“See, white folks, they like the blues just fine. They just don’t like the people who make it.”
– Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo)
Xenophobes exhibit a strange cognitive dissonance. They own iPhones, but hate the people who make them. They love meals made from Asian, Central American, or other continent-inspired recipes, but despise the communities whose lived experiences cultivated them. They love stories of super-powered individuals who fight injustice, but decry any depiction of said-individuals in live-action as “woke,” a newly-formed pejorative too few can express a definition of. They love the music of Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, and Lady Gaga, but they proclaim disdain for the very artists whose music inspired the aforementioned to become artists. They want the culture without being *of the culture* or even acknowledging it. They want the prestige without the effort. This is a critical component of the multi-layered genre hybrid Sinners, written and directed by Ryan Coogler (Fruitvale Station; Creed), as it tackles xenophobia, cultural appropriation, colonization, and a litany of other topics packaged within a 1930s vampire story. Sinners is now available to own with more than 90 minutes of behind-the-scenes features that invite audiences to go beyond the surface, beyond the veil of metaphor, and understand the magic behind the theatrics placed before us.
L-R: Actors Miles Caton and Michael B. Jordan and director Ryan Coogler on the set of Warner Bros. Pictures’ SINNERS, a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo Credit: Eli Adé. © 2025 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Clarksdale, Mississippi, 1932: Sharecropper Sammie Moore (Miles Caton) eagerly awaits the arrival of his cousins, the twins known as Smoke and Stack (Michael B. Jordan), who are returning from Chicago with plans to open a juke joint. Despite the disapproval of his preacher father, Jedidiah (Saul Williams), Sammie desires a small taste of freedom that he feels playing his guitar at their spot will give him. Smoke, Stack, and Sammie move through Clarksdale gathering musicians, old friends, and potential guests, a quest to uplift their community while also filling their coffers, unaware that someone else is moving through the area: Remmick (Jack O’Connell). Unlike Sammie and the twins, his intentions are selfish at best, positively devilish at worst, as Remmick plans to consume all he can and expand beyond the borders of Clarksdale.
Ordinarily, a first-time review on EoM would be totally spoiler-free, however, even though the film originally released in April this home release review will present spoilers head-on in an effort to identify and explore a few of the complex ideas Coogler presents within.
First things first. For those interested in owning Sinners or merely streaming it, here are your options: HBO Max subscription, VOD and digital, or physical formats. I can confirm that the HBO Max, digital, and 4K UHD editions each do provide variable ratios as utilized in the theatrical release. If you want to learn more about the significance of the ratios and the thought process behind them within the film, Coogler released a 10-minute video via Kodak ahead of the theatrical release explaining each choice.
I can also confirm that the inclusion of Black American Sign Language (BASL) is currently only available on HBO Max, not on any of the other purchasable options. If physical formats are your preference, note that there are four options: a 4K UHD Blu-ray combo steelbook, a 4K UHD, a Blu-ray, and a DVD — each one given their own unique art. The outside cover of the steelbook features the outside of the juke joint wrapping around the case with Jordan as Smoke on the cover standing with a tommy gun in front of the establishment’s doors. The inside of the cover is a photo of the twins leaning against their car when we first meet them. The 4K UHD edition cover features nine members of the ensemble cast set against a setting sun, while the Blu-ray cover places the twins in greater prominence (specifically placing Stack in a fighting position with one of his guns) amid the ensemble. The DVD cover is far simpler with Stack the only figure visible and in his bloodied, stripped-down look. The steelbook may be the hardest to track down at this point, as it appears to be sold out.
Whether or not you watch via HBO Max, digital, or physical, be advised that there are two scenes after the end credits start. One is, effectively, a coda for the film, so stick around.
L-R: Jayme Lawson as Pearline, Wunmi Mosaku as Annie, Michael B. Jordan as Smoke, Miles Caton as Sammie Moore, Delroy Lindo as Delta Slim, and Li Jun Li as Grace Chow in Warner Bros. Pictures’ SINNERS, a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures. © 2025 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.
In preparation of this home review, the initial watch was conducted via HBO Max with the second viewing and viewing of the bonus features via a 4K UHD retail copy provided by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment (WBHE). Given the choice in the future, the physical edition is the one to reach for first. While the variable ratios are present in all the available versions, the overall look and sound of the film is improved on the 4K UHD edition versus the streaming options. There’s a better balance and immersion of sound (a critical factor given the heavy musical influence and presence throughout); cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw’s (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever; The Last Showgirl) work is better represented with stronger depth of field, richer colors, and enhanced details; and, most importantly, the lighting on the characters is far more consistent within the physical edition (more on this later). From a technical perspective, the bitrate on the 4K UHD is surprisingly strong, even if not altogether consistent. The bitrate tops out around the mid-80s, making it still a large improvement over the max Blu-ray bitrate (40 Mbps), but it frequently drops into the 50s and 60s, often depending on the viewing ratio. The special features details say that the behind-the-scenes materials are not in presented in 4K or HDR, but there’s still 90+ minutes of footage that takes up a great deal of space on the 4K UHD disc. With the reduced on-disc space, fitting all the material on one disc requires greater compression, therefore leaving less room for the film. Frankly, especially with a film like Sinners, one would prefer that WBHE had gone back to the prior days of 4K UHD Blu-ray combos in which all the featurettes were only on the Blu-ray. But with the election of single-disc releases (sans steelbooks), home viewers are constantly dealt a best-of losing hand as the film looks and sounds great, but could be so much better.
Appreciatively, the bonus features are gloriously in-depth and with minimal overlap. The bulk comes from the 32-minute “Dancing with the Devil: The Making of Sinners” which covers everything from how Coogler was inspired to make the film to how crewing-up and the casting came together via past collaborators (and how everyone stepped up their game to meet Coogler’s vision) to the necessary collaborations between departments to create the lush, dynamic, and three-dimensional world of Sinners, and a great deal more. Some of what “Dancing with the Devil” touches on is given a deeper dive in the remaining four featurettes. “Thicker than Blood: Becoming the Smokestack Twins” focuses on Jordan’s dual performances brought to life via a mixture of Jordan himself playing both roles, body double Percy Bell, and innovative technical advancements to place Jordan’s face on Bell’s body, as well as the clothing as designed by Oscar-winner Ruth E. Carter (Black Panther) which serves to develop the individual identity of each twin. “Blues in the Night: The Music of Sinners” centers the music led by composer Ludwig Göransson who worked with a variety of blues musicians to ensure both the scoring and diegetic sounds are authentic to the period and community, and how the cast stepped up their game to meet the moment. For instance, we think we’re hearing Delroy Lindo play the harmonica when we first meet Delta Slim based on his performance, but it’s actually Bobby Rush, who appears in the film as another musician busking in the area. “The Wages of Sin: The Creature FX of Sinners” focuses on Creature Makeup FX Designer Mike Fontaine and his work on creating the horrifying makeup and applications that convince audiences of Cornbread’s (Omar Benson Miller) facial disfigurement, Smoke’s neck bite, Sammie’s scarring, and Remmick’s fourth-degree burns. “Spirits in the Deep South” is a discussion by Prof. Yvonne Chireau about the presentation of Hoodoo via Annie (Wunmi Mosaku) where she removes the denigrating tropes often utilized by horror cinema by explaining the connection between 1930s African Americans and the practices of their African ancestors. “Dancing with the Devil” touches on some of this, too, though often with different information, so one doesn’t get the sense that they are replaying the same featurette when jumping from one to another. If Sinners is the sort of film you’ve been revisiting over and over since its initial theatrical release, you’re going to want to explore these featurettes because all they do is make an already robust experience all the richer.
If there’s a complaint, it’s that there’s no commentary from Coogler. This is a storyteller who has not only earned his reputation as one of the finest modern filmmakers, he’s done so by keeping things authentic to his perspective and lived-experience. Learning in “Dancing with the Devil” just how personal a story this is for him and how his entire team rose to meet his vision, there’s a desire to listen to Coogler discuss the film as one watches it. However, what makes this complaint so minor is that one of the things that, in my opinion, makes Sinners so good is the ways in which the story’s been interpreted, sometimes in conflicting ways, by its audience. To have Coogler put words to the images beyond what he says in the featurettes, beyond what he’s said on the PR trail for the release, would mean cementing specific interpretations and reducing the conversations around the film. For instance, I find the visual depiction of Jedidiah and Remmick awfully similar in a way that goes beyond the obvious poles they represent for Sammi (one toward G-d, one toward the Devil) and how he chooses something for himself. In my initial viewing, I took the visual presentation of Jedidiah as just the result of a cinematographer who didn’t know how to light the actor (an issue that presents itself in several scenes in the film) or as a compression issue with HBO Max that didn’t make the image look as Coogler intended. Watching it on the 4K UHD edition, however, a sensation came over me as one can see the glint in Jedidiah’s eyes quite clearly and how they mimic the similar effect with Remmick, implying a correlation between the two figures and how Sammi sees them. Thus, it appears less an issue of technical skill or compression, but artistic intentionality. Do I want to hear Coogler discuss this? Absolutely. But by not having his perspective rattling in my brain, I’m empowered to explore the film through my own interpretation.
Part of the power of Sinners is the ways in which audiences have chosen to engage with Coogler’s narrative and the performances within. It’s enthralled audiences and for good reason. Something that keeps pestering me is how Remmick is a villain, but he’s not the worst person in the film. We don’t know the circumstances in which he became a vampire — whether it was by choice or was thrust upon him like those he and his coven feed upon— but, what Remmick does tell us is that he, an immigrant from Ireland, was himself subjected to the actions of colonizers who thought he and his were beneath them. One can’t help but wonder if being a vampire was preferable to subjugation, except that, in Coogler’s tale, vampiric individuality is more-or-less shed in favor of the collective. That is, by and large, still a colonist perspective. What makes Remmick’s offer somewhat preferable is that the stories Sammi would bring with him would not be destroyed, they would be shared between them. They aren’t forced to dress or behave in a specific way, they would share. Instead, the proper villain of the film is the man who sells the building that becomes Club Juke who is the local leader of the Klu Klux Klan, Hogwood (David Maldonado). This man will gladly sell Smoke and Stack the building, taking their hard-earned money and then return the next day to kill them. Does it matter to this man and his followers that Smoke and Stack fought in World War I, risking their lives to support the Allied Powers, or that this business opportunity might bolster the local economy to create new opportunities to raise cash? Nope. This bastard only sees two suckers from which he can do business and then destroy. Remmick may be a bloodsucker, but he’s not xenophobic, welcoming all castes and creeds into his collective. It’s because of this that, in my estimation, Smoke believes Remmick when the vamp tells him that the KKK is planning to return in the morning, thereby predicting the shootout at the end. But more than that, predicting that Smoke wouldn’t make it out of the film alive because, with Annie, Stack, and the rest gone, what else is there to do but face down the KKK who wants to kill him. The hero in any horror story doesn’t rest until the villain is proper gone and Smoke is a trained individual who understands these men will hunt him regardless of sun or moon unless he makes a stand. Therefore, the choice by Smoke to remove the protective ward from Annie that he’s worn ever sense he left Clarksdale is also a striking statement — he doesn’t want to live, but he will take as many with him as he can. Additionally, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who thinks this, but it would seem to me, given the timeline of events, that Stack likely watched it all happen from inside the locked building, locked to ensure that Stack wasn’t found by the KKK as much as it was to keep the KKK members in Smoke’s line of sight. There’s no denying the parasitic nature of Remmick and his growing crew and the horrific threat they pose to humanity at large, but it’s significant that Coogler makes sure to address the bigger threat that exists within this universe: xenophobic racists. These are the people who will take their money and then shoot them in the back; who will arrest Delta Slim and his friend (as we learn via a story) and then take the pair around town upon learning they can make money off the musicians; who will dance to their music, enjoy their food, perhaps even seek out Annie for her medicine, but would do nothing to stop a town like Clarksdale from being burned to the ground. That last bit doesn’t happen in the film, but there’s something about the prosperous nature of Clarksdale we see when Smoke goes to procure fish and signage that conjures images of the types of towns burnt down in the Red Summer of 1919. There is nothing within Sinners without intention and the clearest is that vampires are bad, but bigots are worse.
L-R: Actors Delroy Lindo and Michael B. Jordan and director Ryan Coogler on the set of Warner Bros. Pictures’ SINNERS, a Warner Bros. Pictures release. Photo courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures. © 2025 Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. All Rights Reserved.
This doesn’t even touch the complexity of race relations amid the various groups of immigrants (who is invited into the juke and why; who is on the hunt for Remmick), the dangerousness of being white passing and how that persists today, the battle between cultural customs and organized religion, music as transporter between time and space in any era, and so many other threads Coogler wove together into the tapestry of Sinners.
There are few films that meet the hype they’re given. Even fewer films draw out of audiences a desire to dissect the work like its poor ole’ Robin. In recent memory, there have been many films that I’ve immediately known how I felt about them in the watch and what I thought of them post-watch, but very few that generated a rising feeling of inquisitiveness as I sat with them. More specifically, the last time I left a film feeling like it didn’t meet the hype yet I couldn’t release the film from my mind was Mad Max: Fury Road, a film most see as one of the best films of 2015 and of the new century. Such is the case with Sinners, a film that beckons viewers to experience it again and again, the first viewing doing the service of removing expectations so that one can better recognize and acknowledge the craftsmanship at work in all areas of the telling in subsequent watches. Coogler has composed a film that’s a symphony of joy and pain, of elegance and grindhouse, and of precision and chaos. It works as a straight-forward horror film, but also as a musical, a romance, a comedy, and an action film — even if it all ends in horrible tragedy. This film is a gift to all, a proper feast of art and history that inspires contemplation in near every frame. If there’s one wish, now that the film is on home video, it’s not that a sequel is cultivated (this is too strong a story to require one), but, should this feast reach the hands of those who share the beliefs of the KKK, well, I hope they choke on it.
Sinners Special Features*:
- Dancing with the Devil: The Making of Sinners – Journey with director Ryan Coogler as he makes his most personal and powerful film yet. Featuring Michael B. Jordan and an all-star cast, filmed on location in IMAX, Sinners is an original genre-bending experience unlike any other. (32:35)
- Thicker than Blood: Becoming the Smokestack Twins – Michael B. Jordan and Ryan Coogler take us through the development, creation and portrayal of the Smokestack Twins, revealing how make-up, costumes, and visual effects come together to support these seamless performances. (10:45)
- Blues in the Night: The Music of Sinners – Oscar-winning composer Ludwig Göransson explores the musical landscape of Sinners, including the iconic sounds of the Delta Blues, and the creation and recording of the unique and inspired performances written for the film. (13:44)
- Spirits in the Deep South – Prof. Yvonne Chireau explores the backdrop of Hoodoo in the deep south and how its beliefs and traditions in spirituality, ancestors, the hereafter, and defense against evil inform the world and characters of Sinners. (7:58)
- The Wages of Sin: The Creature FX of Sinners – Creature Makeup FX Designer Mike Fontaine reveals the secrets behind the supernatural horrors that terrorize the Juke, Ryan Coogler’s fresh take on vampires, and the various gore and blood effects used throughout the film. (10:51)
- Deleted Scenes – Includes deleted and/or extended scenes for a more immersive experience. (18:41)
*Bonus features only available on the 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and digital editions.
Available on digital June 3rd, 2025.
Available on HBO Max July 4th, 2025.
Available on 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD July 8th, 2025.
For more information, head to the official Warner Bros. Pictures Sinners webpage.
Final Score: 4.5 out of 5.
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Categories: Films To Watch, Home Release, Home Video, Recommendation, Reviews, streaming
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