10 Best Supernatural Horror Movies to Watch After Sinners

Ryan Coogler’s Sinners has the great claim to fame of being the director’s first original piece of fiction since his debut film, Fruitvale Station. The filmmaker has collaborated with Michael B. Jordan on many occasions, but each film has had inspiration from original source material. His newest venture, a critically celebrated vampire film, was very different.

Jordan was cast in the role of twins — Smoke and Stack. These brothers reached adulthood in the era of Prohibition and Jim Crow and endeavored to find their place in the world. What started as a simple crime film turned into a horror fest when the twins were forced to protect their newly obtained club from the onslaught of vampires. Though not an entirely unique concept, Sinners set itself apart from many vampire movies of its ilk. Nonetheless, for fans thirsting for more content, there are many films they could watch.

From Dusk Till Dawn Was a Precursor to Sinners

Many classics influenced Ryan Coogler and Robert Rodriguez’s 1996 film is one of the most prominent. From Dusk Till Dawn was written by Quentin Tarantino in a film that was deceptive about the appearance of vampires. The writer also starred in the film alongside George Clooney, his onscreen brother. The two played the Geckos, criminal brothers planning to head to Mexico after a crime spree.

Kidnapping a family on vacation, they hightailed it to a dive bar only to realize bloodthirsty vampires ran it. The world of the undead didn’t show up until well into the film, similar to Sinners, which took its time in establishing the world and the characters that populated it. From Dusk Till Dawn was a fight to the death, so only a few could even escape the violence. The structure and set up was similar to Sinners, which was a more serious take on the famous film.

Salem's Lot Also Featured a Community Fighting Against an Undead Horde

Adapted from Stephen King’s second book ever published, Salem’s Lot still remains an archetypal depiction of a town fighting against vampires. Many films have brought the story to the big screen, but Tobe Hooper’s 1979 television event is still considered the ultimate. The story followed Ben Mears, an author who returned to his home of Jerusalem’s Lot just as a vampire fiend set up shop in an antiques store.

Slowly but surely, Barlow’s influence spread over Salem’s Lot as the inhabitants of the town were turned into vampires. Barlow’s motivation is similar to Remmick’s — wanting to spread evil across the world. Remmick may put a nicer face on the whole enterprise, but the citizens fought back furiously in both films against the undead. The endings also coincided with each other, as only a lucky few escaped the nightmare.

Night of the Living Dead Is Social Commentary At Its Finest

The best horror films are ones that comment on society, and George Romero understood this better than anyone. The director who was responsible for making the zombie genre as it is known today came out with a bang in the 1968 film, Night of the Living Dead. Romero would go on to build a successful franchise with his zombie films, but Night was his magnum opus.

Controversial at the time for its graphic display of violence, Night of the Living Dead was a self-aware tale about racism in America. Sinners used the time period to its benefit, showing the realities of Jim Crow America and telling a story about a Black community getting infiltrated. The commentary of Night of the Living Dead is also pointed as the main character, Ben, survived the entire night of horror, only to get shot because the militia confused him for a zombie. This devastating ending was the entire point of the socially aware film.

The Thing Capitalizes on Paranoia In an Enclosed Space

John Carpenter’s The Thing was not celebrated upon first release but has since gone on to be a classic. A modern adaptation of The Thing From Another World, the 1982 film showcased the Vietnam-era concept of a lack of trust. Kurt Russell starred as MacReady, a pilot at a desolate research station in the Arctic. As the men suffered from monotony and the cold, they also had to contend with a shapeshifting alien in their midst.

The titular Thing would consume the inhabitants and take their form in an almost perfect copy, with the sole purpose of turning everyone. MacReady had to suss out who was still human, just as in the similar scene from Sinners. The pilot tested the blood of his compatriots to see who had changed into the evil entity. Sinners subverted this scene to great effect in a love letter to the Carpenter film. Unlike Sinners, however, The Thing ended much more ambiguously in one of the most talked about conclusions to a horror film.

Nosferatu Brought Vampires Back to the Forefront

Over a century after the original picture was released, Robert Eggers revealed his updated version of Nosferatu. Though it took place in 1800s Germany, the film brought the female character of Ellen more to the forefront. When her husband Thomas traveled to a remote estate in his capacity as a lawyer, she had to admit he was in grave danger. Unbeknownst to him, in her most desperate moment, she had called out to the darkness for a lover before she met him.

Count Orlok, the ancient vampire, answered and had never let her go. Wanting her all to himself, Orlok terrorized Ellen’s friends and family until she agreed to be with him. Sinners and Nosferatu are period pieces that show vampire films never really go out of style, especially when they are chock-full of emotion and character development. Even more so, in these films, vampires were a real threat, featured as decaying ghouls instead of the romanticized versions, such as in Anne Rice’s literature.

The Faculty Was Another Inspiration For Sinners

Robert Rodriguez was a major point of interest for Ryan Coogler. After the director came out with From Dusk Till Dawn, he found another creature feature to delve into. The Faculty was released in 1998 and starred Elijah Wood, Clea Duvall, and Josh Hartnett. Springboarding off of ideas present in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the film followed a group of teenagers whose high school was infiltrated by a hive-mind alien.

Infiltration and indoctrination were huge themes in Sinners and present in The Faculty as well. The ragtag group of teens were at the bottom of the barrel. They had to bow to authority as well as in fighting from their own cliques. Their main strength was their camaraderie with each other, which eventually led to figuring out who the queen alien was impersonating. A highly underrated film, The Faculty was an admirable addition to the genre.

Brotherhood Was Essential to The Lost Boys

Vampire fiction subsists on many archetypes which are prevalent in the campy film of the ’80s, The Lost Boys. Set in a fictionalized California town, brothers Michael and Sam moved with their mother and ended up in a hotbed of vampire activity. Though Michael and Sam were separated by quite a few years, the latter didn’t hesitate to save his brother from being one of the undead.

Michael was seduced by the vampire lifestyle and taken in by David and his crew, and eventually, he started to undergo the transformation to turn into a vampire. Sam and his friends rushed to the rescue, discovering that their mother’s new friend Max was actually the vampire master. The Lost Boys was a tale of triumph and ended up significantly better than the Smokestack Twins in Sinners.

Nope Incorporates Social Commentary and Humor

Horror films are in a golden age where artists can tell the socially motivated films of their dreams. Jordan Peele has always incorporated conversations about race into his films, and Nope is his best one yet. Two siblings with a rocky history have to band together to defend their horse training farm from a malicious alien dubbed Jean Jacket. Peele weaved a humorous and terrifying tale about the nature of spectacle.

While Jean Jacket could not be tamed, local entertainer Ricky became convinced he was the only one who would be able to harness this power. He was, of course, proven wrong, and Emerald and OJ had to stop the entity from coming for them next. Nope was also full of deaths and about the power of family. Peele stressed that there is no taming a wild animal, just as vampires could not be tamed.

The Witch Immersed Audiences In Another Time Period

Robert Eggers publicly refused to set any of his movies in a modern time period and for the better. The director’s feature film debut didn’t feature vampires, but another creature steeped in lore. The Witch was an ambitious effort on Eggers’ part, pulling real dialogue from primary sources of 1600s era New England. In the film, William got his family exiled to the wilds for being too puritanical.

With his bare hands, he raised a new homestead for the family, planting their own crops and living an isolated existence. These trials became even more burdensome after Samuel, their newborn son, went missing. Viewers knew this was the work of a witch, but paranoia got the best of the family, and blame was quickly laid on Thomasin, the teenage daughter. Anya Taylor-Joy’s feature film debut as an Eggers leading lady was an impressive one, as her character got pushed further into the arms of the devil. While Sinners took on a commentary about racism in America, The Witch was in a conversation about how sexuality was viewed at the time.

Blade Makes Sinners a Delightful Double Feature

One of the first Rated R Marvel films, Blade was ahead of its time. Adapted from the famous comic book character, Blade starred Wesley Snipes in a gory and horror-influenced trilogy. The lore involved in the series was rarely seen before, making Blade an even more captivating character. While still in utero, Blade’s (birth name Eric) mother was bitten by a vampire.

She allegedly perished, but Blade was born with special abilities. As the vampires said in the film of him: «All of the strengths. None of the weaknesses.» Blade still thirsted for blood and had heightened senses, but he could also walk in the daylight. Dubbed «Daywalker,» Blade became the vampire community’s worst fear as he hunted them down one by one. Blade functioned as a standalone Marvel film at the time, but became one of the most beloved characters of the comic book company. Now that Sinners has reached peak performance, it strengthens the hope that somehow Blade can rise again in the MCU.