I've Heard People Online Call Sinners "A Rip-Off" Of From Dusk Till Dawn, And It Pisses Me Off. Here's Why

I don't know why I even bother going on the internet these days, because it always just pisses me off. The most recent offender is people calling Sinners “a rip-off” of From Dusk till Dawn.

And, like, what? Are we talking about the same movies here? On one end, we have what has now become one of my favorite movies of all time, and on the other, we have one of the coolest films of the ‘90s (though, maybe not one of the best). Yes, I get it. They’re both “vampire” flicks.

My response to that is, so? Sharing similarities does not a rip-off make. Do you want to know an actual rip-off? Snakes on a Train. It’s a rip-off of, you guessed it, the Samuel L. Jackson vehicle, Snakes on a Plane. Not Sinners, though. Here’s why people calling it one pisses me off.

I Feel Like People Who Make This Comment Haven’t Even Watched Sinners

A part of me feels like some of this discourse comes from people who haven’t even watched Sinners. The plot of From Dusk till Dawn is as follows: Two bank robbers on the lam take a family hostage across the border, and end up at a topless bar. The problem is, the bar is infested with vampires (we don’t know this until about the midpoint), and they have to fight their way out.

Pretty cool. Now here’s the plot of Sinners: Two former criminals who want to start a new life open up a juke joint, and a vampire invades it, seeking out a once-in-a-lifetime musician. In the end, the vampire turns other people into vampires, and our protagonists have to fight their way out.

Now, even on paper, that doesn’t sound the same. But, look, I’ll bite. Yes, the crooks in both films are brothers, and both feature characters mostly unaware of the existence of vampires before they’re in the thick of it. Both also spend a lot of their runtime in one location (I wouldn’t necessarily consider either bottle movies, however).

Anybody who sees Sinners will immediately bring up the musical aspect of the film, which is so tantamount to the overall story that those who don’t bring it up likely haven’t even seen it. This is my problem. Because hearing that Sinners is a “rip-off” of From Dusk till Dawn already paints a picture in somebody’s head. If they haven’t seen Sinners, they’ll likely go into it with preconceived notions, which sucks, because the film doesn’t deserve that.

That Said, If They Have Watched Sinners, Did They Just Ignore All Of The Historical And Racial Context?

Okay, so here’s what I’m also willing to acknowledge. Say somebody did see Sinners and they still came out of it thinking it was too similar to From Dusk till Dawn. Did those people just ignore all of the historical and racial context that the film had to offer? Because I honestly don’t see how that’s possible.

In a sense, I don’t even view Sinners as a vampire movie. Instead, I view it as a movie that features vampires (The vampires are even a metaphor! They’re not just there because vampires are “cool”). In a lot of ways, the story around the vampires is the most interesting thing. For example, there’s one heartbreaking scene that made my wife cry that has nothing to do with vampires, and everything to do with racial discrimination.

Plus, even though we do have the magnificent Salma Hayek in Dawn, Sinners feels focused on diversity and representation. Again, anybody who has actually watched it would come out of it at least subconsciously acknowledging that, because it’s baked into the story.

Not only that, but the setting is very important. Did people who watched the film and compare it to FDTD just ignore Jim Crow-era Mississippi and how it impacts pretty much everything in the story? Like, I just don’t get it. How, in any conceivable way, is a film as deep as Sinners “a rip-off” of From Dusk till Dawn? How?

I Also Think Calling Sinners "A Rip Off" Of From Dusk Till Dawn Devalues How Awesome That Movie Is, As Well

Now, you might be thinking that I don’t like From Dusk till Dawn, or that I’m devaluing it by calling Sinners better, but no. I actually LOVE Dawn…for different reasons.

From Dusk till Dawn is silly. Written by Tarantino, but directed by his homeboy, Robert Rodriguez (who himself is a legendary director), FDTD is an action/horror movie first and foremost. It doesn’t really have anything important to say, and it doesn’t need to. I mean, this is a movie with a bar called The Titty Twister, and features Tom Savini with a crotch gun. So, everything I just said in that previous sentence is why FDTD is awesome.

Because, look, I love pulpy, violent movies. I also love vampire flicks. I’ve watched all of the live-action Underworld movies, and will watch pretty much any movie with bloodsucking freaks. The point is, I love Dawn, and it’s probably my favorite George Clooney movie…and maybe even my favorite Hayek flick (don’t ask me why).

Comparing these movies is really doing more of a disservice to Dawn. FDTD is super cool for its own reasons (Again, a crotch gun!), and I can’t stand that people are calling Sinners a “rip-off” of it, since that just means that people are not giving FDTD the credit it deserves for being a bad ass action horror flick, which Sinners, I honestly think, is not.

In The End, This Feels Just Like When People Claimed The Hunger Games Was “A Rip-Off” Of Battle Royale

I remember when The Hunger Games movies were blowing up in the early 2010s, and the first thing I heard on the internet was, well, it’s just “a rip-off” of the film, Battle Royale. Now, having never watched or read either at the time, I tended to just believe it. This was when I was more naive about the internet, mind you, and didn’t really know what was true or not.

In fact, for a time, I went with the flow, even repeating this myself whenever anybody brought up The Hunger Games, without even knowing what the hell I was talking about. Then I actually watched (and read) Battle Royale, and The Hunger Games. Much like this silly idea that Sinners “ripped off” From Dusk Till Dawn, I got the same face-palming feeling when I actually experienced both.

Besides the idea of kids killing each other, the two stories couldn’t be any more different. Battle Royale is a distinctly Japanese story, and The Hunger Games is speaking more about class warfare in general. But, it pains me to think of how ignorant I was by just comparing the two, and I think the same of Sinners and FDTD. They are not similar at all. Not even a little bit.

What do you think? I’d love to hear your thoughts.