Sinners: The BRWC Review

20th April 2025

Sinners: The BRWC Review. By Josiah Teal.

A young man, Sammie (Miles Caton), stumbles into his father’s church, covered in blood and scars from the night before. In his hand, he clutches what remains of his prized guitar. His father told him, “When you dance with the devil, he may just follow you home.” It appears his father was right. Set in the Mississippi Delta at the start of the Great Depression, Ryan Coogler’s Sinners takes audiences on a mythic journey of vampires and music in the “Land Where the Blues Began.”

One day before Sammie’s bloody appearance at Sunday’s service, twin brothers “Smoke” and “Stack” (Michael B. Jordan) return to the Delta from Chicago. The brothers show up after a long estrangement from the Jim Crow South; the two sought fortunes in the North. Rumors of hitting a big Casino, robbing banks, and working with a notorious crime boss surround the brothers; whether true or fantasy, the brothers prove they have plenty of money and are quick with a gun. Hoping to open a Juke Joint music club, the twins hire their cousin Sammie to play guitar as they hustle their way into a packed club on opening night.

The night brings an almost spiritual night of music, dancing, and acceptance. Connecting the past, present, and future through the blues and the voice of young Sammie. A voice so pure, moving that, as foreshadowed in the prologue, could “pierce the veil” between worlds. Sammie’s voice is heard, not just by the other side but by demons within our world. What began as the ultimate high for Sammie and the twins soon becomes a night of terror and blood as vampires descend upon Club Juke.

Smoke & Stack’s return to Mississippi is often met with a mix of shock and, at times, disdain even among friends. Hailee Steinfeld is magnificent as Mary, Stack’s witty, smooth-talking, jilted lover. As Sinners unfolds and the narrative leads the brothers toward their brush with vampires, the supporting cast shines, elevating the excellent characterization of Sammie, Smoke, and Stack to create a lived-in world before thrusting the vampires into the story Miles Caton brings vulnerability and eagerness to Sammie, making his taste for freedom before destruction all the more heartbreaking. Jack O’Connell is a sinister head vampire, channeling equal parts cult leader and blood-drunk sociopath in every scene. Every performance in Sinners is on point, especially those of Michael B. Jordan.

Sinners marks Coogler and Jordan’s fifth film together. With a track record of Creed, Black Panther, and Fruitvale Station on their resume, the “Scorsese & De Niro” comparisons are valid. Jordan brings his trademark charisma and nuance to the dual role, adding layers of personality to both Smoke and Stack. Whether fighting hordes of vampires, charming everyone, or intimidating Klansmen, Michael B. Jordan is electric in this film. His chemistry with the entire cast makes Sinners a horror film with the soul of a period piece.

Music, history, and horror flow freely through Ryan Coogler’s script. The Ludwig Göransson score paired with traditional Delta blues radiates throughout Sinners, giving the narrative a supernatural feel long before vampires arrive. Coogler draws influences from vampiric folklore, John Carpenter’s The Thing, a bit of Tarantino, and his own personal filmmaking gravitas to create a magical experience. Sinners has deep roots in the horrific stories of the American South. Ryan Coogler takes the Jim Crow Delta and gives the violence a vampiric spin, creating an allegory that transcends cinema, expressing the blood-soaked reality.

Without a single vampire, Sinners works as a film. Given the first and even most of the second acts, the film could be a gripping period piece on survival and freedom in an era of sharecropping and segregation. It would still be a character-driven narrative about brothers trying to feel alive in a world that has taken everything. But by adding blood-sucking demons into the mix, Ryan Coogler creates one of the most profound and entertaining vampire epics in decades. Sinners is not just one of the best installments of the new “Vampire Renaissance” but one of the best installments of the vampire mythos and perhaps the best film of his illustrious career. Vampire mythology lends itself easily to the spiritual, primal story of survival within Sinners. It is almost too perfect. Coogler, Jordan, and the entire team take Robert Johnson’s blues and blend them brutally with the harsh devil of the vampiric South.

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