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We started the Creeptober marathon with back-to-back classics. The only way I could think to follow that is with another double-feature, this time made up of two modern movies that will surely be considered classics in the future. First up is Sinners, my #3 best movie of this year.
Reacting to Sinners
Sinners is a movie that is so well-known that it can be a bit disheartening to talk about it. Not because the movie isn’t amazing. I’ll say it again, Sinners is one of the best movies of 2025. But it can be disheartening to talk about it in public spaces because it seems like any time someone posts about it, regardless of whether their post is positive or negative, a sizable number of people will jump in to tell them they’re wrong. I enjoy a good debate and an exchange of viewpoints about movies, but many of the reactions I’m referring to don’t invite discussion.
I know this isn’t an issue exclusive to Sinners. It happens with any popular movie, franchise, IP, etc. It’s one of the reasons I rarely ever talk about Star Wars or superhero movies online anymore. But it’s kind of my job to talk about horror movies, so I will talk about my opinions on Sinners. Discussion from people willing to engage in open dialogue is welcome.
You might have noticed what I did there. I just referred to Sinners as a horror movie. That’s because it is, and the debate about it not being a horror movie still baffles me. I’ve watched Sinners twice now, once in theaters and again just now. When I walked out of the theater after my first viewing, I thought the movie felt like a more serious version of From Dusk Till Dawn. You know, the crime movie that turns into siege-horror partway through. But the “it’s not horror” chatter for Sinners got louder in the weeks and months after the movie was released, so on this second viewing I really tried to pay attention to everything to see if that theory holds up.
My opinion hasn’t changed. Sinners is amazing, and it’s a horror movie. It’s also a historical drama. And a love story. And an action thriller. And a siege film. And a musical (sort of). It’s all of these things. The idea that movies have to be referred to by one dominant genre is ridiculous. It’s like the debates I see about Alien where people say it’s not horror, it’s science fiction. It’s both! I mean, From Dusk Till Dawn, a movie which Ryan Coogler has cited as an influence on Sinners, is a crime thriller, horror movie, and comedy. I don’t ever see people debate about that.
I did look up some of the arguments against Sinners being a horror film. Many of them say that it isn’t scary, therefore it’s not horror. Well, scariness is subjective. Besides, a movie featuring vampires attempting to kill people and absorb everything that makes them unique absolutely resides on a spectrum of scary regardless of whether it frightens you personally or not. The idea of building up sympathetic characters and putting them in danger of horrific death, and showing horrific deaths repeatedly, is absolutely part of the horror genre.
Another common refrain from the naysayers is that Sinners isn’t full of jump scares and gore, so it can’t be horror. Again, those things aren’t necessary for a horror movie. But, actually, those things are in the movie, so…
More nuanced takes talk about how the focus of Sinners is on character and history, and the effective commentary about wider issues mean that it’s “more” than “just” a horror movie. This is an argument similar to what people make when they talk about “elevated horror,” and it often comes down to a misunderstanding of what horror is and what it can be (to put it as nicely as I possibly can).
As a genre, horror is quite broad in the types of stories that can be told through its lens. Just like drama can be melodramatic nonsense or high art, horror can be z-grade schlock or, well, high art. The quality of a film doesn’t cause it to transcend its genre (or genres, plural). Nor does it necessarily determine its entertainment value.
I didn’t mean to make this write-up all about genre, but it was on my mind the entire time I was watching. So thanks for that, internet. The last thing I’ll say about the genre of Sinners is this; If I were to narrow it down to one genre or subgenre to apply to Sinners, it would be Southern Gothic. I feel like that best describes the movie from beginning to end. But within that are also the genres I’ve already mentioned. Horror, historical drama, etc. That’s one of the things that makes Sinners so great. It brings so many different elements together to create a fascinating blend. It did not create a new genre as I’ve heard some people say, but it instead celebrates numerous genres that people react to on a visceral level.
To me, acknowledging that Sinners is based in genre-film history in multiple recognizable ways is much better than saying it is somehow separate or above other genre films. In the movie, music is shown to connect cultural and spiritual heritage through the past, present, and future. Stories have a similar effect, and genre films, especially horror films, are the most effective way of understanding the true nature of the society a movie was created in.
So, by being part of that heritage of genre film, specifically of the vampire genre which has a rich history that extends beyond film, Sinners is connecting viewers in more ways than they might realize. To deny that Sinners is, in large part, a horror movie is to miss some of the film’s most basic themes.
Sinners Trivia
October 16, 1992 is the date when Stack and Mary visit Sammie at a blues bar in Chicago. October 16, 1992 is also the date when Candyman was released in theaters in the United States. Where is the story in Candyman set? Chicago, of course.
The working title for Sinners was Grilled Cheese. When asked about the unusual title, Ryan Coogler described it as a code name because the film didn’t have a title yet, and he was used to having code names for his previous films so as not to give away what they were working on while on location. He picked Grilled Cheese because he wanted to make something fast that he knew would taste good.
Many of the costumes in Sinners were originally intended to be used in the Blade movie which still hasn’t been made yet. The costume designer for Sinners, Ruth Carter, was also part of the Blade crew, and she had a bunch of costumes prepared for that film which, at one point, was going to take place in the same era. Marvel gave the Sinners crew a good price on the costumes.
