“Sinners” Movie Review

Image: “Sinners” (2025) Movie Poster via IMDb

We are entering a vampire movie renaissance! From “Abigail” (2024) and “Nosferatu” (2024), “Sinners” (2025), the newest vampire film, came in with heat. Ryan Coogler is best known for his films “Black Panther” (2018) and “Creed” (2015) starring Michael B. Jordan. This movie has earned over $48 million in its opening weekend and is growing to be the highest-grossing opening for a horror film in theaters. This film is not just about vampires; being set in the Jim Crow era gives this film even more depth and meaning to the motives of the vampires.  

I went into this movie blind after seeing a few promotional pictures on TikTok to avoid any spoilers on the plot. Taking place in 1932 Mississippi, Smoke and Stack are identical twins played by Michael B. Jordan. The twins return after WW1 to open a juke joint with the help of their friends, who are offered a few dollars and a good time if they help out. Walking into the theater, I was excited. Black horror movies, vampires and a great cast list are a favorite of mine. Jordan does an impressive job playing two different people on screen. Stack is more of a spontaneous, think-before-you-act kind of man, while his brother, Smoke, is more premeditated. Smoke even says his brother can’t watch his own back, foreshadowing his future. The twins recruited their cousin Sammie, played by Miles Caton, to play music at the juke joint.  

That scene, you’ll know what I’m talking about once you see the movie. Never have I sat through a scene and already started thinking about the next time I’m free to see it again. Music is symbolic in this movie. It’s an escape and a ritual that conjures your ancestors when heard. The music in this movie and the dancing scene in the barn are monumental. In this barn scene, Sammie starts singing and playing a blues song, and throughout the scene, we see different generations of music and ancestors represented. Music is used to transcend us through time and feel connected with those in the past, present and future. The scene has representation for both African and Chinese cultures. The music that Sammie performed and the entirety of this scene are to show how much music can influence a culture. ”Sinners” is filled with foreshadowing because his father warned him that if he “kept dancing with the devil, that he would follow him home.” Blues music was known as “the devil’s music” during that time, and shows the mindset of the church during this era.  

Remmick, played by Jack O’Connell, is an Irish vampire who tricked a couple into letting him in, later becoming a part of his cult followers, headed to the barn. Although this movie is labeled as a Horror/Adventure film, it won’t have you shaking in your seat. Unfortunately, the vampires get to Mary (Hailee Steinfeld) way too soon in my opinion. The others in the juke joint use her almost as a bridge to the vampires when they are trying to understand why they want to join “a party like theirs” when they can get into any joint. Mary uses her privilege to talk to the group to get a sense of their intentions, but it doesn’t end well for her.  

Some final thoughts: Without Annie (Wunmi Mosaku), no one was making it to that barn alive! If you know, you know, because I can’t tell you any more spoilers for this film.  

Visually, this movie is beautiful. The cinematography and the colors of the movie are fitting for the time frame, and the pace of the actual movie didn’t feel like it was dragging on for a movie over two hours long, in case no one told you before you watch this film in the theater. Stay in your seat until the lights come on because there are not one, but two post-credit scenes in this movie to really put the cherry on top. Some movies are just meant to be seen on the big screen, like this one. Even after leaving the theater, a week after watching “Sinners,” I was still thinking about this movie.  

Lauren Flynn-Miller is a fourth-year Interdisciplinary Studies major with minors in Journalism and Media & Culture. LF954013@wcupa.edu