A sizzling southern gothic horror to really sink your teeth into.

It’s fair to say there are few filmmakers in the game that have hit the Hollywood sweet spot quite like Ryan Coogler. It’s an incredibly thin line to tread between serious cultural cachet and serious box office receipts, yet this is a writer, a director, and a producer who has walked that line with admirable consistency.

Whether it’s the relatively big financial success of his indie debut Fruitvale Station, Rocky spin-off Creed, or Marvel’s cultural touchstone Black Panther, Coogler has been marrying big genre thrills, box office returns, and thought-provoking social commentary his entire career. But if, after all that success, you thought the man would be kicking back and taking the easy life, think again.

Attempting to leave their troubled lives behind, twin brother gangsters and former soldiers, Smoke and Stack (both Michael B. Jordan), return to their Mississippi home to open a Black-owned juke joint for their local community. Joined by their talented blues guitarist cousin, Sammie (Miles Caton), it’s not long before the brothers discover that an even greater evil is lurking in the shadows and all too eager to welcome them back.

Like Black Panther and Creed before it, Sinners has been sold to us on its genre entertainment, however, Ryan Coogler pulls precisely the same trick he did with his previous efforts by using his film’s easily digestible thrills as a gateway for something deeper, darker, and far more profound. If you’ve seen any of Sinners’ trailers, you’ll know the film’s marketing has leant heavily on its vampiric horror appeal, yet there’s so, so much more than that going on here.

In a wonderfully bullish move, Ryan Coogler patiently and deliberately front-loads his film with the heavy, deep stuff first before getting to the vampires in the back end. For some this may, perhaps, not be what they came for, however, for the patient and willing among us, this powerful slow burn approach offers so much to chew upon.

Layered heavily with thematic weight, Sinners’ first half digs deep within its Mississippi Delta roots to take us as far away from bloodthirsty vampires as possible, deciding instead to set up a story that highlights, dissects, and celebrates Black lives and Black culture in a way that’s so methodical and so all-encompassing, it’s hard to believe what direction this is all heading in.

Drenched in blood, sweat, and soul, Coogler has lovingly and painstakingly crafted an ode to Black culture, voices, spirituality, and music, while highlighting the irrevocable influence it’s all had on the world around us. Ryan Coogler’s story is one of cultural celebration and social remembrance, yet it’s also one of painful truths, righteous rage, and profound revelations on Black life and culture being stolen, suppressed, and appropriated through time, something the film’s vampires make the perfect allegory for.

Not only placing music at the film’s heart but making that music something as intrinsically Black as the Delta Blues, all while drawing a direct line from there to more modern genres, is perhaps Sinners’ crowning achievement as it not only solidifies its themes but ensures we feel it all in our very core. Given life by Ludwig Göransson’s masterfully crafted score and a collection of all-encompassing music numbers, Sinners lays bare the true power of music while also being forceful with its interrogation of the appropriation, theft, and erasure of Black culture, lives, and livelihoods.

As the film pulses, grinds, vibes, gyrates, and sweats around you, it’s impossible to fight its irrepressible auible energy, and by the time we hit the opening night of Smoke and Stack’s juke joint – and then THAT iconic song and dance number – you’d be forgiven for forgetting that Ryan Coogler’s film had promised us vampire horror action. The road to get to the vampires is undoubtedly a long one, yet the wait is worth it, with everything Coogler puts into Sinner’ first half laying down a vital foundation to ensure we feel its characters, its location, its themes, its culture, and its very soul, even as the vampires start to bite and the blood starts to flow.

With a huge helping of From Dusk till Dawn, Sinners takes a hard left turn around the halfway point, and from this moment on, all bets are off. With the vampires coming in hot and the blood flowing cold, the tonal whiplash is quite extraordinary, however, despite the wild nature of this genre 180, Coogler works miracles to ensure Sinners’ heart, soul, and thematic weight remain in place.

For all intents and purposes, we enter an entirely different film in Sinners’ second half, but, while Ryan Coogler sets fire to the plot, tone, and genre, his film’s fundamentals stand firm. To keep things centred like this under such circumstances is not an easy thing to do, and it certainly would’ve been tempting for Coogler to lose himself in the chaos, yet the ride is an entertaining and utterly enthralling one that builds and builds before landing in a thoroughly satisfying place.

There really are so many ways this kind of movie and this kind of wild swing could’ve gone wrong, however, despite some minor plot wobbles, Sinners absolutely nails it. Big, bold, and blessed with plenty of swagger, this is the kind of film you get from a filmmaker at his peak, bringing with it a steely confidence and an unyielding decisiveness that shines through in every single scene.

Whether it be Creed or Black Panther, no matter how huge, broad, or crowd-pleasing his films feel on the surface, Ryan Coogler is a filmmaker of undeniable depth and intimacy, one that puts his entire heart into what he creates, asking us to feel it in our soul in return – and Sinners is no different.

The story and the action are a potent mix of style, strength, and audacity, all combining to hit us hard and fast, however, despite this, it’s the film’s commitment to the slow burn and to connecting with us on a fundamental level that truly makes it sing.

And boy does it sing. Whether it’s Ludwig Göransson’s mesmeric score or a liberal sprinkling of spellbinding musical performances, Sinners positively hums from start to finish. While there’s a jaw-dropping musical sequence that will get a lot of people talking for a long time to come right at its centre, there are many other moments strewn throughout that will have the blood pumping and the heart soaring, leaving you in absolutely no doubt what Ryan Coogler’s movie is truly about.

With Göransson’s score pricking the hair on the back of your neck and Miles Caton’s impossibly deep baritone burning it off, you can feel Sinners in your bones. Even as the horror kicks in, the music and the impeccable vibes never once let up, and it’s to the immense credit of everyone involved in the film that, not only does Sinners keep the tunes flowing just as much as the blood all the way through, but they are used to inform one another until the very last drop.

While the twin thing could’ve easily come off as a cheap gimmick, Michael B. Jordan executes it so effortlessly and so seamlessly that it never becomes an issue. Wonderfully supported by the likes of Delroy Lindo, Hailee Steinfeld, Wunmi Mosaku, Jack O’Connell, and the transcendent vocal cords of the aforementioned Miles Caton, Jordan utterly embraces the duelling star role to such an impressive extent that you barely notice it the deeper you plunge into the story.

It may feel like an odd thing to say, but Jordan has quite the chemistry with himself as he plays two sides of the same coin with Smoke and Stack, however, it’s his chemistry with the ensemble around him and their energy with one another that really keeps things buzzing. Even as minor chinks and holes begin to appear in Sinners’ plot, the sweaty, sultry energy radiating from the film’s cast keeps things rolling on just fine, all the way to a thoroughly satisfying conclusion.

Big, bold, bloody, and unapologetically Black, Sinners is a truly transcendent cinematic achievement that sinks its teeth in and doesn’t let go. Coming in hot, Ryan Coogler digs deep to unearth a profound, powerful whirlwind of style, sound, sweat, sex, and metaphor-drenched horror that gleefully overwhelms both your senses and soul, all while leaving its indelible mark on you.

Sinners is out in cinemas now.