Rent Sinners (2025)

Crime, Horror and Thrills - Sinners review by griggs

I went into Sinners knowing very little—on purpose. Just that Michael B. Jordan pulls double duty (which seems to be the trend this year—De Niro and Pattinson are at it, too), so I was surprised to find, put simply, that it’s a vampire film. But, of course, it’s not that simple. Instead, it’s a chaotic blend of crime, horror, and thrills, drenched in sweat, superstition, and the ghost of Robert Johnson’s meeting the devil at the crossroads.

The music drives everything—rhythmic, pulsing, and escalating like a heartbeat on the run. The first act is sluggish and generic, but it builds—gets wilder, faster, and much more fun. Once the action kicks off, it barely pauses for breath, making the entire first half feel irrelevant—as if we have been spoonfed a bum steer for an hour about the nature of the film.

However, as the story unfolded, I wished it tapped more into African vampire mythology, like Ganja & Hess, but it sticks pretty faithfully to the Euro-gothic rulebook.

It’s not perfect, but if you like your horror loud, loose, and a little unhinged, it’s worth a go.

Horror/Crime Thriller Mashup - Entertaining - Sinners review by GI

This gonzo horror/thriller is a sort of black version of From Dusk Till Dawn (1996) but without the sheer anarchic climax of that film. Bizarrely, as you watch this, it's a film that you may think would be a very interesting one without the horror element as a period crime thriller with the Delta Blues theme as a narrative driving force. But what you have here is still an entertaining and fun horror in an interesting setting, the Deep South Mississippi in 1932. Two twin brothers, Elijah and Elias (both played by Michael B. Jordan) return to their hometown after years of being away, they have a pocket full of cash and apparently have been working in the underworld of Chicago. They decide to open a 'juke joint' for the locals and to make money and recruit their young cousin, Sammie (Miles Caton), to play blues there. He's a renowned singer and player much to the consternation of his preacher father who warns him that the music will lure the devil! And on opening night, as the party gets going, the music indeed lures an ancient vampire (Jack O'Connell) who wants Sammie and anyone else he can get his fangs into. There's plenty of gore and vampire film tropes and the whole thing is of course played for laughs for the most part. The music is simply great and despite the crazy machismo of the final third of the film this keeps you wanting to watch. There's a homage scene to The Thing (1982) that in quite funny. Delroy Lindo, Haillee Steinfeld and even legendary bluesman Buddy Guy costar.

Did not live up to its potential - Sinners review by NW

I was quite excited to see this, expecting a mashup of Southern Gothic, music and horror. These elements are all there but they don't really come together. The best part of the film is the first hour where the brothers are setting up their club.

And then a vampire plot is introduced seemingly at random with the lamest and least frightening vampires ever seen on screen.

The opening narration seems to promise a deep dive into African lore and a confrontation with the Devil himself.

But it's just another standard vampire flick and not a good one at that. It's been done before and better in for example From Dusk Til Dawn.

The racial elements are badly handled with some klansmen just thrown in, it didn't seem to address racism in any meaningful way at all.

Also the cinematography is very dark, to the extent that I thought there was something wrong with my TV. But no. You can hardly see some of the action.

A wasted opportunity and a disappointment.

I will say however that the final scene is pretty good and I wish the film had been more like that.