Ryan Coogler’s ‘Sinners’ Unleashes Bloodthirsty Vampires in a Sweeping American Epic 

Alci Rengifo

Like many monsters, Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” is a hybrid. This sprawling film will instantly be approached by many viewers as first and foremost a vampire movie. In the style of those truly bold directors we rarely see, Coogler goes beyond the initial premise, making a stirring American epic. Southern Gothic elements combine with musical flourishes, classic horror tropes, commentary on our history, race, class and the dangers of opening your own business. All of it is visualized with such a grandiose eye. Coogler has spent the last few years proving himself a formidable box office grosser with major franchise hits. “Sinners” is him going for broke, taking advantage of the power success in this business hands you and taking an awesome risk.

It is 1932 in the Mississippi Delta. Twins Smoke and Stack (Michael B. Jordan) are World War I veterans returning from working as enforcers for Al Capone in Chicago. With their bootlegging expertise they hope to open a juke joint at a disused sawmill. While reconnecting with the community, they begin recruiting for the operation including younger cousin Sammie (Miles Caton, a former backup singer for H.E.R.), an aspiring blues singer and son of local preacher Jedidiah (Saul Williams). Another local bluesman, Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo) also agrees to jump onboard when the brothers reveal they have plenty of Irish beer. Annie (Wunmi Mosaku), Smoke’s old flame, will cook. Grace (Li Jun Li) and Bo Chow (Yao) will run the bar while Cornbread (Omar Benson Miller) is tapped as the bouncer. The past returns however in the form of Mary (Hailee Steinfeld), Stack’s former lover still stung by how things turned out. Edging into town is a malevolent force that might threaten the juke joint’s opening night.

That malevolent force is of course the vampires that will descend on the party. Before letting the bloodletting get started, Coogler establishes the world of “Sinners” with a stunning scale, shot in IMAX on 65mm stock by cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw. The first hour of the movie feels like the sort of grand vision Spike Lee or Oliver Stone would have attempted in their early days. The Jim Crow South the characters inhabit is constructed with meticulous detail, with the attitude of a prestige period film. Coogler takes the time to introduce everyone and give them dimension within a sweeping widescreen vista that recalls classic Hollywood. Yet this is a properly updated epic, with casting that acknowledges the diversity in America’s roots rarely acknowledged. Michael B. Jordan, who has been one of Coogler’s most frequent collaborators, can be a strong actor with the right director and here delivers some of his best work ever, playing siblings with distinct personalities. One is the business-minded numbers cruncher, the other a slick bon vivant. 

The vampires are also sly parts of the scenery. Remmick (Jack O’Connell) and Joan (Lola Kirke) lead the pack as blood-hungry threats who make their way to the juke joint playing hillbilly mountain songs. Some reviewers are terming “Sinners” a kind of musical, which is not necessarily the case considering the narrative is not told or driven by music numbers, but music does play an integral part. Once the juke joint gets going and the local Black population gathers to drink and have a good time, the film enters a spellbinding section that also comments on the musical genes of the country. Keeping his vision ambitious, Coogler uses a blues number to transition into a hypnotic sequence that looks back at African music then goes forward into rock and hip-hop and music brought over from Asia. The attacking vampires will later hold an occult gathering outside, dancing in a circle with their latest victims to Irish folk music. This is a horror thriller that is American in the most literal sense by giving space to various corners of the melting pot, though as we learn, it takes a blues singer to really take on the forces of darkness. 

So much goes on in “Sinners” that the experience can be exhausting in the best way. There is humor, micro dramas, lust, lots of lust, and themes about a preacher’s son tasting the sins of the outside world and the loyalty between brothers. Racism hovers in the background because this is the Jim Crow South and that too is an uncomfortable truth about American history. When Mary arrives to check out the joint, she’s almost not recognized because she is of mixed heritage and for a white woman to be at a Black establishment could be very dangerous at the time for the owners. One of the attacking vampires happens to have a Klan uniform tucked away in his shack. You can enjoy this movie as a magnificent entertainment and pop art allegory. For Black Americans to find true social mobility in the 1930s meant battles almost the equivalent of facing off with monstrous forces. One of the vampires makes a good, ironic point when trying to tempt the brothers to invite him into the juke joint, explaining that the bloodsuckers believe in equality considering anyone can be transformed. Coogler’s films always carry a social conscience, going back to his unforgettable “Fruitvale Station.” He doesn’t let the fun of a genre movie water down what he cares about exploring.

The second half of the movie is a great rousing blood fest in the tradition of “From Dusk Till Dawn” or “John Carpenter’s Vampires,” even surpassing those movies which basked in being B entertainments. Coogler, who directed “Black Panther” and “Creed” with such great style, films the gore and action with gritty elegance dipped in dark humor. The jump scares are planned patiently and when the movie goes full heavy metal it does not forget the stakes to the heart, garlic and Molotov cocktails. It is easy to complain in these post-Marvel days about genre movies that run too long. “Sinners” clocks in at 138 minutes and never feels as if it’s wasting a frame. Like a rich novel it closes with a proper epilogue that gives the whole tale a rather poignant conclusion with an added celebration of blues culture. “Sinners” tries to be many things and succeeds. It borrows from the classics with its own original bite and unlike so much boring rehashing that is crowding theaters, feels like a real movie.

“Sinners” releases April 18 in theaters nationwide.