Sinematic alchemy: How Sinners mixes genre and voice into storytelling gold
What Ryan Coogler's latest film teaches us about blending inspiration and identity into something original — and how to bring it into your own stories
Issue #002 of Storied — breaking down storytelling from page, screen, and feed so you can tell better stories.
The tiniest of spoilers about the genres in Sinners, from writer & director Ryan Coogler
There’s a scene in Sinners (don’t worry, no spoilers for the plot) that left me in awe. You may have heard about “the scene,” and I’m here to confirm: it lives up to the hype.
With my son due right around the theatrical release, I didn’t catch Sinners till last week when it hit streaming. And even with a sleeping six-week-old on my lap, watching that scene left me exhilarated.
I actually rewound the scene, asked my wife, Amanda, to sit down, and we watched it again together. Not because I missed anything, but because I needed someone else to experience it with me.
Ryan Coogler’s Sinners is a masterclass in genre blending.
It weaves together a Southern Gothic atmosphere, supernatural tension, and a deep musical undercurrent that pulses through every scene.
It’s haunting and soulful. Raw and meticulously intentional.
For example, look how Ludwig Göransson scores this scene, matching match strikes to guitar hits.
Quick moment to say, thank you universe for having Coogler and Göransson meet at university so we can have glorious cinematic collaborations like this.
Watching Sinners made me think about… what I’d call storytelling alchemy — the act of blending genres and drawing from what inspires to create something original.
When it works, there’s a magic to the alchemy — taking the familiar and transforming it into something brand new.
When it flops, it feels disjointed, complicated and unoriginal.
So before we dive into how to blend inspirations with originality in your own storytelling, let’s set the stage for Sinners.
Sinners (2025)
Written and directed by Ryan Coogler, Sinners is his most personal work yet. He called the inspiration “a bolt of lightning,” and said it was a story that was on his heart to tell.
Starring the effortlessly watchable Michael B. Jordan, the film is set in the Mississippi Delta in the early 30s with themes of identity, legacy, salvation, and escape.
Delta Blues music is the beating heart of the film, which has an endlessly replayable soundtrack and score.
It’s layered, lyrical and (at times) unapologetically weird — in the besttttt way.
Inspirations
Coogler described Sinners as “…a genre-fluid film,” taking inspiration from Robert Rodriguez classics like From Dusk Till Dawn and The Faculty. But emphasized that the biggest influences weren’t from cinema.
"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.” — Ryan Coogler
Then there’s the unexpected sources of inspo… like Metallica.
Coogler explained to the San Francisco Chronicle that the heavy metal band’s 1988 anti-war song, One, was a major inspiration.
“It starts off intense, then gets melodic, and going somewhere just f***ing crazy.” Coogler said of both the song and his movie, “But by the time you’re finished, it was clear you were always going to get there.”
So we’ve got narrative and cultural touchpoints that helped give shape to Sinners — but where did the soul of the story come from? Coogler grounded it in something deeply personal: the memory of his late uncle.
In an interview with IndieWire, he shared how his uncle was a major source of inspiration for Sinners, recalling childhood memories spent sitting with the older man, listening to old Blues records and hearing stories about Mississippi and his life.
After his uncle passed, Blues music took on a whole new meaning for Coogler and became a mourning ritual to process his grief:
“I would play these blues records, but I would play them with a newfound perspective, and I would kind of conjure my uncle.” — Ryan Coogler
Harnessing it all together
What makes Sinners work isn’t the inspiration it pulls from, but how Coogler puts it all together.
The magic is in the transmutation — taking those influences, filtering them through your personal lens, and shaping them into something that feels honest and entirely your own.
So how do you do that in your work?
Here’s a few principles to guide your own storytelling alchemy…
Storytelling alchemy: 5 tips to remix with purpose
1. Start with what moves you
Coogler wasn’t chasing trends, or mashing together things he found interesting or compelling — he was following a feeling.
The story behind Sinners came from a place of deep personal connection. With intention and emotion felt in every frame.
So before you worry about genre or structure, ask yourself the question Coogler led with — what story is on your heart to tell?
What idea keeps showing up, no matter how many times you try to push it aside?
Start there.
2. Blend with intention
Good mashups aren’t random. They’re rooted in intention.
Sinners pulls from supernatural lore, Southern Gothic traditions, and music culture. But all of those elements serve the story’s emotional core.
If you're mixing influences, make sure each one deepens the meaning, rather than just decorating the surface. You want your inspirations to feel like part of a cohesive structure as opposed to standing out disjointedly.
My Dad’s a car guy. As a kid, he told how the most beautiful cars feel like one cohesive piece of machinery. A spoiler doesn’t feel out of place, the headlights don’t keep drawing your eye.
Everything is in its place because it adds to the whole.
3. Let your personal lens do the remixing
Originality doesn’t come from resisting influence. It comes from filtering it through your point of view.
Think about Jordan Peele drawing from classic horror while layering in racial tension with Get Out, or Guillermo del Toro using fairy tales to explore trauma and war in Pan's Labyrinth.
The story becomes yours not when you invent something from scratch, but when you show us how you see it.
4. Don’t smooth out the weird edges
One of the best things about Sinners is how confidently it leans into its surrealness — visually, tonally, and thematically.
Listening to the score, there are moments where Ludwig Göransson’s music bounces and pulls from genres of all kinds, and it just… works.
It’s what makes the film so memorable. What keeps me thinking about it.
If your story has strange turns or unexpected flourishes, lean into them. They might be the very thing that makes your work unforgettable.
5. Anchor everything in emotional truth
No matter how wild your premise, remember what people connect with most… emotional honesty.
Sinners may have blood-soaked scenes and diegetic musical scores, but at its core, it’s about grief, family, and identity.
That’s what makes it resonate.
If you’re telling a story, make sure there’s a real feeling driving it. Let that theme act as the foundation that you build the structure of your story on.
Lack that foundation? Your story will never get off the ground.
The Takeaway
The best stories don’t come from trying to be completely original. They come from weaving together what’s familiar into something deeply personal.
That’s the real alchemy — when genre, influence, and identity come together to create something only you could make.
So go ahead and steal like an artist. Borrow from the best. But then, bend it, break it, and shape it into something only you could make.
Stories this week
Here are the stories I’ve been loving over the last week.
📺 What I’m watching: Predator: Killer of Killers
With a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes, I was excited to dive into the latest installment of the bloody science fiction Predator series from writer and director Dan Trachtenberg.
Trachtenberg first contributed to the franchise with 2022’s surprise hit Prey, which followed a Comanche warrior fighting to protect her tribe in the 1700s. The film smashed streaming records for Hulu and earned glowing reviews from critics and fans alike.
Now with the release of Predator: Killer of Killers, Trachtenberg has continued to raise the bar with an adult animated anthology where warriors plucked from human history become prey to the ultimate killer of killers.
It’s bloody, action-packed, and the animation has that thrilling plucked-from-a-storyboard feel of Arcane and Spider-Verse. The characters are compelling and realized, while the story feels fulfilling without leaning into fan service or feeling inaccessible.
Next up for Trachtenberg? Predator: Badlands, a live-action release hitting theatres this November.
Takeaway: Killer of Killers is a great reminder that revisiting familiar worlds doesn’t have to mean rehashing tired stories. By jumping across time periods and perspectives, Trachtenberg shows how fresh a franchise can feel when you focus on character, context, and creativity.
Sometimes the best way to breathe new life into a story is to change when it happens and who tells it.
📚 What I’m reading: “Why children’s books?” by Katherine Rundell
I finally got around to reading Katherine Rundell’s piece “Why Children’s Books” in the London Review of Books. It’s brilliant.
She makes the case that children’s stories are often more daring, emotionally honest, and morally complex than adult fiction.
“What is fantasy for? You do not suddenly start needing philosophy on your eighteenth birthday: you have always needed it. Fantasy is philosophy’s more gorgeously painted cousin.” — Katherine Rundell
I loved this piece, and it’s well worth your time to read this week.
Takeaway: Looking for some of the boldest, most imaginative and emotionally honest storytelling? Check the kids’ section.
🚨 Update from last week’s read: The Devils
Quick update on last issue’s pick: The Devils. Joe Abercrombie announced that James Cameron (yes that James Cameron, of Titanic, Avatar and Aliens fame) bought the screen rights to The Devils.
Abercrombie will co-write the script with Cameron, who shared that he’s “…loved Joe’s writing for years, cherishing each new read," and that he’d dig into the project as he winds down on the latest Avatar film: Fire and Ash.
🎧 What I’m listening to: The Rest Is History
One of my favourite podcasts, The Rest Is History, feels like listening to your two favourite history teachers (with charming English accents) cover everything from Caesar to Churchill with wit and enthusiasm.
Hosts Tom Holland (not that Tom Holland) and Dominic Sandbrook dig into everything from the fall of ancient empires to history’s greatest dogs with sharp insights, obscure footnotes and vivid storytelling.
As a cis white guy in his late 30s, obviously I’m infatuated with Ancient Rome and have loved their latest series recapping Hannibal’s invasion of Italy (which involved crossing the Alps with elephants).
Slowly the soldiers moved with lagging steps, dreading that they had crossed the spreading globe only to pass into forbidden realms in defiance of nature and heaven. But Hannibal was having none of it.
Not for him any terror of the Alps, not for him any horror of the snows.
"'Shame on you,' he cried, "'to weary of fame and despair of the favor of the gods.'”
— Silius Italicus
Takeaway: This is peak The Rest Is History — full of drama, detail, and wildly entertaining. I loveee history that is told like a great story, not a dull lecture.
Wish I wrote this
“You want to tell stories that have the power to affect people. To make them feel seen.” — Ryan Coogler
Thanks for reading
. I’d love to hear what you think —say hey on LinkedIn or find me on alllll the socials as @ScottySharesIf you liked this issue, please share it with a friend. See you in the next one!