Sinners

SINNERS (15)

D: Ryan Coogler

Warner Bros / Proximity Media (Ryan Coogler, Zinzi Coogler & Sev Ohanian)

US 🇺🇸 2025

138 mins

Horror/Drama

W: Ryan Coogler

DP: Autumn Durald Arkapaw

Ed: Michael P. Shawver

Mus: Ludwig Göransson

PD: Hannah Beachler

Cos: Ruth E. Carter 

Michael B. Jordan (Elijah ‘Smoke’ Moore / Elijah ‘Stack’ Moore), Hailee Steinfeld (Mary), Miles Caton (Sammie Moore), Jack O’Connell (Remmick), Wunmi Mosaku (Annie), Delroy Lindo (Delta Slim)

**SPOILER WARNING**

I’d heavily recommend knowing as little about Sinners as possible, as the genre reveal would be far more rewarding if you going into this not knowing that it becomes a horror film around the halfway point.  Unfortunately, I did know this beforehand, so this film suffers from the same experience I had watching ‘From Dusk Til Dawn’ three decades earlier.

The first act almost sets the film up as a prohibition-era crime film, starring Michael B. Jordan in a dual role as twins Elijah ‘Smoke’ Moore and Elijah ‘Stack’ Moore, returning to the Deep South with money stolen from a Chicago crime syndicate, with the aim of opening a establishment for the black community to play blues music.

The brothers enlist the help of Sammie, a pastor’s son, who can sing and play guitar, an alcoholic musician, a Chinese couple, a Hoodoo practitioner, a fieldworker and Smoke’s ex-girlfriend, Mary, to get their plans into action, only for their opening night to turn to chaos when they are targeted by a trio of vampires.

Despite having knowledge prior to watching that the film is a horror, it’s still a remarkably well-put together piece of work, featuring strong performances from the ensemble cast, especially from Miles Caton in his breakout role, as well as the cinematography, makeup, visual effects, production design and music all making up strings to the bow. Thematically, I don’t personally think the opening act is in synergy with the second half of the movie at all, but I can’t criticise the build-up too much either, as I previously mentioned that the reveal of the supernatural is best enjoyed if you have no prior knowledge of it, even bearing in mind that the horror elements of the film are secondary to the underlying theme of racism and the experiences of African-Americans in Jim Crow era America - which is what the film is really about, rather than Irish vampires trying to steal the blues. 

The film broke the Oscar nominations record with 16 in total, and while I wouldn’t disagree with the accolades, I do think it was there to make up the numbers in many of those categories.

8/10