Sinners: The Devil’s Music, the Lord’s Mercy
The film features a sterling ensemble cast, including Hailee Steinfeld, Miles Caton, Jack O’Connell, Wunmi Mosaku, Jayme Lawson, Omar Miller, and the venerable Delroy Lindo.
The project began to take shape under Coogler’s banner, Proximity Media, by January 2024, with Jordan's casting marking its inception. A fierce bidding war ensued, culminating in Warner Bros. Pictures securing distribution rights the following month. By April, the supporting cast was assembled, and principal photography commenced, spanning from April to July 2024. Coogler’s trusted musical collaborator, Ludwig Göransson, not only composed the evocative score but also lent his talents as executive producer.
Sinners graced theaters across the United States on April 18, 2025, courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures. The film was met with widespread critical acclaim and, with a worldwide gross of $342 million, now stands as the seventh-highest-grossing film of 2025—a testament to its chilling resonance and cinematic mastery.
Plot Summary – Sinners (2025)
In the year 1932, amidst the sweltering stillness of the Mississippi Delta, twin brothers Smoke and Stack Moore, both veterans of the Great War and former enforcers for the infamous Chicago Outfit, return home to Clarksdale with blood on their hands and stolen riches in their pockets. Seeking redemption—or perhaps simply respite—they purchase a rundown sawmill from the bigoted landowner Hogwood, intending to transform it into a juke joint, a sanctuary of music and release for the local Black folk.
They are soon joined by their wide-eyed young cousin, Sammie, a guitar-strumming dreamer whose father, the stern preacher Jedidiah, warns that the blues are a devil’s tongue—that the music breathes the supernatural. Undeterred, the twins gather their crew: Delta Slim, a pianist with fire in his fingers; Annie, Smoke’s estranged lover and a Hoodoo practitioner, now the joint’s cook; Grace and Bo Chow, a kindly Chinese couple who run a local shop; and Cornbread, a loyal field hand who takes up the post of bouncer.
Annie claims her spells protected the twins through their sins, but Smoke scorns her faith, having lost their baby daughter despite her charms. Stack, meanwhile, rekindles a fragile connection with Mary, a woman who passes as white and whose heart still bears the bruises of Stack’s past abandonment.
Beyond their knowledge, a new evil slithers through the Delta: Remmick, an Irish vampire fugitive pursued by Choctaw hunters. Seeking refuge, he turns a Klansman couple into his thralls, spreading the infection of undeath.
On the night of the joint’s grand opening, Sammie and Slim play with a siren’s touch, and the ethereal Pearline joins them in song. The music stirs something ancient, drawing spirits unseen and awakening Remmick's curiosity. He arrives with his growing vampire brood, offering gold and tunes of his own. Smoke, wise to the scent of danger, denies him entry.
As joy fills the joint, harsh truths emerge: the people’s reliance on company scrip leaves the business bleeding money. Mary, seeing ruin ahead, seeks aid from Remmick—and is turned. She seduces Stack, draining his life in blood and sorrow. Smoke discovers the betrayal and shoots her, but she rises unscathed and disappears into the night, leaving behind horror and questions. Outside, Remmick turns Cornbread, tightening the noose.
Smoke shuts the joint early, but it is too late. As patrons leave, the vampires descend. Stack rises anew, but Annie repels him with pickled garlic—an old trick that works. She gathers the survivors, imparting the lore of her people: vampires may only fall to sunlight, silver, or wooden stakes; they cannot cross thresholds uninvited; and though Remmick shares their memories, their souls remain lost.
Remmick, still barred from entering, makes an offer—Sammie, in exchange for peace. He desires the boy's gift to summon the spirits of his lost homeland. He tempts them with immortality, with escape from pain and prejudice, and warns that Hogwood and his Klansmen are coming to burn the joint at dawn. The survivors refuse. Enraged, Remmick threatens Grace’s daughter. In grief and fury, Grace invites the evil in.
Chaos follows. Grace kills Bo, only to die in turn. Annie is bitten by Stack, and Smoke ends her pain. Stack pleads for Mary’s escape. Delta Slim buys time with his life as Smoke, Sammie, and Pearline flee upstairs. Smoke battles and defeats his undead brother. Remmick turns Pearline, then pursues Sammie to the river. There, Sammie strikes Remmick with his guitar’s silver resonator, wounding both him and his linked minions. Smoke arrives in time and drives a stake into Remmick’s heart. The rising sun does the rest—the vampires burn.
Smoke, mortally wounded, sends Sammie home and exacts justice on Hogwood and his men before succumbing. As he slips into death’s embrace, he sees a vision of Annie and their daughter—his soul finally unburdened.
Years pass. Sammie becomes a bluesman in Chicago, playing to crowds that feel the echo of the Delta in every note. Sixty years later, after one such performance, he is visited by Stack and Mary, unchanged by time. Stack reveals Smoke spared him on one condition: that Sammie live free.
They offer him the dark gift of immortality. He declines. Instead, he plays for them, as he once did. As they leave, Sammie confesses that, though haunted by the night of blood and fire, it was—until the violence—the greatest day of his life. Stack agrees. It was the last day he saw his brother, the last time he beheld the sun, and the only moment he ever knew what it meant to be truly free.
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