Sinners is a breathtakingly horrific ode to Black mythology

Horror movies centering Black characters are not a new phenomenon, but the genre’s resurgence in recent years has ushered in a fresh wave of ambitious and occasionally phenomenal features that spin the United States’ legacy of racism into captivating, supernatural tales. Sinners, writer / director Ryan Coogler’s latest project, feels very much like a product of this recent era in the way it pulls from and remixes classic vampire canon to tell a powerful story about life for Black Americans in the South at a time when the country’s promise of their freedom was not guaranteed.

Sinners reads as a deeply personal narrative that’s been gestating within Coogler’s mind for years, and the film shifts between being scary, stylish, and sexy in ways meant to leave you in awe of how magical movies on the big screen can feel. And while the movie doesn’t exactly reinvent the bloodsucker genre, it pours a captivating and beautiful energy into it that makes this feel like Coogler working near the height of his still-growing creative powers.

Everyone is guilty of at least a little heathenry in Sinners, but there are few people with reputations as tarnished as twins Elijah / “Smoke” and Elias / “Stack” (both roles are played by Michael B. Jordan). Years after the brothers went off to fight in WWI and returned to become liquor-running gangsters in Chicago, people back in Clarksdale, Mississippi — where they’re originally from — still remember them as slick-talking troublemakers. Smoke, the steelier, more calculating twin, relies on Stack’s charm and smoothness as the pair work in tandem to pull off their various schemes.

For the most part, Smoke and Stack see each other as the only people they can trust — a result of their abusive upbringing and a deep understanding of the ever-present danger they face as Black people living through Jim Crow. But when the brothers come into some ill-gotten money and booze, they see it as an opportunity to head home and start the business they have always dreamed of.

Though Sinners opens with an arresting sequence that teases the horrors lying in wait for the twins down South, the movie takes its time before inviting you to fully sink your teeth into the supernatural meat of its story. Ordinary human monsters — the kind who set Black towns on fire and see lynchings of innocent people as family friendly entertainment events — are an inescapable part of Smoke and Stack’s lives. But the twins know that there is also hope in the world around them, and Sinners spends much of its slow-burning opening act working to help you see the beauty that inspires them to get back to their roots.

Coogler and cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw present the twins’ homecoming through a series of striking, exquisite tableaus that showcase the physical vastness and natural splendor of rural Mississippi. Baked into every shot of sprawling, sun-drenched cotton fields dotted with sharecroppers is the idea that none of the South’s wealth would have been possible without Black people being trapped in systems designed to keep them laboring endlessly.

Sinners also leaves you keenly aware of how remote life in the South can be, which reinforces the film’s presentation of the twins as men who grew up feeling alone in their fight for survival. But as the duo roll into town with a list of old friends they hope to recruit into working at their new nightclub, Sinners becomes a gorgeous showcase of what Black Americans and other communities of color have been able to build for themselves in spite of the cards being systematically stacked against them.

It’s as Smoke and Stack split up and begin pitching their idea that you really start to get a sense of the unique nuances to each of Jordan’s dual performances. The brothers are a(n absolute) unit together, but their being apart and playing to their respective strengths is what makes it easy for them to convince Chinese American general store owners Grace (Li Jun Li) and her husband Bo (Yao) to get in on the action. Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo), a local drunk who funds his habit with his unmatched skill on the harmonica, is a much harder sell than the twins’ guitar prodigy cousin Sammie (Miles Caton). And while Smoke and Stack both have thorny pasts with their former lovers Annie (Wunmi Mosaku) and Mary (Hailee Steinfeld), the drama isn’t enough to keep them all from reconnecting in hopes of rekindling old flames.

By spending so much time on the brothers’ different relationships, Coogler sets up Sinners — which takes place over the course of a single day — to play as a heartfelt drama whose characters you can really become invested in. Until about halfway through, you can almost imagine the film working as a more grounded period piece about the perils of starting a Black-owned business in the 1930s. But as the sun begins to set and Sinners introduces Remmick (Jack O’Connell), a white man desperate to be invited into the home of an unsuspecting pair of Klan supporters, the movie reveals itself to be a gruesome joyride aimed squarely at horror buffs.

Between the two Black Panther films, Coogler has already demonstrated his ability to bring fantasy worlds initially dreamt up by others to life. But with Sinners, he’s cooking with a different kind of directorial heat that speaks to this being his original story. Rather than trying to create a new spin on vampires, Coogler sticks to their “sun bad / blood good” basics, and he smartly frames Sinners’ living players as people with enough common sense to suss out that they’re being stalked by the undead.

At times, Sinners’ characters almost feel as if they’ve seen modern horror movies and found joy in poking fun at their absurdity in the same way that you’re meant to as part of the audience. But once the fangs come out and people start being mauled by Remmick’s growing army of newly turned ghouls, the film becomes a blood-soaked survival thriller that unfolds like a dizzying cross between Night of the Living Dead, 30 Days of Night, and Attack the Block.

For all of Sinners’ narrative straightforwardness, there’s a brilliant complexity to the way it uses music to elicit raw emotion, while its sound design helps this world of monsters feel all too real. But there’s one scene that stands out as a brilliant illustration of how, through various genres of music, you can trace the throughlines of contemporary Black American culture all the way back to precolonial Africa.

What’s most impressive about Sinners is how much fun it is even as the bodies start piling up and all hope seems to be lost. It’s clear Coogler set out to make something not just for himself, but for everyone who understands the power movies have to pull us into their fantastical realities. Sinners not only succeeds, but it ushers Coogler into a new echelon of cinematic storytellers.

_{Sinners also stars Jayme Lawson, Omar Benson Miller, Helena Hu, Lola Kirke, Peter Dreimanis, Saul Williams, and Buddy Guy. The movie hits theaters on April 18th.}