Title: Sinners
Year: 2025
Director: Ryan Coogler
Country: US
Language: English
After a long hiatus from the movie theatre, the word-of-mouth buzz around Ryan Coogler’s Sinners was enough to draw me back. Drawing inspiration from Robert Rodriguez’s From Dusk Till Dawn (1996), Coogler delivers a bold, genre-blending film that fuses action, horror, and drama—while also functioning as a compelling period piece. Sinners not only stands out as one of the rare vampire films that’s genuinely entertaining, but it also brims with sharp, subversive commentary that elevates it beyond its genre trappings.
Trying to leave their troubled lives behind, twin brothers (both played by Michael B. Jordan) return to their hometown to start again, only to discover that an even greater evil is waiting to welcome them back.
From a visual perspective, Sinners is a stunning film. The cinematography leans into rich, moody palettes that give the film a gothic vibe, while also staying true to the film's historical setting. the lighting is used masterfully - whether to show us dimly lit interiors or sun drenched plains - it emphasizes both horror and humanity. The film's pacing is deliberate - it takes a while to get to the horror element of the picture - but the building of suspense and intrigue certainly enhances the experience of Sinners.
Coogler deepens Sinners’ visual and thematic resonance by using music as a powerful, omnipresent force throughout the film. The vampires weaponize haunting Irish folk songs, their eerie harmonies used to unsettle and intimidate. In contrast, Sammie and Delta Sim channel the soul of the Southern Black experience through the blues—playing with such raw, aching authenticity that it feels timeless, "so true it can pierce the veil between life and death." In one unforgettable sequence, Coogler orchestrates a layered audiovisual polyphony where performers, dances, and rhythms from across centuries converge. It’s a breathtaking moment—part spiritual, part surreal—that lingers long after the credits roll.
Sinners is a remarkable, entertaining, feature that works as surface-level horror and a deep criticism of colonialism, religion, community, fellowship, freedom, racism - and more. Coogler takes a tired genre, and delivers a thoughtful spectacle that is certainly worthy of many accolades.