10 Movies Like Sinners You Must See

‘Sinners’ tells the story of twins Elijah ‘Smoke’ and Elias ‘Stack’ Moore (Michael B Jordan), World War I veterans who get rich working for the Chicago Outfit. Thereafter, they return to their hometown of Clarksdale, Mississippi, and establish a juke joint for the local black community. While it comes under the threat of the local segregationists in 1932, the establishment also attracts an ancient supernatural evil that is far more sinister and terrifying.

Director Ryan Coogler explores the history of the American South with a film that builds on the culture and heritage of Black community in the region. The primary threat of vampires is used as an allegory in the horror thriller for predators who hide in plain sight. If your interest has been picqued in the genre, the following list of movies similar to ‘Sinners’ will help you dive deeper.

10. Fallen (1998)

‘Fallen’ by Gregory Hoblit tells the story of Philadelphia Police Detective John Hobbes (Denzel Washington), who gets haunted by the fallen angel Azazel. Possessing humans by touch, Azazel sets about committing a series of occult murders, which forces Hobbes to personally hunt him down and attempt to put an end to his tyranny. Having Denzel as the strong Black lead going after a supernatural entity, ‘Fallen’ bears a notable resemblance to ‘Sinners’ with Michael B Jordan.

9. Us (2019)

Jordan Peele’s psychological horror thriller is set around Adelaide Wilson (Lupita Nyong’o), who returns to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk with her husband and children, thirty years after having a traumatic experience as a child. A sense of impending danger weighs heavily on her mind, and she is soon proved right as the family gets attacked by four masked strangers. In their fight for survival, they discover that the attackers are dopplegangers of themselves, led by Red, who resembles Adelaide. Both ‘Us’ and ‘Sinners’ are representative of the Black culture in the horror genre. Moreover, the dynamic between Adelaide and Red becomes progressively similar to the evolving relationship between Smoke and Stack in the latter film.

8. Angel Heart (1987)

Based on the book ‘Falling Angel’ by William Hjortsberg, ‘Angel Heart’ by Alan Parker follows private detective Harry Angel (Mickey Rourke), who receives a contract from Louis Cyphre (Robert De Niro) to track down Johnny Favority, an acclaimed singer. The task proves to be extremely difficult as every source Harry approaches soon turns up dead. However, pressed by his employer, Harry stays on the trail and learns that his target once dabbled in the occult to climb the ladder of fame. The link between musical stardom and the supernatural is also explored in ‘Sinners’, where the music at the juke joint is what attracts vampires to the place.

7. Candyman (1992)

The Bernard Rose-directed ‘Candyman’ chronicles the urban legend of the ghost who kills anyone who speaks its name five times before a mirror. Helen Lyle (Virginia Madsen) starts researching the subject as a semiotics graduate at the University of Illinois, and states in her thesis that the legend is propagated by residents of a Chicago public housing project to cope with racial inequality. However, when a stranger matching the description of Candyman (Tony Todd) begins to follow her, she begins fearing that the stories may be true after all. Much like ‘Sinners,’ ‘Candyman’ deals with the subject of racial segregation and how it shapes the horrors around us.

6. The Devil All the Time (2020)

‘The Devil All the Time’ is directed by Antonio Campos based on the book of the same name by Donald Ray Pollock. It tells the interconnected stories of residents of two small towns in Ohio and West Virginia, where death is an omnipresent phenomenon. From a marine putting his partner out of his misery on the battlefield, to a priest killing his wife to test his supposed power of resurrection, to a serial killing couple preying on unsuspecting bachelors, fate connects them all in meeting terrible deaths. Young villagers fighting against the unseen before ultimately resigning to it brings to mind the resistance of the people against the supernatural phenomenon in ‘Sinners.’

5. From Dusk Till Dawn (1996)

‘From Dusk Till Dawn’ chronicles the Gecko brothers Seth (George Clooney) and Richard (Quentin Tarantino), who carry out a deadly bank robbery in Texas and flee to Mexico in the Robert Rodriguez film. They kidnap a preacher, Jacob Fuller (Harvey Keitel), and his family on the way to use their RV to sneak past the border. The group stops at a topless bar to refuel themselves, which turns out to be the home for vampires. The mix of the supernatural entity and a watering hole vibrant with music and dancing brings to mind the juke joint from the ‘Sinners,’ as does the similarity between the bandit brothers Set and Richard, and Smoke and Stack.

4. Eve’s Bayou (1997)

Set over the course of a single summer in Louisiana, ‘Eve’s Bayou’ revolves around 10-year-old Eve Batiste (Jurnee Smollett) discovering the disturbing truth about her affluent family. The trouble is seemingly centered around her father, Louis (Samuel L. Jackson), a reputed doctor who is also a philanderer. His activities push his family away from him, including Eve, her teenage sister Cisely (Meagan Good), and their mother Roz (Lynn Whitfield). Gifted with the power of premonition, Eve looks for comfort with her psychic aunt, Mozelle (Debbi Morgan), but things only get progressively worse. In her directorial debut, Kasi Lemmons pursues a storyline that, like ‘Sinners,’ focuses on Black cultural experiences in a Southern state.

3. His House (2020)

Directed by Remi Weekes, ‘His House’ follows a refugee couple from South Sudan who lose their daughter while making a perilous journey across the English Channel from France to reach the UK. Three months later, they are granted probational asylum by the government, but discover themselves being followed by a ghost from their past. By focusing the narrative on the experience of the refugees, ‘His House’ showcases the state of the refugees in modern-day Europe. The racism they face while fleeing their homeland echoes the experience of Black communities portrayed in ‘Sinners.’

2. Near Dark (1987)

Marking the solo directorial debut of Kathryn Bigelow, ‘Near Dark’ tells the story of Caleb Colton (Adrian Pasdar), a cowboy who gets enchanted by a stranger in the bar. Mae (Jenny Wright), the femme fatale in question, turns out to be a vampire who bites and turns Caleb, making him crave human blood. As a result, he is forced to leave his family and join her gang of nightwalkers, even though he remains conflicted as to where his heart belongs.

Many parallels can be drawn between ‘Near Dark’ and ‘Sinners,’ from the vampires turning people at a watering hole to the moral conflict that the lead characters face after becoming the undead. Caleb getting turned by Mae, the woman he fancies, brings to mind a similar fate that one of the twins in the Ryan Coogler film suffers at the hands of Hailee Steinfeld’s character, Mary.

1. Ganja & Hess (1973)

Bill Gunn’s black horror film ‘Ganja & Hess’ depicts the experiences of wealthy anthropologist Dr. Hess Green (Duane Jones), whose assistant stabs him with a cursed dagger before killing himself. Upon recovering, Hess discovers he has turned into a vampire, with the dagger’s curse stemming from an ancient African nation of blood drinkers. The assistant’s wife, Ganja Meda (Marlene Clark), soon arrives at his house to look for her husband, but falls in love with Hess instead, and is subsequently turned.

More than half a century before ‘Sinners,’ ‘Ganja & Hess’ incorporated vampirism within a piece of Black cultural representation. Both movies dealt with the nuances of becoming a vampire instead of turning themselves into typical slasher films. The relationship between the two titular characters in the older movie is comparable to the many relationships that are seen in the later film, especially that between Mary and Stack.