Taylor Rider

As someone who was raised in the Southeastern United States, I was genuinely excited for Sinners. A horror movie steeped in Southern folklore? Count me in. But what I got instead was a story with potential buried under shallow execution, wasted cultural references, and an overreliance on sex and style over substance. This movie tries to explore Southern folklore, but rather than committing to the rich, chilling legends of the South, like haints, shapeshifters, or ancestral spirits, it takes a hard left to generic vampire territory. Yes, vampires can be reimagined as metaphors (and I appreciated the nod to white people as cultural vampires), but the film doesn’t go far enough with the idea. It leaves a clever metaphor half-developed and forgets its own folklore set in favor of flashy violence and graphic sex scenes that don’t serve the story.