Ryan Coogler has made something rare with Sinners: a horror film with bite, brains, and soul. It’s a film that’s as entertaining as it is thoughtful, never content to just scare its audience without giving them something to chew on. Michael B. Jordan gives a career-high performance as twin gangsters returning to their former lives in the South.
‘Sinners’ Movie Review
Ryan Coogler’s Sinners (2025) is a searing return to form for a director finally freed from the creative limitations of franchise filmmaking (Black Panther, Creed, Wakanda Forever). It’s his first original project since Fruitvale Station, and it shows: this is muscular, genre-bending cinema with purpose, anchored by a bold central performance from Michael B. Jordan in dual roles, and layered with thematic weight that’s rare in modern studio horror.
Coogler fuses the grit and soul of Black Southern history with the visceral thrills of a From Dusk Till Dawn-style vampire showdown, creating something wholly unique. Sinners is a horror film, a cultural commentary, and a musical elegy rolled into one—never subtle, but always compelling.
Jordan plays twin brothers Smoke and Stack, gangsters fleeing Chicago to return to their former lives down South. With stolen cash, they buy a sawmill from a racist landowner and transform it into a juke joint for the local Black community. They’re joined by an ensemble that includes Miles Caton as their ambitious younger cousin Sammie, Delroy Lindo as grizzled pianist Delta Slim, Jayme Lawson as the powerhouse vocalist Pearline, Wunmi Mosaku as Smoke’s estranged wife Annie, and Hailee Steinfeld as Stack’s ex Mary. Li Jun Li and Yao also appear as Chinese shopkeepers caught up in the night’s unraveling chaos, and Omar Benson Miller as the twins’ loyal bouncer Cornbread.
But the real danger comes from the film’s haunting metaphor: a trio of vampiric white predators disguised in human skin, infiltrating the party not only to feed on blood but to steal something more potent—culture. Specifically, the Blues, which Sinners reveres as the heart and soul of Black American expression. This isn’t just a monster movie; it’s a scathing commentary on cultural appropriation, and how Black creativity is historically consumed and repackaged for wider audiences with little acknowledgment or reparations.
Ludwig Göransson’s score, composed and performed on a 1932 Dobro Cyclops resonator guitar, adds a layer of texture to the film, honoring the rawness and roots of the Blues while tying it to contemporary musical movements. In one standout sequence—already being discussed as a highlight of Coogler’s career—he breaks the film’s forward momentum to trace the lineage of Black music from the Delta to modern Hip Hop in a kinetic, emotionally charged montage that feels like a love letter to stolen legacy.
If there’s a knock on Sinners, it’s that the final act wobbles under the weight of its ambition. The last 30 minutes descend into a blood-soaked vampire free-for-all that’s undeniably fun but struggles to bring all the film’s themes together in a coherent way. The movie’s prologue—where Sammie appears at his father’s church, drenched in blood and clutching a broken guitar—adds early dread but robs some of the tension from the main event by telegraphing the aftermath. Still, these are minor faults in an otherwise electrifying and deeply resonant film.
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Ryan Coogler has made something rare with Sinners: a horror film with bite, brains, and soul. It’s a film that’s as entertaining as it is thoughtful, never content to just scare its audience without giving them something to chew on. Michael B. Jordan gives a career-high performance that’s both showy and internal, and the supporting cast is across-the-board excellent. While not perfectly tied together, the film’s ambition and originality are undeniable.
Score: 8/10
Sinners (2025)
- Cast: Michael B. Jordan, Miles Caton, Hailee Steinfeld, Wunmi Mosaku, Jack O’Connell, Delroy Lindo, Omar Benson Miller, Jayme Lawson, Li Jun Li, Lola Kirke, Yao
- Director: Ryan Coogler
- Genre: Drama, Horror, Thriller
- Runtime: 138 minutes
- Rated: R
- Release Date: April 18, 2025
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