The success of this year’s Sinners from writer/director Ryan Coogler (Black Panther, Creed) cannot be overstated. Critics and fans alike raved over it. It jammed a stake through the heart of the box office, achieving the highest domestic opening for an original film this decade. That would be a monumental achievement for any film. But for a vampire movie from a Black filmmaker and a cast led by mostly POC? That’s truly something worth celebrating.
Of course, there are always those trying to undercut such success. Upon the film’s release, the CHUDs of the film-bro sphere belittled Sinners by claiming it was nothing more than a rip-off of Robert Rodriguez’s From Dusk Till Dawn. I’m not here to debate that absurd statement. What I am here to tell you is that Coogler claims he was heavily influenced by Rodriguez. Not by Dusk, but by The Faculty, a film you can stream now on Paramount+.
What’s The Faculty About?
Penned by Scream scribe Kevin Williamson, Rodriguez’s teen sci-fi horror film takes Invasion of the Body Snatchers and sets it inside a high school. Alien parasites are taking over, and it’s up to a cast of misfits to stop them. Names like Elijah Wood, Clea DuVall, and Josh Hartnett comprise the group of teens, while Famke Janssen, Salma Hayek, Robert Patrick, and Jon Stewart play the body-snatched teachers. The cast is stacked.
During a preview event for Sinners, moderator Juju Green asked Coogler about his inspirations, to which he replied,
“I draw on so many, and it is a very genre-fluid film. A lot of Coen Brothers influence this, starting with, I would say, Inside Llewelyn Davis. Definitely some Fargo. Robert Rodriguez is a big one. I think on the nose, it would be easy to make From Dusk Till Dawn comparisons. But it is actually quite close to The Faculty”.
At first glance, you may wonder what The Faculty has to do with Sinners, but the similarities become clearer upon inspection. Both involve an invasion of sorts into a community, vampires in one case, aliens in the other. And each centers around a cast of characters who have been placed into a box by society and are yearning to break out of those restraints.
Dread Central’s own Tyler Doupe called The Faculty, “one of the defining teen sci-fi films of the 90s”. It certainly was for me. A scene in which the group of misfits navigates a crowd of potential aliens captures the social anxiety of high school as well, if not better, than anything else at that time.
A knockout cast. Loads of thrilling sequences. The influence on Coogler’s Sinners. All more than enough reason to check out The Faculty on Paramount+. You can also pick up an excellent 4K collector’s edition from Scream Factory. And don’t forget to let me know what you think of the film on Bluesky @werematt.
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