Major, creative, original, art-first high-concept stylistic genre films are few and far between nowadays—especially successful ones. In the past couple of years, very few films have met these qualifications. “Mickey 17,” Bong Joon-ho’s follow-up to “Parasite,” is one. Still, the film is incredibly far from successful, racking up only $45 million domestically while having had a $120 million budget.

Another film, “The Substance,” made noise in 2024 and had an impressively significant impact on the cultural zeitgeist, given its body horror nature. However, it only grossed $18 million domestically due to it being a streaming-first film. Past those two, it takes a while before we get to anything substantial. The landscape for original genre films is barren, depressing and concerning for movie fans.

Enter “Sinners.” An absolute jolt of electricity into the seemingly asleep movie culture of 2025. Writer-director Ryan Coogler is at the forefront of young cinematic minds, and his pedigree only continues to climb after the post–Great Depression, southern Delta-set erotic and gory vampire film, “Sinners.”

It follows the story of a pair of twins (both played by Michael B. Jordan) returning to their home in southern Mississippi to start a juke joint (a sort of nightclub), and the thrilling night that follows. It’s an absolute godsend for cinephiles looking for a film to grasp onto with hope in the downtrodden film climate of 2025.

It’s far from a perfect movie, but that makes it great. It takes some massive swings, and some of them miss, but most of them hit. In baseball terms, Coogler went up to the plate taking massive hacks, and he struck out sometimes, but also hit a home run. It’s better than going up to bat, watching three strikes and walking back to the dugout because you’re too afraid to miss if you swing.

“Sinners” does an incredible job of telling the untold story of the people of the southern Delta in the ’30s, outside of just their race. The central characters of “Sinners” are Black, and their Blackness is a core part of their character (given the terrifying racial climate of the American South at the time).

The film tackles some weighty and complex racial themes, and Blackness does play a critical role in the movie, but the characters exist outside of just being Black. “Sinners” tells a powerful tale of humanity, brotherhood, manhood and love. It would still achieve this even if the racial aspect were entirely erased.

Coogler doesn’t tell these characters’ stories as Black people, but simply as people. That quality is so incredibly rare and impressive to pull off. Telling a story of African Americans in this period of American history and not making it feel like a history lesson in racism is an incredible feat. The racial themes of this film work so much better because they aren’t the only theme of this movie. This is part of what makes Coogler such a visionary director.

Outside of the carefully handled themes of the film, “Sinners” is absolutely riveting. Its heart-pounding, gore-filled vampire scenes are some of the best vampire action scenes since “Blade” (1998). The film looks and sounds incredible.

Such impressive amounts of detail and attention are paid to every little technical aspect of the film—something rarely seen anymore. Coogler shot the whole movie on IMAX film cameras, and the viewer can tell. Alongside this, he plays with the aspect ratio throughout the film.

One particular moment toward the middle of the film emphasizes the vivacious filmmaking that Coogler does—a wide lens shot of a sunset, with an earth-shaking heavy metal sound cue. It’s riveting, powerful and original filmmaking.

Besides this, the actors across the board are at the top of their game—Michael B. Jordan in twin starring roles, and Hailee Steinfeld, Miles Canton and Jack O’Connell neatly and impressively filling out the supporting cast.

Coogler has also done something groundbreaking with the rights for “Sinners.” In his deal with Warner Bros., he secured that the rights would return to him after 25 years of the film’s release. Very few directors have pulled this off (Tarantino, Aronofsky, Zemeckis), and it’s a huge step for young directors maintaining their art.

“Sinners’” success, both financial and artistic, is a sign to the rest of Coogler’s filmmaking generation (Gerwig, Chazelle, Villeneuve, Jenkins, Aster, the Safdies) that there is hope for high-concept artistic filmmaking.

“Sinners” forces the viewer—and the moviegoing culture as a whole—to consider what room exists for original and stylized films in the contemporary canon. Before “Sinners,” it was bleak.

The aforementioned “Mickey 17” was a box office flop despite being original and fresh, and very few films in the vein of “Sinners” have been successful in the past half-decade. In short, “Sinners” is precisely what we needed. Movies like “Sinners” don’t get made anymore—it’s smart, it’s sexy, it’s bloody, it’s creative. That doesn’t happen anymore.

Filmmakers need to keep taking big, original swings. Sometimes they miss, but when they hit, it’s a cinematic triumph.