SInners film poster

(10) SINNERS (2025)

Yeah, I know, hyped but I liked it.

My favorite horror film of 2025, matching my usual criterion for wildcard tenth place as best of the current or previous year.

Sinners is a vampire horror film that essentially pulls a From Dusk till Dawn switcheroo halfway through the film, but in a 1930s Mississippi blues speakeasy rather than a 1990s Mexico strip club. Quite frankly, the vampires seem to be doing almost everyone involved in the former a favor, given life in this Mississippi Delta sharecropping town – and given that the speakeasy, run by the Smokestack gangster duo, was doomed in three different ways before the vampires showed up. The vampires just got there first – and not by much.

The Smokestack duo are Elijah “Smoke” and Elias “Stack”, both played by Michael B. Joran – identical twins and First World War veterans who worked for Chicago Mob before making off with Mob money and Mob beer to go into business for themselves.

The film has its highlights, foremost among them its Irish vampire antagonist Remmick but also its music, which essentially becomes its own character in the film.

By the way, that comparison to From Dusk till Dawn is not out of the blue – it was a comparison made by several critics (some of whom preferred the “more grounded first half” to its “supernaturally driven” second half but those critics don’t know that everything’s better with vampires) but also by writer and director Ryan Coogler himself, who cited it as inspiration.

RATING:

X-TIER (WILD TIER)