When night falls over the plantations of the Mississippi Delta the KKK isn’t the only evil to worry about…
Written by Susan Dijker
Source: Sinners (Coogler, 2025)
Ryan Coogler’s (Black Panther, 2018) latest film Sinners combines the campy vampire genre with a soulful representation of the Mississippi Delta plantations in the nineteen thirties. The story follows the Smokestack twins (both played by Michael B. Jordan) as they set up a juke joint with their community. When night falls and the Juke Club opens, evil shows its face. Vampire Remmick (Jack O’Connell) hears their music and shows up with the intention of luring everyone to their death, so that way they can all be one. The question is - who will be tempted by his sweet talking?
The lead-up to the horror aspects of Sinners is quite long, taking up the entire first hour. Coogler takes the time to carefully lay out the goals and desires of the character. This also makes the relations within the delta community become clear to the viewer. Because of this, by the time people start to die, you genuinely care about the characters, something I believe a lot of horror movies lack. The setup is done so well that it feels almost disappointing when some of that historical sophistication is traded in for classic vampire gore later on in the film. That is not to say that the combination of genres doesn’t work here. On the contrary, the vampire horror enriches the story even more, because of how well it is connected to the first half of the movie.
Source: Sinners (Coogler, 2025)
Sinners is ultimately a film about the power of music. One of the main characters, Sammie (Miles Caton), is a blues guitarist. His father, the town pastor, sees his music as demonic, but for Sammie, it’s his freedom. The movie starts off with a voice explaining a legend that music has the power to summon spirits of both past and future. About halfway through the film we see this happening when Sammie plays a song he wrote for his dad at the club. In this moment he is joined by musicians of all times, creating a moment where diverse cultures come together through music. This power of Sammie’s music is however also what lures Remmick to them, after which the film takes a dark turn.
The movie is absolutely stacked with symbolism. Every element seems to have a carefully thought-out meaning and purpose. From the choice of biblical names to the portrayal of biblical scenes, such as the temptation of Adam and Eve, Sinners utilizes religious symbols to foreshadow as well as give deeper meaning to the story. The film really leans on these references, because religion is one of Sammie’s main concerns. Right before he leaves to help the twins, his father tells him “you keep dancing with the devil, one day he’s gonna follow you home.”
Throughout the film, especially after night falls, Sammie reflects on this phrase and on his relation to Christianity, leading up to his final choice made between music and religion. I’ve seen talk online about how the main characters that end up stuck at the club are supposed to represent the seven deadly sins - they are the sinners. Even though this is just a theory, I can definitely see this being a true intention of Coogler, given the rich symbolism and religious elements all throughout the film.
Source: Sinners (Coogler, 2025)
I really appreciated the use of an unknown actor for one of the main roles in this film. An issue many people online, including myself, seem to have with movies nowadays is that the same few actors are always cast in leading roles, which makes it very hard to look past the familiar face and get immersed in the story. The role of Sammie was Miles Caton’s on screen acting debut, though this is almost hard to believe given his outstanding performance. I believe casting unknown actors really helped in giving the movie some extra charm and making it feel as real as possible.
As someone who isn’t typically the biggest horror fan, I really enjoyed Sinners. The rich backstory gets you invested in the characters so that the action scenes actually feel purposeful. For me this film was the perfect amount of camp to balance the line between disturbing and funny. I think Sinners is a real masterclass in making the horror genre feel meaningful.
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