MOVIE REVIEW: Sinners (2025). Could you survive one night in the Jim…

I saw the trailer for the Ryan Coogler-directed horror movie Sinners back in the summer of 2024. It immediately piqued my interest as his principal actor-collaborator of choice, Michael B. Jordan, was front-and-center in a historical setting — 1930’s Mississippi during the Jim Crow South. But there was another element to the trailer that kept me waiting nearly 9 months: the supernatural element. What was it that made the man caterwauling outside a locked door to be let in by an armed motley crew within?

What was in the dark that was so dangerous for a grown man to cry out like that?

Set in Clarksville, Mississippi in 1936, our protagonists are the identical Smokestack Twins (both played by Michael B. Jordan, Fant4stic [2015], Fruitvale Station [2013]) — serious Smoke wears blue and slick-talking Stack wears red. They survived the horrors of World War I and Gangland Chicago together to return home with money and make something for their own: a Black-owned juke joint for the blues. Of course there’s still the specter of race-related violence and the Jim Crow laws that prop it up, but these two Black men are ready to defend it with business savvy and emotional support. Former lovers like Smoke’s hoodoo woman Annie (Wunmi Mosaku, Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice [2016], “Lovecraft Country” [TV-HBO]) and Stack’s White-passing lover Mary (Hailee Steinfeld, Bumblebee [2018], True Grit [2010]) are on hand to help them grow as much as ground them. It’ll take more than those two for a successful opening night, as they get help from the Chinese shopkeepers Grace (Li Jun Li, See Spot Run [2001], “Wu Assassins” [TV-Netflix]) and Bo Chao (Yao, Tiong Bahru Social Club [2020], “The Last Bout” [TV-Mediacorp]), with Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo, Crooklyn [1994], Romeo Must Die [2000]) on the keys, and big ol’ Cornbread (Omar Benson Miller, Miracle at St Anna [2008], 8 Mile [2002]) as the bouncer. The twins top it all off with a special guest to make the opening night a memorable one: the twins’ cousin Sammy (Miles Caton), whose gift for music is magical — literally. It’s that very powerful magic that calls to an unexpected and unwanted guest.

<<SPOILERS BEYOND THIS POINT>>

A single Irish vampire named Remmick (Jack O’Connell, 28 Years Later [2025], Money Monster [2016]) found refuge from Native American vampire hunters in the home of two Ku Klux Klan sympathizers, Bert (cinematographer Peter Dreimanis) and Joan (Lola Kirke, Gone Girl [2014], Broken Diamonds [2021]). He made sure to kill the racists and turn them into vampires, because Remmick is on a mission: to get home and make all the world one family. It sounds like a noble pursuit to wipe away the barriers of racism and death, but it comes at the cost of your soul and becoming an immortal blood-sucking demon of the night. When Remmick hears Sammy sing, he knows the young man’s tone can bend the rules of the world to send him home. Thankfully many (but not all) movie rules about vampires hold true: vampires must be invited to cross a building’s threshold, they are hurt by holy water and garlic, and die in the sunlight. And so the brand new juke joint comes under siege by Remmick’s ever growing coven of vampires to steal Sammy’s power, meaning it’s up to the Smokestack Twins and all the survivors to hold the line until daylight!

Ryan Coogler’s done it again, and so did the costumers and set designers. Everyone did their research on the setting and produced a believable world intended to represent the time and place. Everyone is sufficiently sweaty, and not everyone wears shoes. The spaces are lovingly rendered and the rural open areas are amazing to behold, both day and night. Great care was taken to represent all the music and dance styles summoned by Sammie’s magical playing: hip-hop and break-dancing, ballet and shamanistic dance, drumming and oration, krumping and twerking, psychedelic funk electric guitar, spoken word and a sprinkling of traditional Chinese opera (when the magic floated around Grace and Bo Chao). It’s all a wise use of the 9 months to make the film, and it shows up on screen. Even better was the ending, which was foreshadowed at the start. A lot of the final act was used in the promos to hide the vampires, yet it’s a cathartic response to the preceding night of slaughter.
Only one hiccup: There’s a lot of foul language and sexual content in this film that’s casually discussed in the open within earshot between people of all races in public. This was during a time when maintaining your station based on your gender and skin complexion meant more than your life. There are still laws on the books that prohibited this type of language in public back then. Because Mary passed for White, it was super dangerous for her AND Stack to even act that way at the train station.

The only way Ryan Coogler would know how people spoke in 1936 is if he knew a guy…

CHOICE CUTS:

• The older version of Sammie is played by legendary blues musician Buddy Guy, who was born in 1936.
• This is the first film role ever for Miles Caton and the first acting role for Peter Dreimanis.
• I fell in love with the representation of the old hip-hop lyric “the roof/the roof/the roof is on fire/we don’t need no water/let the motherfucker burn/burn motherfucker burn”. The camerawork was out of control…and that’s the vibe!
• PRICELESS QUOTE: “This isn’t what it looks like!” — Mary, after being caught with Stack’s blood dripping down her front after ripping out his throat. BITCH WHAT IS IT SUPPOSED TO LOOK LIKE~
• The idea that vampires know the Bible and can withstand crosses better than most preachers was lost on my audience: they cheered when the vampire hesitated in the face of the Lord’s Prayer, but were very confused when every vampire in the coven was able to recite it by heart with no ill effects.
• No, they didn’t copy Night of the Living Dead or From Dusk ’til Dawn.
• Smoke made sure to shoot Mary as many times as possible when he found her murdering his brother. This is the correct course of action: no “big NOOOO”, just lighting her ass up.
• Them Irish folk vampires got the jigs. You read that correctly: Irish folk vampires. Between the musical artistry and Riverdancing, they’re the most talented vampires since the shirtless saxophone vampire in The Lost Boys [1987] or the vampire circus in Van Helsing [2002].
• Shoutout to Jayme Lawson (The Batman [2022], The Woman King [2022]) and Saul Williams (The N-Word [2004], Akila’s Escape [2020]), who truly made an impression.
• I was not surprised when I learned the movie was shot in Louisiana, not Mississippi; the trees didn’t match.
• FRIDGE LOGIC: So you saw the fangs and the drool and the glowing red eyes, and you turned your back on the vampires. OK…(side eye look)
• Those Native American vampire hunters were ready to go when they came out the truck and on horseback; their leader Chayton (Nathaniel Arcand, Killers of the Flower Moon [2023], Pathfinder [2007]) feared no White man or their guns — only the beast he would hunt. And they would have got him too, if not for the color of the vampire’s skin.
• FUN FACT: I remember when Hailee Steinfeld was cast to play the role of the mixed-race character Mary. People were not pleased and made a stink, as they believed a person who is actually of mixed Black and White ancestry should play in the role. Miss Steinfeld is one-quarter African-American (a quadroon), which would allow her to pass for White in the Jim Crow South (provided nobody knew the truth)…and enough to fool her critics.
• Not sure if the movie is equating the idea of Irish folk music being used to supplant blues as “the music of the South” with the idea of a unified world under Eurocentric vampirism; I could be overthinking it.