinners. He kept a large poster of it in his office for the entire production. He has called it his "favorite horror movie of all time."
That tells you where this film comes from.
Here are all the films, and one song, Ryan Coogler explicitly named in interviews as influences on Sinners.
The Thing (1982, dir. John Carpenter)
The central horror logic of Sinners is Carpenter's: a group sealed in a confined space, unable to trust each other, tested by something that wears a human face.
Coogler told SciFiNow: "A lot of Carpenter in the film." The direct homage is visible in a specific scene: Smoke passes a jar of pickled garlic to rule out vampires in the group. It's the blood test scene from The Thing, rewritten for the Delta.
Salem's Lot (1979 TV miniseries, dir. Tobe Hooper / Stephen King novel)
Coogler called Stephen King's source novel "the greatest vampire story I've ever read." It is his most-cited single influence on the film.
He told SciFiNow and Democracy Now: "Salem's Lot and 'The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank' are probably the biggest influences."
What Coogler took from King: the structural method. King described writing Salem's Lot as "basically a combination of Peyton Place and Dracula." He transplanted archetypal horror into a specific American community with its own social strata and secrets. Coogler did the same with the 1932 Mississippi Delta.
Near Dark (1987, dir. Kathryn Bigelow)
Coogler had never seen this film before prepping Sinners. He tracked down a region-free Blu-ray to get a copy due to the film's longstanding distribution problems.
He called it "a masterful movie" and described its "massive influence" in a post-release interview. What he responded to: "The vampires felt like a family, and that Near Dark has that idea of isolation built in as well."
That's the emotional texture Remmick offers. Not just predation. A surrogate family. A place to belong.
Lovers Rock (2020, dir. Steve McQueen)
The 30-plus minute juke joint sequence in Sinners has a direct template. McQueen's Lovers Rock is a 68-minute film set almost entirely inside a 1980 West Indian house party in South London.
Coogler cited it as his favorite McQueen film. He said McQueen "showed how people could be providing a space for people to be their fully authentic selves" at a community gathering, and that "the whole world can be contained in those four walls."
That's what the juke joint sequence is: a community shown in full humanity before it's threatened.
From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) + The Faculty (1998), both dir. Robert Rodriguez
Coogler named Rodriguez as "a big one." From Dusk Till Dawn is "on the nose" as a comparison: both films begin as crime dramas and pivot hard into vampire horror.
He was more specific about The Faculty, Rodriguez's remake of The Thing set in a high school: "one of my favorite horror movies." The Faculty takes Carpenter's paranoid body-horror logic and places it inside a closed social environment. That's exactly what Sinners does with the juke joint.
The Coen Brothers: Inside Llewyn Davis, O Brother Where Art Thou?, No Country for Old Men
Direct quote from Coogler (SciFiNow):
"It's genre-fluid so there's also a lot of Coen brothers' influence in this, starting with Inside Llewyn Davis. There's some O Brother, Where Art Thou?, some Fargo, definitely some No Country For Old Men."
The lineup makes sense. Llewyn Davis for the folk musician trapped in a specific American cultural moment. O Brother for Depression-era South, blues mythology, and the mythology of the devil at the crossroads. No Country for an antagonist who cannot be reasoned with and represents something larger than himself.
Puss in Boots: The Last Wish (2022, dir. Joel Crawford)
This is the one that surprises people.
Coogler on the Get Rec'd podcast: "That's a massive one. Think about the villain. Think about his defining features."
The villain Remmick in Sinners has red eyes, a patient menace, and a joyful quality when he does violence. Coogler modeled these directly on Death/the Wolf in Puss in Boots: The Last Wish. Both characters are ancient, relentless, philosophically loaded, and almost playful in their pursuit.
Metallica's "One" (1988) as Structural Blueprint
This is not a film, but it functions like one here.
Coogler (American Songwriter): "I wanted the movie to feel like a song. So I used Metallica's 'One.' It starts off intense, then gets melodic. And going somewhere just fucking crazy. But by the time you're finished, it was clear you were always going to get there."
He used the song's structure — melodic verse to thrash bridge to chaotic outro — as the formal model for the film's pacing. Not a mood reference. A blueprint.
Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich played on composer Ludwig Göransson's score for the film.
The Bottom Line
Sinners is the most-nominated film at the 98th Academy Awards with 16 nominations. It's currently tracking at around 15% odds to win Best Picture, behind the frontrunner One Battle After Another.
Track live odds at waitingforamacguffin.com.
For the complete Best Picture odds across all nominees, visit our Nominees Browser.