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Trailer of the Week: Sinners Promises a Bloody Fun Time

Credit: Warner Bros.

Ryan Coogler’s highly anticipated fifth feature film, Sinners releases to theaters on April 18, 2025. The film, starring Coogler’s regular collaborator Michael B. Jordan, tells a vampire story within the historical context of the Jim Crow Era South. This is Coogler’s first film outside of the Marvel Cinematic Universe since 2015’s Creed and he hasn’t made a non-franchise film since 2013’s Fruitvale Station. While his work within these franchises has been worthwhile, it will be interesting to see what a sandbox of his construction looks like. Based on the newest trailer, Sinners looks to deliver a propulsive, sensual, and action-packed experience.

This trailer moves pretty quickly, and on first watch, it can be a little tough to keep track. This feels intentional as the trailer never truly reveals any specifics of the plot. The Sinners trailer does show a few moments that could be pivotal. For example, we see a few seemingly important characters turn into vampires. This could potentially be a case of the trailer showing too much, but without context, it doesn’t feel like it’s ruining anything substantial. The existence of non-vampire supernatural elements is present here and I believe they play a larger role than we are initially led to believe. While the trailer does jam a lot into its 3 minutes, there seems to still be plenty of meat on the bone.

The vampire sub-genre has many different variations. The creatures have been used to tell stories from all types of genres including action, romance and, obviously, classic horror. Just in the past few years we’ve seen a rise in stories featuring the sharp fanged monsters. Ryan Coogler’s Sinners looks to have elements from all of them. The trailer doesn’t shy away from the horror elements of vampires, but also embraces the monsters’ sensual side. Coogler always fills his films with emotion, and this looks to be no different. The trailer shows sparks of intimacy that push this film past a generic vampire story.

Michael B. Jordan and Ryan Coogler do their best work together. The nature of their collaborative relationship allows for them to push each other to be better. In Sinners, Michael B. Jordan faces the challenge of playing dual roles. Jordan appears as both twin brothers Elijah and Elias Smoke. Even with two trailers, not much is revealed about what the brothers are up to or what the nature of their relationship is. It will be fun to see how well Michael B. Jordan can play off of another version of himself. Hailee Steinfeld, Delroy Lindo, and Jayme Lawson star alongside Jordan in this deep cast.

Michael B Jordan as Two twin brothers. They look in agony off into the distance as they hold each other.
Michael B Jordan in Sinners Credit: Warner Bros.

Another aspect that makes Sinners stand out is the setting. A vampire story set in 1930s America is exactly the type of thing Ryan Coogler should be doing with his post-Marvel status. A concept-heavy genre film with potential for social commentary is right in the director’s wheelhouse. The sets and costumes look amazing. The cast for Sinners looks perfect, and nobody stands out as looking too modern (I’m looking at you Nicole Kidman in The Northman). Vampires are a concept that feel more at home in historical settings. Setting a story with these monsters in this particular time period makes the film a must-see on its own.

Coogler’s vampire thriller Sinners is likely to at least be a good time. Based on what we saw in the trailer, everything is firing on all cylinders. Visually it looks great. The performances appear effortlessly charming. I believe Coogler and Jordan will keep up their streak both critically and financially with Sinners.

Directed and written by Ryan Coogler and starring Michael B. Jordan, Hailee Steinfeld, and Jack O’Connell, Sinners will be in theaters on April 18, 2025.

Written by Matthew Percefull

Matthew Percefull is a writer who loves cinema in all forms. Constantly trying to fill out his knowledge of film, Matthew loves looking at the culture surrounding the movies we all love.

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