Sinners

A whole in two very different halves

Sinners (2025)

3 / 5

There are two moments over the course of its runtime that define Sinners, for better and for worse. The first comes early on, when we realize Michael B. Jordan is playing twins. One actor playing twins is not new, and there are a series of pretty normal camera tricks that have been deployed for decades of moviemaking to make it work. But in the scene where the twins first appear (it’s above), one lights a cigarette and, without the shot cutting, hands it to the other one, who takes a drag. It’s a moment of movie magic that it hooked me right in: director Ryan Coogler is serious about putting some really cool stuff on screen here and deploying some technical skill to do it. It made me lean in and really check the details in every scene that followed. What else was in here? What other little flourishes would a close viewing reveal?

Unfortunately, the audience investment sparked by that first moment meant the second moment was disastrous. The setup of a horror movie has to establish characters and locations, so when people start running around and dying the higher-speed action makes sense to the audience. We also need to learn the rules of the monster and how it works. Violating the monster’s rules is a fast way for a character to die; when those rules are properly developed the audience can really feel the tension when characters start tapdancing up against them. But in the middle of the climactic sequence (I’m trying to not spoil anything here), one of the besieged heroes breaks a monster-rule so completely and brazenly that it doesn’t read as anything but stupid. Worse, the chaotic final battle kicked off by that move (you’ll know it when you see it) loses all sense of pacing and space, chucking all the meticulous care of the first half’s setup. Others might be able to cinch up their disbelief suspenders and go with it, but it took the wind out of me. I spent a lot of the back end of the movie sighing and shaking my head.

So what Sinners is, ultimately, is a pretty straightforward horror movie with a lot of promise, and a cast and crew that really want to show the audience a good time. And it is, overall, a good time (the music is top shelf all the way). But it doesn’t quite stick the landing, so “good” is as good as it gets here.

3 stars of 5: I don’t regret watching it, but don’t know why I’d watch it again.