Sinners (2025)
Director(s): Ryan Coogler
Writer(s): Ryan Coogler
Starring: Michael B. Jordan, Hailee Steinfeld, Wunmi Mosaku, Miles Caton
2025 has been a SOLID year for the horror genre. In a time where it’s fashionable to say that there are no new ideas left in Hollywood, along comes HORROR out of all the kind of flicks to grace the screens to save the day! This year just kept giving us one hit after another of not just quality stories of the macabre variety but also, a good among of them were ORIGINAL Intellectual Properties (IPs for those in the BIZ)! That’s right folks, some of the most successful horror flicks this year were not based off anything; no comic books, not a remake, not a reboot, not a re-imagining but just honest to goodness ideas that came from someone’s diabolical brain onto the screen. With such offerings like The Substance, Weapons and Bring Her Back (I’ll get to all of them eventually, tee hee hee), it’s been such a fantastic year to be a fan of the spooky and/or scary, which leads me to this conclusion; to be the top of this list, you MUST have been a damn good movie. Enter Sinners.
I wanted to write about this movie right after I got done seeing it but there’s a reason why I saved this entry until the end of the year. Besides gushing about what a great time this is for horror flicks in general, I wanted to emphasize that Sinners did something for horror that only a handful of horror flicks have accomplished throughout the years and that is at some point, you forget you’re watching a horror movie, and no, I don’t mean that in a negative way AT ALL. There are certain horror flicks that are definitely rooted in the macabre but through the writing, direction, acting, etc. end up just being a solid movie in general to the point where it’s recognized to be just a great movie, regardless of genre. This movie is just macerated in all sorts of symbolism tied to race, music and oppression and yeah, I’ll let you the viewer figure that out in viewing but for now, I’ll focus on the aspects I’ve personally enjoyed about this treasure of a flick.
The movie takes place in a span of a day in 1930s Mississippi where aspiring blues musician, Sammie (Miles Caton) meets up with his cousins, the infamous Smokestack Twins, both played brilliantly by Michael B. Jordan to open a new local Juke Joint. As night falls and the new juke joint is in full swing, something ancient and evil is drawn to the music that Sammie plays, and the night takes a drastic, terrifying turn for survival.
The first half of the movie that laid the foundation of opening the juke joint were some of the best scenes in the movie where you get lost in forgetting that you were watching what would eventually be a horror flick. The opening scene (no spoilers) makes you know for certain you are in for a macabre-filled ride but what this movie does so brilliantly is that it takes you on an emotional journey with the characters. You go through recruitment of different characters with Sammie and the Smokestack twins to run the juke joint while learning more about them at the same time. You find out about their troubled backgrounds, their personal goals, their conflicts, broken hearts, etc. all while trying to open up a safe space for a community of black Americans who are still in a time and place of extreme prejudice. By the time we do get to the thick of the horror genre, you’re already revved up and invested in the characters which as any good horror fan knows, elevates the suspense and the tragedy of it all since each kill now has more weight and yes, the kills do happen in violent and glorious fashion. Although the movie doesn’t explicitly focus on the gore or the creature features of it all, I was actually still quite impressed on how far they went to ensure that these creatures are as feral and violent as one would expect a soul-less creature to be in this kind of situation. The feel for this plot is very much in the sensibilities of other great flicks like From Dusk till Dawn in the sense that you have a group of people trapped in a building full of blood suckers and fighting their way out as a last stand is the core of the entertainment but what Sinners does to elevate this concept is to tie it in with carefully crated symbolism and character development that transitions this movie in being something beyond entertainment.
Music plays such a big role in this movie since it is used as a plot device in luring the evil into the juke joint. Without spoiling too much, there is a sequence in this movie that involves a music scene that alone could and should win cinematic awards for costumes, cinematography, directing, etc. It was beautifully shot and moved the plot to a direction where you know where it was going to transition between fun to chaos, between light and dark, between great times and eventual bloody death. The character of Sammie who is chastised by his reverend father for playing the blues since it’s seen as the “Devil’s music,” defies his father and plays the music anyway at the juke joint which literally draws in the soulless creatures of the night! Music in this flick is what ties generations together; the past, present and future and that to the creatures is where power lies which is the very reason why they want Sammie and everyone else to become creatures of the night. I just loved the theatrics of it all and how music and horror seemed to tie in so seamlessly together and it made perfect sense the way this movie explained it and how easily it fit into the plot, which again, is I suppose what good storytelling should do for the audience.
The impact Sinners had this year in the movie industry was a message that there was still an audience for original stories if done right so it needn’t rely solely on just what works in the current state of movies, there’s room for everyone if we give them a chance and promote them the right way. I’m so STOKED that a horror flick was the one to pave the way which is why Sinners will go down as being more impactful than anything this year and to me, that makes this fanboy of the macabre genre, so very, very proud.
A glass raised, a tip of the cap, a standing ovation and an overall sense of gratitude to everyone involved in this movie for making a significant impact in the film industry and still being grounded in its horror roots.
A HELL OF A YEAR IT WAS FOR HORROR 2025!
Life is FAR more interesting when we take interest in things that scare us.