The following contains spoilers for Sinners, which debuts in theaters April 18, 2025.
Sinners seems designed to shock audiences. A horror film written and directed by Black Panther alum Ryan Coogler, set in the deep South during the Great Depression with its Jim Crow laws, tackling racism, poverty, blues music, folklore and vampires — the movie is unlike anything else viewers can imagine. Coogler’s frequent collaborator Michael B. Jordan plays a stunning dual role, leading a star-studded cast also including Hailee Steinfeld, Delroy Lindo, Jack O’Connell, Li Jun Li, Wunmi Mosaku, Jayme Lawson and newcomer Miles Caton as Sammie. Sinners is very much the dazzling cinematic phenomenon it was promised to be, and then some.
In October 1932, twins Smoke and Stack — both played by Jordan — have just left their bootlegging businesses in Chicago behind, and returned to their rural Mississippi hometown to set up a new speakeasy in the middle of the woods. The venue is a success at first, with the twins rekindling lost loves, and their cousin Sammie finally getting to pursue his musical talents with his beloved heirloom guitar. But a night of revelry devolves into horror and bloodshed when a music-loving demon crashes the party with his newly-sired troupe of dancing vampires. With family and friends pitted against one another, Sinners is a massive thriller that defies expectations.
Sinners Is the Original Blockbuster Movie That Hollywood Desperately Needs
Coogler Is the Perfect Director for This Genre-Blending Phenomenon
In the current movie landscape dominated by franchise adaptations, reboots and remakes, a loaded original story like Sinners — especially one that so brazenly defies neat categories and genre expectations — is a huge gamble. However, Coogler is more than up to the task for such an ostentatiously risky endeavor, and the result is a long-needed and very necessary adrenaline shot that Hollywood needs. Sinners was made to be a spectacle, literally and metaphorically. It’s an elaborate period piece set in the deep South at the height of the Great Depression and Prohibition, filmed on Ultra Panavision 70 and formatted for the IMAX experience. Sinners revels in its own bombast, and rightfully so.
The movie doesn’t just mash up ideas for fun; it has affection for all the genres it dabbles in. Every scene is given the same weight and passion. The film is drenched in emotion, lore and subtext, with layers upon layers of themes and symbols and ideas. There are flashes of tragedy, romance, revenge — but there’s also black comedy and non-stop, deadpan witticisms from nearly every member of the cast. There are full-on musical numbers, complete with high-quality blues, folk rock and bluegrass. And that’s all in addition to the folk horror and vampire slaying. With such a rich script and a busy story, it’s no surprise that everyone in the large ensemble cast seems totally invested in their respective roles.
Everyone, from the background extras to the leads, looks like they are having the time of their lives — especially those who get the good fortune of going full-on vamp. Michael B. Jordan is having a whale of a time playing the polar-opposite twins: cutting deals, firing shots, dancing, cavorting and cutting demons to pieces. Standout performances are also given by Wunmi Mosaku as Annie, the local wise woman who has a tragic romance with Smoke and some much-needed knowledge on vampire slaying, Hailee Steinfeld as Stack’s sometimes-spurned lover turned vampiress Mary, and Jack O’Connell as the weirdly charming and strangely moral devil Remmick.
And then there is Delroy Lindo as the hard-drinking veteran bluesman Delta Slim, a flat-footed, down-to-earth and endearingly messy snark machine. He provides at least a third of the film’s ample comic relief, and manages to steal every scene and shot he is in. Like any good guest, he is at the party mostly for the food and the good-quality bootleg beer. But it’s the cast and their enjoyment of the work that makes Sinners‘ ambitious ideas possible.
Sinners Is a Stunningly Fresh Take on Both Horror Movies and Musicals
The Movie's Sound and Visuals Make It an Immersive Experience
Music and color are central to Sinners. Outside the diagetic musical numbers — performed by human and demon alike — the movie’s soundscape consists of ominous bass strings, mournful harmonicas and steel pedal guitars, rising and falling with pitch and urgency, their sounds ranging from deceptive calm to hysteric feverishness. Visually, Sinners has a cohesive color palette. The earth tones, soft sepias and weathered, light-tinted textiles of the rural Mississippi plantation stands in sharp contrast to the sophisticated, clean lines and bolder colors worn by Chicago city slickers Stack and Smoke, with their structured blazers and hats, and coordinating red and blue ensembles. They’re the clear interlopers in this Southern Gothic world. There are some great period costumes, diverse textiles and a dramatic constrast between night and day, resulting in a totally different wash of colors. The palette then shifts as Sinners transitions — rather sharply — from costume comedy-drama to a dark, sunset-soaked, hellfire-laden supernatural horror film.
Even before the monsters and mayhem set in, Sinners’ first act is a respectable film in its own right. Some ominous foreshadowing aside — such as the creepy intro of unsettling folk illustrations to the unnerving first scene — the movie starts off as a smart period piece. It’s humorous, intelligent, and emotionally layered, with the occasional vulgarities and gunfire. Utilizing naive aspiring musician Sammie — played with wholesome and earthy charm by newcomer Caton — as the central protagonist, Sinners almost successfully disguises itself as a coming-of-age dramedy about a boy leaving home with his slick cousins to start a business and become a musician, despite paternal disapproval and Jim Crow-era cruelty. It’s a shock when the film veers into a stylish and almost fantastical musical, filled with dance parties and colorful anachronisms not out of place in a Baz Luhrmann film – and then straight into horror.
Sinners is a thoroughly immersive and sometimes overwhelming sensory experience that more than justifies the decision to film the movie in IMAX. The diagetic musical interludes don’t necessarily move the plot forward; in fact, some of them are interspersed with other important scenes or pieces of dialogue. However, these scenes are the most stylish in the film, especially when intercut with violence and horror. The cinematography is dizzying and dynamic, going in circles, moving so fast that it’s almost a motion-sickness hazard. Blues music bends space and time while vampires dance the jig to Irish folk songs. Figures from around the world and across millennia join in the Prohibition dance party to Sammie’s fever dream of a guitar solo. All of this gives way to straight-up survival horror, complete with graphic facial horror, gratuitous blood spurts, glowing eyes, immolation and almost too much of a good thing.
Sinners' One Fault Is the Movie's Truly Ambitious Storytelling
The Movie Sometimes Struggles to Balance Its Different Layers
The horror elements of Sinners feel as polished as the period drama and music portions. The resemblance to iconic director John Carpenter’s work extends to the use of practical effects, and the movie’s Prince of Darkness-like depiction of the personality-filled, eerie-mannered vampires, including their the stylish and philosophical leader – who of course is more compelling and likable than the Klansmen looming in the background. Magic, monsters and the supernatural are signified through editing and film effects. The sound design rises, drones and moans almost like a human voice. Shots become blurred, backgrounds out of focus, angles falling off-kilter. When the vampires are first revealed, it’s as if the world changes color and the camera takes on a whole new life. But that’s when the movie also gets harder to follow along with.
Sinners has a lot of things to balance — and it doesn’t always succeed. There’s an enormous cast of likable characters to develop and then slaughter, racial tension and socio-political subtext, the power of music and its folklore connections, Prohibition debauchery, vampires, gore and nterpersonal drama. It all comes wrapped in a non-linear narrative and a story that just can’t bring itself to end on a definitive note, right down to the post-credits scene. Despite Coogler’s best efforts and a roughly two-hour run time, the constant storytelling shifts are disorienting and don’t make for the most cohesive watching experience. Some scenes change too abruptly. Some sequences, especially in the first half of the film, drag on longer than needed. At times, Sinners feels like three or four different movies crammed into one. It takes a lot of concentration and dedication to sit through this film, but it’s worth the effort.
Even so, Sinners seems poised to do for the mid-2020s what epics like Ben-Hur and Cleopatra and the like did in the mid-1960s: bring new life to a threatened medium. It was made to be a spectacle, meant to be experienced on a big screen while sitting among a passionate audience, and it accomplishes that lofty goal. It’s a spectacular film, even for all its flaws. While it isn’t the most cohesive viewing experience, it’s certainly one of the most dazzling and unique — and in risk-averse Hollywood, this bold movie is very much needed.
Sinners premieres April 18, 2025.
- The mix of genres and ideas can be overwhelming and confusing.
- The overall plot is sometimes unfocused.
