This lesser-known Twilight Zone episode inspired Ryan Coogler’s Sinners

Ryan Coogler, the Academy Award-nominated director of Creed and Black Panther, hasn’t been shy at all about citing the various inspirations behind his new horror thriller Sinners. In the weeks leading up to the film’s 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. “It’s a genre-fluid film,” Coogler told SciFiNow in January. “There are vampires in the film, okay, but it’s really about a lot more than just that. It’s one of many elements and I think we’re gonna surprise people with it.”

Coogler’s right; there’s a lot more to Sinners than first meets the eye, and that’s especially apparent from the breadth of influences Coogler has pulled from while writing the film’s script. He’s 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 he’s nodded to might be a lesser-known episode of Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone.

“Truthfully, the biggest influences are not in cinema,” Coogler told SciFiNow. “The novel Salem’s Lot is a massive influence on the film. Then 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’ – probably Salem’s Lot and ‘The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank’ are probably the biggest influences.”

Premiering in the third season of The Twilight Zone, the episode centers on Jeff Myrtlebank, a young man living in a small town in the southernmost section of the Midwest who mysteriously returns to life at his own funeral, much to the shock of his loved ones and pastor. Despite their reasonable trepidation, the townspeople declare it a miracle — that is, until rumors begin to swirl regarding minor yet noticeable shifts in Jeff’s behavior following his unexpected resurrection.

“I’m real concerned,” Jeff’s mother tells her husband over breakfast. “He only ate two eggs again; why, ever since he’s sprouted teeth he’s been having three eggs at breakfast.” Jeff’s father notices a change in Jeff as well. “I recollect worrying many times that he leaned just a shade towards the side of shiftlessness,” he says. “And since his sickness, he’s been fighting in that work just like he was a year behind.”

Eventually, these idle rumors become fodder for suspicion and outright hatred of Jeff’s newfound character and candor. It gets so bad that even Comfort Gatewood, Jeff’s own fiancée, begins to doubt that Jeff is who he says he is. “I expect it from the others, but not from you, Comfort,” Jeff tells her in frustration. “I’m getting sick and tired the way everybody treats me like a vampire.”

The conclusion of the episode leaves the question of Jeff’s true nature, as well as that of his resurrection, tantalizingly unanswered, but the most intriguing connection between “The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank” and Coogler’s Sinners is evident in its penultimate moment. When Jeff is surrounded by a group of angry neighbors, Comfort’s brother Orgram accuses him of being a “haint,” a ghostly presence believed to possess the bodies of mortal men for its own nefarious purposes. This same term appears in Sinners, when Wunmi Mosaku’s character, Annie, speaks about the power of music to rend asunder the veil dividing the world of the living and the dead.

Even apart from its connection to Coogler’s latest film, however, “The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank” is a terrific Twilight Zone episode that knows that the most interesting questions are often best left unanswered. It may not be as iconic as “Nightmare at 20000 Feet” or “Five Characters in Search of an Exit,” but it’s nevertheless a great episode to watch whether or not you plan on venturing out to the theater to see Sinners.

The Twilight Zone is available to stream on Pluto TV and Paramount Plus.