REVIEW — “Sinners”

“You keep dancing with the devil, one day he’s gonna follow you home.” An absolute barn-burning bloodbath, Sinners is a gloriously gory and beautifully soulful dusk-til-dawn Black American horror story from Black Panther director Ryan Coogler and Creed star Michael B. Jordan. Written and directed by Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Coogler, Sinners stars Jordan in dual roles as WWI veteran twin brothers who flee a life of crime as Al Capone’s henchmen in 1932 Chicago for a new opportunity in their hometown of Clarksdale, Mississippi.

Teaming up with their young musician cousin Sammie “Preacher Boy” Moore (impressively talented newcomer Miles Caton), the bootlegging twins set out to recruit a team to help with the grand opening of their new FUBU juke joint on the edge of town — paid for with the cash and booze they stole from rival Chicago gangsters. However, their fresh start is short lived as they soon discover that an even greater evil than the local Klan is waiting to welcome them home.

What starts as a wild night of drinking, dancing, gambling and debauchery in their newly established den of sin, quickly spirals into a hellish nightmare of blood-soaked gore when a band of vampires, led by the mesmerizingly evil Remmick (Jack O’Connell), arrive at their door requesting an invitation to the party. Drawn by the soulful sounds of Preacher Boy’s voice and blues guitar playing “the devil’s music,” the twisted and tempting demons offer salvation through immortality before attacking the patrons one-by-one, turning loyal friends into bloodthirsty monsters.

While Sinners boasts an original screenplay by Coogler that draws inspiration from his personal family history and connection to Mississippi, it cannot be denied that the film is heavily inspired by 90s vampire/demon cult horror films From Dusk Till Dawn and Tales from the Crypt: Demon Night. All three films feature a band of unlikely misfits trapped together in a deserted location fending for their lives overnight against a demonic horde, and they all kick ass. However, Sinners is more of a horror-drama with deep emotional layers to its characters and powerful historical and racial subtext that the aforementioned action-comedy horror films lack.

Set in the Jim Crow-era South, the Warner Bros. Pictures film features compelling dual performances from Jordan as twins Smoke and Stack. Whereas the more responsible and calculated Smoke is all business, swallowing his emotions since the loss of his newborn child and subsequent separation from Annie (Wunmi Mosaku), brother Stack is fun and flirty, enjoying a playboy lifestyle — that is, until he reunites with childhood sweetheart and former flame, Mary (Hailee Steinfeld). The dynamic cast is rounded out by entertaining performances from Jayme Lawson as local jezebel Pearline, Li Jun Li and Yao as married parents The Chows, Omar Benson Miller as dim giant Cornbread, and Delroy Lindo as Delta Slim, a delightfully crochety piano player who drowns his pain in alcohol. The film also features gorgeous cinematography from Autumn Durald Arkapaw and epic sound quality and design that is amplified by a hauntingly ominous acoustic score from Oscar-winning composer Ludwig Göransson.

After their repeated critical and box-office success with the Black Panther and Creed franchises, Sinners proves that Coogler and Jordan are the most creatively dynamic and consistently high-quality producing pairing of director and muse since Scorsese and DeNiro. It’s just unfortunate that the film’s trailer spoiled some of its most heartbreaking twists by revealing too much in its marketing. Regardless, Sinners is a magnificently effective, wildly entertaining, and thought-provoking achievement in mainstream horror. Featuring powerful acting and musical performances and a beautifully full-circle epilogue starring Blues legend Buddy Guy, Sinners is a stunning, soulful, and sweaty southern horror epic that I can’t wait to see again. 4.5/5

Rated R with a running time of 2 hours and 17 minutes, Sinners opens in theaters on April 18, 2025.