Sinners (2025)

The fuck do I even start with this movie? A deep southern gothic musical vampire movie, Sinners is about how failure and success are thrust up on you by the simple choices you make, even one as simple as letting go or holding on to a guitar. Get a handkerchief to wipe away the sweat of the hot summer sun and turn on some blues while we talk about this titanic film.

      Recommendation right away: check it out if you like horror, the blues, or a deep south black drama with a side of vampires.

     The whole of this movie is music. Music as healing. Music as triumph. Music as chains. Music as a call out into the world to whomever is listening across time and space. Music as an answer to questions, some better raised than others. As the theme of unity and togetherness pervades the film, the characters take note of the separations with Delroy Lindo's Slim saying, "white folks like the blues, just not the people who make it."

     Right off we see Sam welcomed back to his father's church after a night of hell. He's bloody and scarred, flinching with the movie's only real jump scares as he flashes on moments from the night before. His father cries to him to let go of the guitar! but he holds it strong. Then we are a day back to see how we got here.

     The film uses many cliches well.  The "how we got here" story bookend really hammers home the change in Sam, our protagonist, more than if we had started when he he leaves the church. We see the damage, then how he did not fit before then, then him returning not so much changed in his mind but in his heart. And the heart is changed by people, not monsters. Add on that idea of unity and standing together with scenes like how when people "come back wrong" or the often used "let's test each other for monsters." All usually show division, from The Thing to any number of vampire and other horror movies. Yet here each is turned to keep the humans together, not apart.

     So much praise for Michael B Jordan and the team that put the Smokestack twins together. I clocked the effects, sure, but after a few minutes my brain saw them as separate people. Not just the color coded clothes or the weapons they held, but the mannerisms and small moments of personal ethos shining through. How they talked to people, drew out information, or were quick to violence separated each performance. Just amazing to see it all work.

     I could go on. The Irish bad guy that just wants to unify the world. The gathering of people for an enterprise that will not work. The idea of one damn good night. So much here to chew on that smarter people than me will discuss, so I'll leave them to it. 

     Check out this movie on the biggest screen with the best sound system you can.