“Sinners” is a proper fright fest

Published 12:59 pm Tuesday, June 17, 2025

This week at The Tryon Theatre is “Sinners” (2025), the newest work by writer and director Ryan Coogler, whose talent for crafting compelling cinema is brought to its best in this film. “Sinners” has already received rave feedback from audiences and critics alike, highlighting its relentless, energetic pace, pulse-pounding score, and compelling character arcs. And while that praise is well applied, it needs to be understood in the context of its genre. “Sinners” is a horror film, a format we rarely explore, but one that nonetheless deserves its occasional day. To that end, any audience member who simply does not enjoy horror in any form will not find a satisfying departure from its genre conventions in “Sinners.” 

This film is a proper fright fest, and a very rewarding one at that, for anyone seeking the expected adrenaline and catharsis of the horror genre. 

This film has a winding plot, but by the nature of its suspenseful construction, it is best entered into with minimal preparation of details. At its simplest, the setting is rural 1932 Mississippi, the final year of Prohibition. America is under the strain of great industrial and social change, and the deep South is a particularly primed powder keg of tension. Entering back into this taut setting is a pair of identical twin brothers, Smoke and Stack Moore, both played by the electrifying Michael B. Jordan. These two men are burdened by the trauma of their violent lives, both veterans of the first World War and enforcers for the Chicago Outfit (Al Capone’s criminal enterprise), hoping to put these years of brutality behind them. They seek a simpler and calmer world of the rural Delta, as they remember from the rose-tinted memories of their youth. 

Their return is soon complicated by not only the racial and social tensions of the region but by a much darker and more threatening presence, too: vampires. 

Obviously, in conceptualizing one’s expectations of content, the genre of horror runs the gamut with its relative severity of violent or gory content, as it similarly does with its emotional palate. “Sinners” is not a visually restrained film, it relishes in the evocative nature of the image, using it to frighteningly compelling ends. That being said, “Sinners” is far from the extreme side of the gory spectrum. Viewers should anticipate a Tarantino-esque indulgence in the depiction of violence but nothing that traffics in the body horror tone of proper slasher films. This film also distances itself from the true impact of its darker content by being a fantastical tale. The vampire format of the story, while predictably steamy and violent, is a far cry from any “evil” of the real world. 

“Sinners” is an excellent entry in its genre, with an infectiously propellant score and simply sumptuous cinematography— warm tungsten bulb light and dappled moonlight each captured in painterly perfection. Any adult audience member with a taste for the more sensational indulgences of a vampire flick will surely find themselves entertained! However, on that note, this film is bluntly intended for an adult-only audience, and its content reflects that expectation of gaze. We hope any age-appropriate filmgoers will join us for all the cinematic thrills of “Sinners”!