April 15, 2025
by Carla Hay

Directed by Ryan Coogler
Culture Representation: Taking place primarily in 1932, in Clarksdale, Mississippi, the horror film “Sinners” features an African American and white group of people (with a few Asians and Native Americans) representing the working-class and the middle-class.
Culture Clash: Identical twin brothers open up a juke joint, and enlist their blues-musician cousin to perform on opening night, but the night descends into chaos when vampires attack.
Culture Audience: “Sinners” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and adult-oriented horror movies.

“Sinners” is more than a vampire movie. It’s a sexy, stylish, gritty and gory journey that expertly layers horror with the supernatural power of music and haunting legacies about violent racism. It’s a memorable film that uses familiar legends about vampires and puts them into an original story about emotionally damaged people haunted by their pasts.
Written and directed by Ryan Coogler (who is also one of the movie’s producers), “Sinners” has some twists and turns that offer welcome surprises. The movie takes its time in revealing several things about the main characters in the film. There’s a lot of dire tragedy in the movie but there’s also joyful celebration and some comic relief. “Sinners” capably balances all of these tones.
“Sinners” (which takes place mostly in 1932, in Clarksdale, Mississippi) begins with voiceover narration from a woman who is later introduced as Annie (played by Wunmi Mosaku), “a Hoodoo conjurer, spiritual leader and healer in the community,” as she is described in the movie’s production notes. Anne talks about musicians with special powers (who are called griots in African culture) and who play music that “brings healing to their communities, but it can also bring evil.”
The first scene in the movie is startling: A 19-year-old man named Samuel “Sammie” Moore (played by Miles Caton) bursts into a small makeshift church during a church service that has about 30 people in attendance. Sammie (whose nickname is Preacher Boy) is holding the neck of a damaged guitar. He has noticeable injuries, including bloody marks on his face that looks like he’s been clawed.
Sammie’s stern father Jedidiah (played by Saul Williams) is the preacher of the church. When he sees Sammie, he knows that Sammie has come from performing blues music at a nightclub, which is something that Jedidiah disapproves of and has strictly forbidden. Sammie plays music, which Jedidiah believes is the devil’s music.
Sammie is in obvious distress but Jedidiah only seems willing to help Sammie if Sammie follows this order from Jedidiah: “I want you to live those sinning ways. Drop the guitar!” Sammy holds a firm grip on the guitar. Jedidiah repeats the order again and again. What will Sammie do?
The movie then abruptly cuts to one day earlier. Sammie works as a sharecropper for his day job. He is well-liked and respected among his sharecropper peers. But in his heart, what he really wants to be is a professional blues music artist. It’s why he eagerly takes an opportunity to perform at a Clarksdale juke joint’s opening night. It will turn out to be a very fateful decision.
Sammie is a talented singer, songwriter and musician who takes performing gigs wherever he can, much to his father’s disapproval. As far as Jedidiah s concerned, the places where Sammie performs are cesspools of sin. Jedidiah warns Sammie: “If you keep dancing with the devil, one day he’s going to follow you home.”
Meanwhile, two identical twin brothers named Smoke (played by Michael B. Jordan) and Stack (also played by Jordan), who are both are World War I veterans, have returned to their hometown of Clarksdale after seven years away. During those seven years, Smoke and Stack (who are nicknamed the Smoke Stack twins) were involved in shady business deals (including bootlegging of liquor during this Prohibition era) and gang activities in Chicago. (It’s mentioned that Smoke and Stake worked for notorious gangster Al Capone when the twins were in Chicago.)
Smoke and Stack have come back to Clarksdale with enough cash and liquor to fulfill their dream to open up a juke joint: a nightclub in a barn or warehouse that caters mostly to African Americans and where blues music is performed. The twins name their juke joint Club Juke. Smoke (who likes to wear a blue newsboy cap) is the more ruthless and hardened twin. Stack (who likes to wear a maroon fedora) is the more diplomatic and smooth-talking twin.
Smoke and Stack meet with a local property owner named Hogwood (played by David Maldonado) to buy a mill and its equipment. Hogwood is skeptical about selling the property because he doesn’t think Smoke and Stack have the money for it. But when they show Maldonado the wads of cash they have to pay it, he quickly changes his mind. Hogwood is also an obvious liar when he makes a point of telling Smoke and Stack that the Ku Klux Klan doesn’t exist in the area.
Smoke and Stack are the older cousins of Sammie, whom they easily convince to be the performer for the opening night of Club Juke, which will debut that night. Smoke and Stack also enlist two longtime friends on short notice to work at Club Juke that night: Delta Slim (played by Delroy Lindo), a hard-drinking musician, will be Sammie’s piano player. Cornbread (played by Omar Miller) is a sharecropper who will be Club Juke’s doorman.
Smoke and Stack stop by a local grocery store to place big order of food, drinks and some other supplies for the juke joint’s opening night. And just like that, the grocery store owners—a Chinese American married couple named Grace Chow (played by Li Jun Li) and Bo Chow (played by Yao)—are also hired to be the caterers for Club Juke’s opening night. Smoke and Stack have enough cash to quickly hire everyone to work that night.
Sammie has a crush on a local woman named Pearline (played by Jayme Lawson), a singer who is in an unhappy marriage with an older man. Pearline has an image of being too classy and refined to ever be in a juke joint. Sammie invites her to Club Juke’s opening night anyway so she can watch him perform.
Smoke and Stack have issues in their own lives that affect much of what happens in the movie. Smoke was married to Annie, but he abandoned her when he went to Chicago. He hasn’t seen or spoken to her in communicated with her in that seven-year period.
Naturally, she’s upset when she sees him, but Smoke seduces her into forgiving him. He convinces Annie to be a cashier for the juke joint. Smoke and Annie also share a tragedy: They had a baby son who died before he went away to Chicago. Annie and Smoke don’t like to talk about their child’s death.
Stack’s love interest is a feisty Mary (played by Hailee Steinfeld), who is furious with Stack because he ignored her and moved to Chicago shortly after they had a love affair. Mary is married to a wealthy white man but she prefers to hang out with black people. For some people, Mary might be considered a person of color because she mentions at one point that her mother’s father was half-black, half-white. But for most people, Mary is white because she looks that way.
All of these characters will encounter a trio of people who will cause mayhem at the Club Juke. It starts when an Irish immigrant named Remmick (played by Jack O’Connell) frantically knocks on the door of a married farm couple named Bert (played by Peter Dreimanis) and Joan (played by Lola Kirke) to ask them to hide him at their home. Remmick explains that some Native Americans have killed his wife and are now trying to find Remmick.
As shown in the movie, Bert is a member of the Ku Klux Klan, which is why he and Joan are inclined to automatically believe Remmick when Remmick says that that any Native Americans who show up to look for Remmick will be telling lies about Remmick. When these officials show up at the farm, Joan answers the door and denies seeing Remmick. As already revealed in a “Sinners” trailer, Remmick is really a vampire. And you can easily guess what he does to Bert and Joan.
Remmick is on the hunt for musicians with special talent that he’s heard about, which is why Remmick goes looking for Sammie. Remmick takes Joan and Bert with him when they go to the juke joint and try to gain access by posing as a musical trio. On a deeper level, Remmick, Joan and Bert represent vampires in the music industry who deceive artists by promising them fame and fortune only to exploit and cheat the artists. This has been especially true for black artists because “Sinners” always has race and racism as part of the story’s fabric.
“Sinners” has a stunning musical sequence at the juke joint that weaves together music performed by black artists in the 1930s with subsequent decades. It’s a very artistic homage to blues, funk and hip-hop (including having characters made to look similar to Bootsy Collins and LL Cool J) that is one of the highlights of the film.
Traditional vampire lore is a big part of “Sinners.” Several parts of the movie hinge on these well-known vampire “rules”: Vampires cannot enter a building without being invited by the owner or caretaker of the building. A vampire can be injured by holy water. A vampire can be killed by a stake to the heart or by being exposed to daylight sun.
Jordan does a noteworthy job in his dual performance as Stack and Smoke, although “Sinners” is the type of ensemble film where there are no bad performances. Mosaku also stands out as the strong but emotionally wounded Annie, who is in many ways the soul of the story. Lindo and Miller show excellent comedic timing for their “Sinners” characters, who have the funniest moments in the film. O’Connell makes Remmick a memorable villain. Li is a scene stealer as Grace, who proves to be a powerhouse fighter when the going gets tough.
Oscar-winning composer Ludwig Göransson (who has worked on all of Coogler’s movies so far) crafted a gripping and suspenseful score for “Sinners,” a movie that sometimes wanders but is consistently compelling. Also worth noting is Oscar-winning production designer Hannah Beachler’s excellent production design for “Sinners.” As for surprises, the movie has a mid-credits scene and an end-credits scene that are treats for people who love and appreciate blues music. (The mid-credits scene is essential to watch.) “Sinners” is destined to be a horror classic and is sue to inspire repeat viewings.
Warner Bros. Pictures will release “Sinners” in U.S. cinemas on April 18, 2025.