Review: 'Sinners' seamlessly blends Jim Crow cruelty with vampire fantasy, and serves up a double dose of Michael B. Jordan

If you’re going to use your movie to launch a fresh new vampire mythology, you’d better be smart about it — and writer-director Ryan Coogler is very smart about how he creates the lore in “Sinners,” and very cool in how he builds the characters who have to deal with it.

We’re in Mississippi in 1932, and we see a young Black man, Sammie (played by newcomer Miles Caton), entering the church where his father (Saul Williams) is the preacher. Sammie is scarred, clutching the neck of a broken guitar so tightly the strings are digging into his fingers. His father acts as if he knows his son has seen the devil. The movie then goes back one day, and we learn how right Sammie’s father is.

Here’s where we meet twin brothers, known as Smoke and Stack, returned home to Mississippi after some time making their fortunes up north in Chicago. The twins — both played by Michael B. Jordan, who’s appeared in all of Coogler’s movies (“Fruitvale Station,” “Creed” and the “Black Panther” films) — have a dream to open a juke joint, and they have the cash and a truckload of bootleg liquor to make it happen.

There are questions about where the twins got that loot, and who might be coming south to retrieve it. The movie also gives us some backstory about Stack’s tempestuous relationship with Mary (Hailie Steinfeld), a white woman, and Smoke’s past romance with Miss Annie (Wunmi Mosaku), who knows a thing or two about evil spirits and such.

Stack recognizes Sammie’s guitar skills and immediately signs him to perform at the juke joint on opening night. Stack also cajoles an ancient bluesman, Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo), to play piano. It’s Annie who recognizes that Sammie is that rare talent who, according to the legends of several cultures, can cross into past and future — and, if he’s not careful, draw out demons. 

That’s where the vampires come in, though Coogler is patient enough to make them wait for their entrance, so we can let these characters fully inhabit this dark and dangerous place. In a place where the Klan hides in plain sight, vampires have to step up their game to be the most evil creatures around. If you go to “Sinners” because you saw vampires in the trailer, be patient and you will get what you came to see

One thing “Sinners” delivers is Jordan, clearly enjoying the double role as Smoke and Stack — one carefree and smiling, the other brooding and quick to violence, and both fascinating separately and together. Coogler also has a fun time showing off in the moments when the two Jordans share the screen, and sometimes a cigarette.

The other crucial element here is the music, which binds the story’s Jim Crow reality and vampire fantasy, and allows for a stunning cameo in the final scene. (Don’t leave when the credits start, or you’ll miss most of it.) 

There’s an astonishing scene midway through the movie, where young Sammie is wailing on the guitar and causing the time streams to come together — until the Mississippi locals are sharing the dance floor with west African drummers and modern breakdancers, a dose of magical realism that elevates “Sinners” into something as thought-provoking as it is entertaining.

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‘Sinners’

★★★1/2

Opens Friday, April 18, in theaters everywhere. Rated R for strong bloody violence, sexual content and language. Running time: 137 minutes.