Director Ryan Coogler makes his horror film debut, bringing his unique style and vision to the genre in Sinners, an original story also written by him. The film stars Michael B. Jordan in a dual role, Miles Caton in his film debut as well as Hailee Steinfeld, Wunmi Mosaku, Jayme Lawson, Omar Benson Miller, Delroy Lindo and more. Sinners is now chomping its way into cinemas worldwide.

Taking place in 1932, twin brothers, Smoke and Stack, return to their hometown of rural Mississippi to try and leave their troubled pasts behind them. After buying a property and building a community, they soon find themselves being confronted by a greater evil.

Michael B. Jordan leads the cast in a dual role as both Smoke and Stack. The twin brothers have a lot of similarities but also plenty of differences that make it easy to tell the two apart, thanks to Jordan’s performances. There’s barely a time when it’s hard to tell who’s who, as they have distinct personalities, mannerisms and interact with certain characters differently. This dual role allows Jordan to showcase his incredibly diverse acting range, which has come a long way from the roles he had earlier in his career. In Sinners, both brothers carry themselves with such confidence and swagger that would make anyone think twice about messing with them, but they also have moments that make audiences care for them.

Miles Caton makes his feature film debut as Sammie Moore; in fact, he’s that new he didn’t even have a photo on the IMDB website until recently and also doesn’t have a Wikipedia page yet. Despite having no other major acting credits prior to this film, he actually becomes the stand-out amongst the cast.

His character starts off as a young man who takes the opportunity to befriend Smoke and Stack against his priest’s advice. He shows plenty of character development throughout the film with his coming-of-age story.

The film features a star-studded cast that also includes Hailee Steinfeld as Mary, Wunmi Mosaku as Annie, Jayme Lawson as Pearline, Omar Benson Miller as Cornbread and Delroy Lindo as Delta Slim, just to name a few. Because the film relies heavily on the plot, it’s best to let audiences see these characters for themselves, but we can say that the entire cast fits into the overall story naturally. Not a single character, no matter how big or small their role is, looks like they don’t belong. Even stars like Hailee Steinfeld, Omar Benson Miller and Delroy Lindo are playing characters that are unlike anything they’ve ever done before, and they sure do make the most of it.

Sinners feels like two different films. The first half is focused on being a period drama set in rural Mississippi in a Southern town dominated by white men, where anyone who isn’t white doesn’t receive fair treatment. Smoke and Stack become influencers within the small town for not only other black folks but also people of other backgrounds as well, creating a community of people from diverse backgrounds. Even Hailee Steinfeld, being part black both in real life and her character in the film, plays a part in the story. The film does a great job of showing the racial prejudices from that time period, with even some references to the KKK.

The second half suddenly becomes a vampire movie, and the pace of the movie changes. Despite this plot twist already being given away in the trailers, there is still a lot of mystery behind this strange phenomenon. With everyone scared and with no idea what to do, it’s interesting to see how they deal with this new and unexpected threat.

They try to use whatever knowledge of vampires they have, and the invitation rule also comes into play. The film does an amazing job of keeping audiences guessing who could be a vampire, as some are very convincing to still be living humans.

Because the first half is more story-driven and dialogue-heavy, it starts to drag on after a while, especially knowing there are supposed to be vampires somewhere in the film, as indicated in the trailers. The first half is still good, however, with its focus on racial inequality, the brothers becoming influencers (not the social media kind), and Sammie’s coming-of-age story, but audiences would have expected to see something supernatural a lot sooner.

On the other hand, both halves feel like two different films with the first half focusing on character building and allowing audiences to care about them, while everything suddenly changes in the second half, and the characters have to figure out what to do and figure it out quickly.

The film’s setting of rural Mississippi during the 1930s is done so well that you’ll feel like you’re actually in that time period. All the characters have convincing Southern accents, even actors who have never played a character from the South before do a great job at it.

The set pieces with wide open fields, big farms, old cars and a Wild West-looking town all help give this film that classic Southern charm. It’s also great to see that the South was indeed multicultural and not just full of white people, but also shows the friction between them.

The soundtrack features a lot of Southern tunes, all fitting for the theme of this film. The movie also feels like part musical with some characters playing their instruments like acoustic guitars and harmonicas, and even singing some songs that they slowly develop during the film. One scene in particular shows a full performance in Smoke and Stack’s property, while hosting a party that brings the non-white communities together.

Director Ryan Coogler is best known for his work on the Creed film series, both Black Panther movies as part of the MCU and Judas and the Black Messiah, just to name a few, many of which also star Michael B. Jordan. It seems that any movie they work on together always becomes something special. For his first horror film, he absolutely nails it once again with his unique style and vision to create something that’s unlike anything else out there.

Sinners is a horror movie that must be seen to be believed. Michael B. Jordan’s dual role as twin brothers with different personalities will amaze anyone, Miles Caton’s film debut makes it hard to believe he’s been in any other movie or TV show, and the rest of the cast all play important roles that keep you guessing on who can or can’t be trusted.

Director Ryan Coogler does what he does best,t and for his first horror film, he creates something that’s unlike anything else. Sinners is a unique vampire film that you could sink your teeth into.

Written by: Sammy Hanson