Sinners Review

After dipping his toes in the Rocky series and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Ryan Coogler makes his first original film since his debut film.

In 1932, the Smokestack Twins (both played by Michael B. Jordan) return to the Mississippi Delta after working in the Chicago Underworld for seven years. They plan to open a Juke Joint and rush to open it within a day. However, their activities and music draw the attention of three individuals who are desperate for an invitation.

Coogler has proven himself as an A-List director: he has made three big hits before turning 40. He made his name with studio films, so he’s using that success to make a passion project. Considering Coogler’s interest in African and African-American voices, the star-studded cast, and the setting in 1930s Mississippi, I expected Coogler to go down the elevated horror route. It was a big surprise to discover that Sinners was an unabashed B-movie homage, that mixed a Southern Gothic tradition and other recent black horror films, like Get Out and the Candyman legacy sequel.

According to the IMDB trivia page, Coogler said he was influenced by From Dusk till Dawn, and Sinners was pretty much From Dusk till Dawn on the Delta. The first half was a crime film filled with drama as the Twins face people from their past, and recruit people for the Juke Joint. The second half was a siege movie as the characters had to repel the vampires. Sinners did have a fair bit of humour throughout. There was a wonderfully barmy scene where a horde of vampires sing an Irish folk song, and it will be one of my favourite movie moments of 2025.

Sinners offered a lot of bloody fun. Blood and carnage were displayed when the vampires started attacking, and Coogler used all his action experience for this film. Sinners’ vampires were bound by usual rules, such as weaknesses to sunlight, wooden stakes, holy water, garlic, and needed to be invited into a building. Sinners’ big spin was that the vampires acted as a hive mind. They shared knowledge and experience, and Remmick (Jack O’Connell) acted like the Borg Queen. Remmick and the other vampires even used the racial tensions of the time to offer the survivors equality and harmony. All they needed to give up was their souls and autonomy. The vampires were also virus-like, since the number of vampires exploded in the film after one was let loose.

Sinners was a film of two halves, like From Dusk till Dawn and Abigail. They all went from crime films to vampire flicks. However, Sinners’ genre shift wasn’t as sudden, since there was some foreshadowing. There were some early jump scares, and Remmick was introduced with his back smoking. The film’s first half was used to establish the characters and various subplots, like the Twins’ previous relationships, Smoke having a tragic experience, and suggesting that the Twins left Chicago because they upset both major criminal organisations.

The film opened with an animated sequence telling the power of music, how it draws forces of good and evil. This sets up the supernatural element from the outside and, more importantly, the music theme. One of the main characters in the film was Sammie (Miles Caton), a preacher’s son and an aspiring blues musician, and his performance was an evocative signal to vampires. The film’s most audacious scene was when Sammie performed at the Juke Joint, and it brought together musicians from across time and genres. Coogler reteamed with the composer Ludwig Göransson, who provided a blues-infused score, and included some rock and gothic horror sounds when required.

Considering the setting in Jim Crow-era Mississippi, Sinners was going to be a politically charged film. One of the first actions the Smokestack twins do is buy a saw mill from a Ku Klux Klan leader, and the Klan was an ever-present threat in the film. One of the subplots was the relationship between Stack and Mary (Hailee Steinfeld), childhood friends who had a fling, but Stack says an interracial relationship in the Deep South was impossible. The villain of the piece was enslaving people, which was potent considering the setting.

I saw Sinners with my sister-in-law, and she declared Sinners as one of the best vampire films she has ever seen. I wouldn’t go that far, but Sinners was a damn good time. It was a bloody B-movie that didn’t shy away from the racial issues.