Sinners

This weekend, Sinners, Ryan Coogler's newest film, was released in theaters. Sinners follows two brothers as they return to their hometown in the 1930s South to open a nightclub after years away in Chicago. However, their return is short-lived when a new evil emerges. This was one of my most anticipated movies of the year. It is an original vampire horror movie from a great up-and-coming director, so I was very excited.

This movie did not disappoint my excitement. Ryan Coogler has made another fantastic film. Sinners is a great genre blender combining aspects of horror, drama, thriller, romance, musical, and a period piece and doing each one justice. The movie isn’t technically a musical but music plays a major role in the story's execution. Part of the message of the movie is all about the heritage and legacy of blues music and its connection to African American culture. There is a very cool sequence in the middle act of the film that combines music from past, present, and future that is truly amazing. The horror aspect of the film is also very well done. It doesn’t play hard into the typical tropes of the horror genre but still delivers the gore and violence that will keep horror films happy. Michael B. Jordan gives an amazing action performance playing dual roles as twin brothers. Each brother has differences in their personality that Michael B Jordan does a great job of showing. Hailee Steinfeld also gives a great performance as she does both the sweet southern girl and the unhinged monster so well. One of the things Ryan Coogler does so well in his movies is create characters you care about and get invested in. In Sinner, whenever a character dies, even the side characters, there is this sense of sadness that other horror films just don’t give as they just treat their characters as fodder. Especially at the end, there is a nice montage of one of the characters reflecting on everyone they have lost that just hits the right notes. Finally, I liked How effective this movie was at being a period piece. I like the 1930’s setting and the movie does a great job of making it feel like a major part of the story from the character’s accents to the music and politics. The movie does a great job of making the viewers feel like they are in a specific time and place.

Overall, this is a fantastic original horror film by Ryan Coogler. It gives everything you want for a horror movie while also incorporating musical elements and historical context. We need more original movies like this.

Score: 9/10 Grade: A

Recommendation: This is a must-see film. Hollywood needs to make more original films like this.