Sinners
CINEMA — REVIEW Sinners (2025): the spiritual and visceral knockout of the year (Jordan ily)
By MODN / The Vault
“This isn’t a film. It’s a procession.”
That’s the feeling walking out of Sinners, the latest creation by Ryan Coogler, and arguably one of the most powerful films of 2025. Blending historical drama, mystical thriller, and symbolic horror, the American filmmaker delivers a dense, radical, deeply political work — and one of breathtaking beauty.
A blazing fable in 1930s America
The story follows two twin brothers (both played by an inhumanly good Michael B. Jordan) in the segregated South. One is a fiery preacher, the other a musician haunted by demons. Literally. When a series of supernatural events shakes their community, the line between faith and damnation begins to crumble… Sinners is a film that disturbs, that itches, that leans into discomfort — not to provoke, but to exorcise a collective pain. Coogler transcends genre cinema to turn it into something close to ritual.
Sacred-brutalist aesthetics
Shot on 70mm film, the movie swings between sacred tableaux that look like religious paintings and full-on sensory descent into hell. One possession scene in a decaying church already ranks among the most haunting in recent memory. The soundtrack — a mix of detuned gospel, electric blues, and eerie textures from Moses Sumney — lingers long after the credits.
A cast on holy fire
Michael B. Jordan delivers one of his strongest performances ever, supported by Hailee Steinfeld in a role that’s powerful, complex, and far from decorative. Their dynamic is intense but never overdone. You can feel that every emotion was slowly squeezed out, to the bone.
A horror film? A social drama? A gut-punch?
It’s all of that — and more…
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Sinners defies labels. It’s a film about roots, generational trauma, religion as both weapon and refuge, survival in a world where the real curses aren’t supernatural but systemic. And even though it’s serious, the film never slips into misery porn. There’s love. There’s music. There are silences that scream louder than sermons.
Reception & Box Office
- Rotten Tomatoes: 97%
- Metacritic: 84/100
- Box Office: $364M worldwide — huge for an original IP
- Cinemascore: A (highest rating for a horror film in 35 years)
Final Verdict?
Sinners isn’t a film you watch. It’s a film you endure. A kind of baptism by fire, where every image stares back at you. Above all, it’s dazzling proof that cinema can still hurt, still heal, still mean something.
“They tried to bury our voices, but they forgot we were the soil.” — from the film.
