Sinners Review
Sinners is a rich and terrifying film that shows off Ryan Coogler’s talent as a horror filmmaker.
Sinners. Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
I appreciate when a filmmaker has a varied body of work that doesn’t fit neatly into a single box. Ryan Coogler has shown his chops in drama (Fruitvale Station), sports (Creed), superhero action with Marvel, and now horror with Sinners. After directing Marvel’s Black Panther films, two colossal blockbusters, Coogler wanted to make something more personal and original. The result —a horror film on a blockbuster scale—may be his best work.
It’s 1932, the height of Prohibition. Twins Smoke and Stack, both played by Michael B. Jordan, return to the poor sharecropping community where they grew up. Having worked with gangsters in Chicago after serving in WWI, they’re now flush with cash and are determined to realize their dream of opening a juke joint in their old hometown. Everything is going perfectly on opening night, until things begin to go sideways when Smoke and Stack’s cousin Sammie (Miles Caton), a gifted blues musician, attracts unwanted visitors with the power of his music.
Sinners. Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
Coogler’s southern horror is thrilling. A slow buildup helps the audience get truly invested in the cast of characters, making things all the more tense when bad things begin to happen. The movie is a rollercoaster, slowly climbing, until it hits a wonderfully choreographed musical performance sequence and then starts rushing down. The rest of the film perfectly rises and falls as it punctuates its suspense with explosions of bloody violence.
Coogler balances drama and horror with some comedy in his screenplay, never allowing the proceedings to get too heavy or dour by peppering in some funny character moments. Delroy Lindo is a highlight as bluesman Delta Slim; he plays him equally with humor and sadness, stealing nearly every scene he’s in.
Aside from the music and fantastic 65mm IMAX visuals, the movie is driven by its performances. Michael B. Jordan is brilliant as Smoke and Stack, giving individual life to each of the blue and red costume color-coded twins. Newcomer Miles Caton wows with his performance and raw musical talent. Hailee Steinfeld, now a Marvel star, shines in what is perhaps her best performance to date. Jack O’Connell is both creepy and terrifying as the red-eyed Remmick. Wunmi Mosaku’s soulful performance as Stack’s love interest Annie is wonderful, particularly when she plays against Michael B. Jordan.
Sinners. Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
Like the best of the horror genre, Sinners is a thematically rich film. After the connective power of black culture through blues music, its origins, and its descendants is showcased in a sweeping musical sequence, the vampiric villains immediately appear. As vampires, their function is to consume and assimilate, and they want Sammie, specifically because of the power of his music, offering promises of creating a family beyond race. But it’s clear that head vampire Remmick wants power and control while satiating his hunger. His end goals only end in cultural erasure, as seen in a creepy sequence of the vampires, now black and white, dancing in a circle while singing the Irish standard Wild Mountain Thyme. All of this is happening against the background of the Jim Crow era South, where community and shared culture is all that the black community has.
Sinners. Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
The film was shot with IMAX cameras, so it’s best seen on the big screen, as it captures the shifting aspect ratio and lets you see the images as they were intended. Sinners was a captivating and terrifying theater experience. Ryan Coogler has shown himself to be one of the best horror directors working today.
Sinners released on April 18, 2025, and is in theaters now.
