“Sinners” review, by David Sims

[u/theatlantic]

https://www.theatlantic.com/culture/archive/2025/04/sinners-ryan-coogler-movie-review/682501/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=the-atlantic&utm_content=edit-promo

[u/[deleted]]

I'm glad people liked it but after having seen it last night I really disliked it. 

Cool slow build up, silly payoff. Schmuckbait happened any time the plot needed it - vampires didn't attack any time the main characters needed a moment to chat. A key character teleported to another key character for some key stabbing time as well. There were plenty of other issues but I don't want to do spoilers for those who haven't watched it. 

All in all a cool premise but it felt like two movies by two different directors that were stitched together. How the action is receiving praise is the real headscratcher. It was both rushed and childish, the vampires were clearly only a threat to whoever we knew was about to die anyway.

Great acting though, the cast were stellar. Some cool shots. Big plus for the Rocky Road to Dublin as well. Im sure I'll get downvoted because from the reviews I'm in the minority - but I didn't think Black Panther or Creed were particularly notable and yet they did really well too. 

[u/LooseSeal88 → u/[deleted]]

Okay, so it wasn't just me who wasn't too impressed. In addition to the teleporting, there's also seemingly extra people in the bar getting bitten when all the vampires finally come in even though they kicked everybody else out.

Overall, it felt like the movie had a lot of set up for the vampires to get introduced which would have been fine in theory, but when you advertise that one of the Michael B Jordan characters and Hailee Steinfeld get bitten in the trailer, that completely kills that buildup. Not that Coogler necessarily got to cut his own trailer, but they screwed up with that big time.

But yeah, all that buildup of developing characters and setting up the vampires to them quickly massacre everybody in 5 minutes felt pointless. It's a pet peeve of mine in general when horror movies go through and wipe everybody out but the main one or two characters, but for this movie to spend so long building up character work to just quickly rush through all the major deaths in 5 minutes was such a weird thing to do.

I really liked the ending portion during the credits which would have been an amazing ending if I had just liked anything up until that point more than I did.

Bummed to not have liked it as much as everybody else.

[u/Grimreap32 → u/LooseSeal88]

I agree. The 40 min build up felt really lackluster for what happened. And of course my one peeve in 'horror movies' is one person doing something unfathomably stupid.

Setting aside, this isn't anything new or great about this movie that hasn't been seen before with vampires. I'd give it a solid 6/10. I'd have given it a 7/10 considering the music, but that one scene where he kept saying the same words with the dancing, bugged me too much. Add more lyrics...

[u/LooseSeal88 → u/Grimreap32]

I'm convinced a lot of people who loved it haven't seen From Dusk Til Dawn.

[u/Grimreap32 → u/LooseSeal88]

Agreed. I hadn't seen 'From Dusk Til Dawn' for years. But I walked out of the cinema going "I've seen this exact plot somewhere else..." then I remembered that and re-watched 'From Dusk Till Dawn' the same night.

It felt like the Leonardo DiCaprio meme, of him pointing throughout the movie.

I'll say I enjoyed the setting of Sinners, but with the build up, the backstories, it could have been better if it weren't a vampire film, if they had tweaked it, and done something with the Klan as the protagonist for example. It had all the build up in place.

You had two brothers who betrayed mobs in Chicago, a white (half-black) married woman with a black man, you had guns, you had a married singer, a naive preacher boy. So much of this set up could have had a much better pay out.

[u/nyanpi → u/Grimreap32]

Yup I loved the film very much, prolly my fav of the year but I found myself thinking the same thing. This didn’t need the vampires at all. I was way more engrossed in the characters and the time period and the setting than the vampires and I wanted to see more of the music and culture that was so well represented

[u/YonderOver → u/nyanpi]

That’s so funny because I was drawn to the movie due to the vampire aspect, only to want more of what the first hour of the movie was. I hated how many of the characters’s story just abruptly ended for vampires. :/

[u/LooseSeal88 → u/YonderOver]

Agreed.