Sinners is likely the liveliest party you’ll be invited to this year about the undead, with barn-storming music, movie-star magnetism from Michael B Jordan and a fabulously entertaining take on how to build a horror film around vampires.
Writer-director Ryan Coogler offers us an atmospheric tale, and not just in the creepy sense as the film is steeped in its setting of 1932 Mississippi, where we encounter twins Smoke and Stack (Jordan in 2025’s latest dual roles, and his latest Coogler collaboration).
These brothers are back from Chicago to open a juke joint in their hometown, recruiting young cousin Sammie (a vibrant Miles Catton in his debut film) to provide the musical entertainment thanks to his gifts on guitar and in song.
Sammie is warned by his preacher father ‘if you keep dancing with the devil, one day he’s going to follow you home’ and the film relishes exploring fears about links between hedonism and evil.
It also tinkers with the legend of ‘30s blues musician Robert Johnson, who was said to have sold his soul to the devil at the crossroads in return for success.
Sinners is actually a whole other film before the vampires even turn up, delving into racial dynamics in the Deep South at the time, when the Ku Klux Klan still lurked, before tying in clever relevance when their new fanged acquaintances appear.
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While this makes for a slow start, it allows Jordan to establish the quirks between the hedonistic and impulsive Stack – with a spurned ex-lover in town (Hailee Steinfeld’s Mary) – and the more business-minded Smoke, who has his own painful past with Wunmi Mosaku’s Annie.
Their community is properly introduced as well, from old-timer alcoholic music man Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo) to the well-meaning Cornbread (Omar Benson Miller), young flapper Pearline (Jayme Lawson) and the Chows (Li Jun Li and Yao), who provide catering for opening night.
And it’s opening night which draws the charismatic Remmick (a scene-stealing villainous turn from Jack O’Connell), part of an unnerving folk trio (also including Lola Kirke and Peter Dreimanis) who are keen to spend their coin and have a good time after being drawn by Sammie’s virtuosic music. They seem awfully insistent on an invitation inside though…
Sinners doesn’t reinvent the rules when it comes to vampires, with the humans relying on the age-old protections of garlic, holy water, stakes and trying to ride out the ring of demons circling the barn until sunrise.
But it’s refreshing seeing them in such a rich historical period, playing on the specifics of what this community holds dear – music and fellowship – to try and seduce them across to the dark side, while picking them off, one by one.
We’re in much cooler territory than that of Twilight and standard Dracula takes too.
It’s also a sexy, sensual film, following on from the horniness of 2025’s other big vampire flick so far, Nosferatu, with a strong focus on how to bring a woman to orgasm – and a lot of references to licking.
As tensions of all kinds build, comedy is found in the horror as the vampires’ threat sets in. There’s an arch knowingness in the performances of O’Connell, Lindo and Jordan in particular, but never at the expense of the film – it only adds to the sense of fun.
While the gory horror aspect is also a long time coming, when it properly arrives it’s full-on gruesome with spurting wounds, vampire mouths ripped to show fearsome teeth, long and deadly claws and maggot-infested flesh.
But what really delivers on the enjoyment of Sinners is its music, which veers between folk and blues to electric guitar and beyond, building its characters into a frenzy that at one point sees the barn on fire.
Ludwig Göransson’s soundtrack really provides tension and depth to Sinners, as well as an identity, after the film’s opening moments warn that music has the power to ‘pierce the veil between life and death’.
And if that hasn’t got you jazzed enough, make sure you stay in your seat long enough for a surprise mid-credits coda.
Sinners is out in cinemas on Friday, April 18.
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