After directing such blockbusters as Creed and the two Black Panther films, one might well wonder what Director Ryan Coogler would tackle as his next film project. And if you were guessing something in the supernatural horror-suspense genre, go to the front of the class and congratulate yourself. Subject of a bidding war for distribution rights, this will be Coogler’s first original film - and he is credited as writer, producer, and director. 

"Sinners" is the new Coogler film, and it doesn’t just star Michael B. Jordan, but stars two Michael B. Jordans - hence the title of this review. Jordan takes on the role of an identical twin brother. And I’d look back to Tom Hardy in Legend (2015), portraying the 1960s British gangsters and identical twin brothers Reggie and Ronnie Kray, for something as outrageous as this Jordan twin bill. 

Fusing the blues, African-American history, and vampire lore, Sinners is set in the 1932 American South and highlights two brothers, Smoke and Stack, who leave their troubled past behind and try to start afresh in their old hometown. But they find that trouble seems to follow them, and this time out, trouble comes in a form that is other-worldly and more sinister than one could imagine. 

Shot on both IMAX 70mm and Ultra Panavision 70mm cameras, the scope and grandeur will excite cinema-goers watching in an SM IMAX theater. Regardless of which format your cinema will be, the power of the storytelling will pull you through this over two-hour phantasmagoric journey to Hell on Earth, and back. The first 90 minutes are strong naturalistic exposition, filled with the social realism of the Depression era, and the Jim Crow attitudes that prevailed with the Ku Klux Klan in its heyday. It’s centered on the brothers opening a music club on the outskirts of the town, the preparations that go into that, and the people they rely on. 

But the last hour is a no-holds-barred, all Hell breaks loose ‘fever dream’ that’s sensuous, scary, suspenseful, and visceral in equal measures. If Coogler was dabbling and playing in superhero territory with Creed and Black Panther, he still takes things in a direction that’s not of this world, but with a distinct, dark edge. 

For the support cast, there’s an old flame, Mary (Hailee Steinfeld), and Annie (Wunmi Mosaku), there’s piano man Delta Slim (a pitch-perfect Delroy Lindo). There’s a cousin, who’s the son of the local preacher, Sammie Moore (Miles Caton in his first movie role, as he’s a singer who has performed with H.E.R.). Arrayed against the brothers and their friends is Remmick (Jack O’Connell), who drops from the sky and quickly finds confederates, ‘blood brothers and sisters’. 

A Mississippi dialect coach was brought on board for several of the actors, and it pays off, as there’s a stylized, 1930s lilt to how words are spoken. As for Jordan taking on two characters, the differences between the two, physically and spoken, may not be as pronounced as what Tom Hardy did in Legend, but there is a quiet strength to what Jordan brings to the table. And thanks to that last hour, the film genuinely works as a macabre journey into horror. 

There’s a strong effort by Coogler to turn this film into something epic, like a reverse version of Gone With the Wind meets From Dusk Til Dawn, but seen from the American Negro viewpoint, and set in the 1930s. And there’s his preoccupation with music, how it’s so timeless - that the notes played in 1932 are the same notes you’d hear today. This is emphasized in one crazy sequence when the music goes into high gear at the club set up by the brothers. Coogler may be reaching for the stars on this one, but you can’t fault the man for trying.