Sinners (2025) – Review

Quick Thoughts:

• Grade – A-
• Ryan Coogler has crafted a crowd-pleasing bloodbath that is big, bold and fun.
• Like Starship Troopers and Robocop (all-time movies), Sinners can be watched on multiple levels. Viewers can simply enjoy the vampire carnage, or they can consider the themes that Coogler is exploring.
• Watch it on the biggest screen possible.
• The costume design by Ruth E. Carter is perfect. 

Quick Note – If you haven’t watched the trailers, this review contains slight spoilers.

After the success of Fruitvale Station, Creed, Black Panther, and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, I love that Warner Brothers gave director Ryan Coogler $90+ million to make an R-rated vampire film that in Coogler’s words “delivers a Michelin Star restaurant experience in a McDonalds.” With the rise of Blumhouse, A24 and the Shudder streaming channel, not many horror films or creature features receive large budgets nowadays, so it’s nice seeing an A-list group of creators make a Michelin Star worthy grilled cheese sandwich.

When writing the film Coogler said that he poured “all of his worst fears into it” and also included his love of The Twilight Zone, The Thing (1982), Stephen King, The Faculty, From Dusk Till Dawn, and the Coen brothers to create a genre-fluid film that’s hard to pin down. Coogler also drew inspiration from his relationship with his uncle James, who grew up in Mississippi and always listened to blues music when Ryan was around. Typically, a film with this many ideas and influences would feel bloated, but since the writer/director is Ryan Coogler, Sinners never gets weighed down and it has a distinct personality. 

The film takes place in the Jim Crow South in the 1930s, and the first half of the film is spent getting all of the major players to a soon-to-be besieged juke joint. The characters include former soldiers/gangsters Elijah “Smoke” Moore (Michael B. Jordan) and his brother Eilias “Stack” Moore (Jordan again) who buy an abandoned sawmill from a sweaty guy named Hogwood (David Maldonado) who uses the word “boy” when talking to the twins. They plan to make it a place where the community can come together and listen to the otherworldly music played by their guitar-yielding cousin Sammie (Miles Canton). They also recruit harmonica- playing Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo – wonderful), an alcoholic musician who adds comedic relief, and a big guy named Cornbread (Omar Benson Miller) to be their bouncer. They buy food and signage from shop owners Grace (Li Jun Li) and Bo (Yao) Chow, who also agree to help tend the bar and set the place up for the opening night. Rounding out the crew are Stack’s former flame Mary (Hailee Steinfeld), and Smoke’s ex-girlfriend Annie (Wunmi Mosaki), a Hoodoo practitioner and cook.

What’s great about Sinners is that it takes its time introducing characters and setting up its chess pieces. A lot is learned about the Moore brothers as they drive on the Clarksdale, Mississippi dirt roads in their nice convertible. They left Chicago because it was “Mississippi with skyscrapers,” and the Irish beer and Italian wine in their truck was stolen from Chicago gangsters. They also splash cash around their town in generous and unsustainable ways, and when two men attempt to steal their beer, Smoke non-fatally shoots them in broad daylight on a busy street. The brothers have been hardened by war, death, loss, racism and abuse from their alcoholic father – but there is still some sensitivity left in them. When Smoke recruits Annie to cook for the bar, we learn that their child died as an infant and he still wears the mojo bag she made for him. All of these moments humanize the characters, which makes the violence that permeates the second half of the film far more interesting. 

As the sun goes down, the juke joint opens and for a few hours, it’s a paradise for the patrons who get to enjoy themselves and not worry about the pressures of living in the 1930s South. The enjoyment is interrupted when an Irish musician/vampire named Remmick (Jack O’Connell) shows up with his acolytes Joan (Lola Kirke) and Bert (Peter Dreimanis) and asks for entrance into the juke joint so they can play some music (they need to be invited in). When they are denied, they wait outside and soon the people who exit the bar start joining their ranks. I don’t want to spoil anything else, just know that vampire’s mouths latch onto necks, jaws explode, and many people die during the ensuing battle.

On a technical level, Sinners looks amazing. The costume design from two-time Academy winner Ruth E. Carter is perfect, and the production design by Oscar winner Hannah Beachler is top-notch. A lot of work went into creating the Mississippi towns, homes and bars (the movie was filmed in Louisiana). The score by Ludwig Göransson works wonders and Autumn Durald Arkapaw’s (I love her The Last Showgirl DP work) cinematography is fluid and expansive. Coogler and Durald Arkapaw’s decision to shoot the film on 65mm film with IMAX and Ultra Panavision 70mm cameras was inspired and it looks great as the aspect ratio changes from 1.43:1 to 2.76:1. It’s the first film to be shot in both ratios and I highly recommend you check out this video where Coogler explains all the aspect ratios. 

Final Thoughts – Sinners is a great-looking grilled cheese sandwich and it’s worth watching on the biggest screen possible.