The year 2024 is almost over, which means we are now coming up on five and a half years of Marvel’s Blade being the most unserious MCU project ever. As that movie languishes in development hell, losing directors, writers and Mahershala Ali’s patience every other month, Ryan Coogler is thankfully here to save the day—not by lending his generational talents to another franchise film, but with Sinners, a new story of his own.
Cool Black movie star, vampires, and an original narrative amidst a sea of IP from one contemporary film’s best directors? This is a layup. Watching this trailer is a formality, really—what more do you need to know? This will be Coogler and Michael B. Jordan’s third big studio film together, following Creed and Black Panther (their fourth overall going back to the indie powerhouse Fruitvale Station, and their fifth if you count Jordan’s cameo in Wakanda Forever) and from the looks of it, these two brothers are locking in like Scorsese and DiCaprio.
What’s funny is that to watch this teaser, you wouldn’t actually know vampires are the specific breed of demon that Coogler has up his sleeve. That was the chatter in the loglines as he and Jordan put the film in motion, but all this initial clip implies is that something evil is afoot during an unspecified past era of the American South, where Jordan appears to be playing twin brothers. There are terrified expressions, tommy guns firing in slo-mo, creepy children, a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it shot of the great Delroy Lindo being menacing… and otherwise a whole lot of restraint in showing what the hell is actually going on here. Consider me sold! Sinners hits theaters March 25.
