After a couple of delays, Sinners released on April 18, 2025. From watching the trailer and the producers and actors on talk shows, I went into this movie with high expectations. Boy, did it exceed those! Have you ever been to a movie that was SO engaging, SO suspenseful, and SO exciting you couldn’t bring yourself to visit the restroom? That was Sinners for me.
Sinners starts out a bit slow. However, I think that's necessary to set up the background for the story. Michael P. Jordan plays twin brothers — Smoke and Stack — who return home to Mississippi after living in the mob-ruled city of Chicago. It’s implied they abandoned that life for their roots. Now they are focusing on opening a juke joint, counting on success.
Sinners is set in 1932, a time when separation between the races was strictly enforced in the United States. It's an unexpected, fascinating setting for a supernatural movie. Mysticism hangs in the air. “There are legends of people with the gift of making music so true. It can conjure spirits from the past and the future. This gift can bring fame and fortune,” we are told. The twins’ cousin Sammie (Miles Caton) has that gift. When he sings in the new juke joint, he draws the attention of an Irish vampire.
Additionally, the character Annie (played by Wunmi Mosaku) performs rituals and creates protective mojo bags for the twins. She’s the first to recognize that evil has arrived.
Over the course of a single night, people are picked off and ravaged by the vampire and each transforms into another blood sucker. When one of the twins is attacked, everyone is sent home…out into the waiting crowd of fanged monsters. Of course, bloody violence ensues.
At one point, a desperate character screams out at the creatures surrounding the building, effectively letting them in. All hell breaks loose and the Klan shows up in the middle of it. Smoke makes effective use of the skills he picked up in Chicago in defending against the attack.
I won’t spoil the ending other than to mention Sammy refuses to relinquish his ‘magical’ guitar. Speaking of that, we have to talk about the beautiful blues music throughout the movie. My favorite musical scene is when Sammy is performing and conjures the images of Black artists throughout time. One resembles Jimi Hendrix, others are rappers, funk musicians, ancient tribal musicians chanting and dancing, a female ballerina dances with the crowd, and more. I loved the melding of it all. it's a great expression of the universal magic of music.
Right now, Sinners is only in theaters, but it will likely eventually be streaming on Max thanks to it being released by Warner Bros. Discovery. Don't wait until then; watch this now!
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