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Who knew that Ryan Coogler was such a massive horror nerd?

Of course at this point, the answer to that is "everyone," as his 2025 vampire screamer Sinners has had the fright world buzzing with its sustained success. But even as the Black Panther director was working on his giant franchise hits in both the MCU and Rocky universes, horror was near-and-dear to his heart, and now that Sinners has helped him stake (heh) a claim as one of the great modern horror filmmakers, we get to hear more about the scary stories he loves.

As it turns out, if it wasn't for his love of a particular frightener, presented on legendary TV series The Twilight Zone, Coogler's Sinners might have looked very different.

Speaking to Richard Newby in Issue #27 of Fangoria, Coogler waxed poetic about his love for the 1959 classic of chiller TV, created and hosted by Rod Serling, but said that one episode stands out above the rest for him.

"My favorite one," said Coogler, "Is The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank."

In case you don't know, The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank tells the story of a lazy man who wakes up at his own funeral, only to start a new life as a hard worker. However, that's not the only thing that's different about Jeff and... well, I won't spoil the ending for you. I will say, though, that just like Sinners, Myrtlebank is set in the early 20th century American South, and that Coogler tells his interviewer he's "ready for Sinners" having also seen that episode.

"The movie is more of that than it is anything else," says the Creed director.

Calling the episode "so underrated" and "so different from the others," Coogler says that one of the biggest transplants between the 88th Twilight Zone episode and his new vampire film is its humor. "[Sinners] has regional humor. It's humor that feels very much of a place," he says. Coogler also cites Myrtlebank as playing with stereotypes of Southern people, "The idea of the South being slow, and people not being as sharp."

"I was interested in how much of that the film could hold," concludes Coogler. "The wisdom, the sharpness, the hustle, but also, the superstition, the traditionalism, the judgement, all of that can be held in that part of the world at the same time."

Too true, Ryan, especially when that part of the world has some shared territory with the Twilight Zone.

Sinners is in theaters now.

In the immortal words of Danny Elfman, "Life's no fun without a good scare." We couldn't agree more, which is why we've cobbled together a couple pieces to send a chill up your spine. Join Popverse as we explore:

• The best horror movies of all time, according to horror aficionado Greg Silber
• The most underrated horror movies from the past couple years
• All the new and upcoming horror movies for 2025 and beyond

And much gore. Er, more. Much more.