Does Michael B. Jordan Vampire Thriller Have Bite?

Sinners — a new horror thriller from Black Panther and Creed director Ryan Coogler starring Michael B. Jordan — opens in theaters this week. What do critics think about the film?

Rated R, Sinners plays in Thursday previews before opening Friday in theaters nationwide. The official logline for Sinners reads, “Trying to leave their troubled lives behind, twin brothers return to their hometown to start again, only to discover that an even greater evil is waiting to welcome them back.”

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Jordan plays the twin brothers Smoke and Stack in Sinners, which also stars Hailee Steinfeld, Jack O’Connell, Wumni Mosaku, Jayme Lawson, Omar Miller and Delroy Lindo.

As of Wednesday, Sinners has a 99% “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 74 reviews. The RT Critics Consensus for Sinners reads, “A rip-roaring fusion of masterful visual storytelling and toe-tapping music, writer-director Ryan Coogler’s first original blockbuster reveals the full scope of his singular imagination.”

What Do Individual Critics Have To Say About ‘Sinners’?

David Ehrlich of IndieWire is among the top critics on RT who gives the film a “fresh” rating, writing, “A bloody, muscular, barrelhouse of a vampire movie that throbs like the neck of a blues guitar on fire, Ryan Coogler’s Sinners might be the first story the Creed director has ripped straight from his own guts.”

Critic Robert Daniels Roger Ebert online also gives the film a “fresh” review on RT, but has minor issues with the film, writing, “This collision of Queen of the Damned and From Dusk Till Dawn offers plenty of spectacle, even if it offers few new wrinkles to the vampire mythology, especially as it relates to the film’s Southern setting.”

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Critic Richard Lawson also gives Sinners a “fresh” review, although with small reservations. In his review for Vanity Fair on RT, Lawson writes, “Sinners is propulsive and stirring entertainment, messy but always compelling. The film’s fascinating array of genres and tropes and ideas swirls together in a way that is, I suppose, singularly American.”

Like Lawson, Variety’s Owen Gleiberman also has small complaints about the film, writing in his “fresh” review on RT, “Sinners works more than it doesn’t, even if it doesn’t always gel, but it’s a commanding demonstration of how lavishly spirited and “serious” a popcorn movie can be.”

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In his “fresh” review on RT, The Hollywood Reporter critic David Rooney notes of Sinners, “As much arthouse as grindhouse, it’s a blood-drenched mix tape that shouldn’t work. But it does, thanks to Coogler’s muscular direction, a terrific cast, enveloping IMAX visuals, body-quaking sound and music that stirs the soul.”

Clarisse Loughrey of the U.K.’s Independent also gives the film a “fresh” review, writing, “If cinema weren’t in such a sickly state, Sinners’ electric fusion of genres would be a guaranteed box office sensation … One can only hope audiences recognize its bounty of riches.”

Sinners plays in Thursday previews before opening in theaters Friday nationwide.

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