Sinners

Vampire hit that Irish Jig pretty fuckin hard ngl

Absolutely incredible, one of the best vampire films I've seen to date.

Left me wanting to know more about the lore and the history, but that's not a complaint.

Believable characters, excellent sets and practical effects, the pacing was excellent and the tone consistent.

Ryan Coogler, in “Sinners,” delivers a film that feels like it came straight from a raw creative spark—free from formulaic expectations, but shaped by a steady, experienced hand that’s deeply connected to the stories it wants to tell. It’s a genre film—or rather, a blend of many genres—but it never gets lost in the stylistic patchwork it dives into. What could’ve easily become a messy, overstuffed experiment turns into a cohesive spectacle, one that truly understands the symbolic power of cinema. “Sinners” starts off as a Southern tale about going back to one’s roots and ends up as a mythic horror story about the power of Black music, the threat of cultural whitewashing, and the tragedy of a country built on plunder. What’s wild is that none of it feels forced. Coogler orchestrates all this chaos with the calm confidence of someone who fully trusts his own vision.

The core narrative is already fascinating: twin brothers—Smoke and Stack—return to Mississippi in the post-Prohibition era with the plan of opening a juke joint. They carry with them a heavy past that’s never spelled out completely, but its shadow lingers over every scene. The decision not to show us exactly what they’ve been through—letting it all unfold through gestures, silences, and fragmented dialogue—gives the film a near-mythical weight. Michael B. Jordan, playing both roles without falling into caricature or flashy contrasts, brings out subtle but distinct differences, as if the two men are just fractured sides of the same soul. Stack is the impulse, Smoke is the brake. Both are survivors looking for a breath of peace—and they end up stumbling into a whole new kind of hell.

The Mississippi we see in “Sinners” isn’t just a backdrop—it’s a living, breathing, haunted presence. Shot in 65mm by Autumn Durald Arkapaw, the American South is shown with a melancholic beauty, where the light seems desperate to break through the cracks of history, but keeps getting swallowed by shadows. This visual style works especially well because it’s completely in sync with the film’s narrative tone: even in moments of celebration, there’s always a hint of danger—an off glance, a sketchy whisper, a dissonant note. Even before the vampire twist hits, you already feel something supernatural hovering. And when that shift does come, it doesn’t feel like a change of gears—it feels like the inevitable reveal of what’s been under the surface all along.

The arrival of the vampires—singing Irish folk ballads and bringing a threat that goes way beyond physical violence—is one of Coogler’s boldest moves. The metaphor might seem obvious at first—white folks draining the life out of Black culture—but the script doesn’t settle for a simple, surface-level reading. There are layers of ambiguity that make this threat even more unsettling. These creatures don’t just want blood—they want presence, belonging, symbolic power. The fact that they’re drawn to Sammie’s (Miles Caton) music—a mix of raw talent and ancestral pain—turns the film into a story about appropriation and resistance, but without slipping into easy black-and-white morality. Coogler isn’t trying to preach—he wants to provoke.

And it’s here that the film’s multi-genre structure really shines. “Sinners” flirts with Westerns (through stare-downs and wide landscape shots), with mob dramas (in the moral dilemmas and criminal underworld twists), with musicals (in show-stopping IMAX performances that feel like time just pauses), and with horror (in gut-punching attacks and that lingering sense of ancient evil). But what’s amazing is that none of this feels like a jumble of references—it’s more like an intuitive collage, where every cinematic language is used with purpose. When Coogler lets the music take over the screen—especially in a long, psychedelic sequence that echoes Baz Luhrmann’s stylized chaos—it’s not for show. It’s the film’s soul spilling out.

Of course, the script doesn’t hit the mark 100% of the time. Some character decisions—like the failed attempt to keep Sammie away from the club—feel a bit off. Others, like the brothers’ relationships with old lovers, don’t quite get the development they need. But none of that undercuts the movie’s overall impact, because “Sinners” is less about plot and more about mood, themes, and emotional states. What Coogler builds here is a sensory experience, where every visual, every sound, every moment is designed to stir something deeper than just following a story from point A to B.

By the end, when you think the film has said all it needs to, it still finds room for an epilogue—a kind of elegy, a final musical breath. And it’s that refusal to wrap things up neatly that makes it hit so hard. “Sinners” doesn’t want to be tidy. It doesn’t want to be controlled. It wants to overflow. This is cinema that vibrates, bleeds, and sings. A film that sees the past not as something to illustrate, but as a wound still open—and dares to look straight into it with honesty, beauty, and rage. In the end, Coogler didn’t just make his first original movie—he made his boldest, most personal, and maybe even his most vital one yet.

I absolutely loved this. Michael B Jordan blew me away at every turn, his ability to play both twins and make them both distinct people was insane. And in the same vein, the filming and editing was done so brilliantly that you really could believe there were two of him. They'd hand things to each other, touch, react to movements. Smoke from ones cigarette would get in the others face. It was brilliant. The characters were all great and it was easy to find and root for them. Hailee Steinfeld was incredible, especially after the turn. The post credit scene was really good closure and both heartwarming and devastating. This was brilliant.

I only saw the original trailer that pretty much told you nothing, went in and made sure to avoid ALL reviews, trailers, spoilers everything before I watched.

It is an EXPERIENCE, I didn't think it would live up to the hype, but the music, the emotion, the cinematography was perfect.

Michael Jordan knocked it out of the park as the twins, and I didn't think he had elevated his acting to be able to pull that off and I was wrong, there were pretty much no "safe" characters either, like most horror movies.

Ryan Coogler just put out a modern classic, my favourite scene is the juke scene with all the mixtures of black history.

I could say so much more but if you haven't, go see this shit in the theater, unless you have a high quality home theater setup, you can't do it justice.

5 stars easy, can't wait to watch it again.

As of now, this is definitely my favorite movie of all time. The time period and culture shown in this movie are portrayed beautifully in this film, especially with the cinematography. I loved the Blues music portrayal, and the music was actually top-tier with helping scenes become way more grand. The scenes with the combination of music during different time periods, the men kicking the dude to the beat of the music, the vampires dancing together outside, and the whole entire falling action sequences were some of my favorite scenes in all of media. This movie just completely blew my expectations out of the water and I'm so glad that I decided to watch it.

the perfect movie doesn't exist — unless you have vampires in the deep south in the 1930s, pair it with a goosebumps-inducing soundtrack & put michael b jordan in it.

Just amazing. Story, actors, and most importantly the score of this movie is mind blowing. It makes such an impact on how you perceive the movie. 10/10

The best movie I've seen this year and probably will keep the title this year long, God bless Ryan Coogler for this master piece.

_"Son, You keep dancing with the Devil, one day, he's gonna follow you home."_