“Sinners,” a horror film set in the dead of Mississippi in 1932, has critics raving. Audience members are in love with its gritty, dirty humor and dark tone. With a relatively low $90 million budget, this movie stars Michael B. Jordan, who plays the film’s two main characters: Smoke and Stack. It only took three months to make this blockbuster, which was written and directed by Ryan Coogler, a surprisingly short time compared to other movies nowadays.

Smoke and Stack are two veteran twins who have been working as gangsters in the slums of Chicago, robbing businesses and banks to save up and move back to their hometown in Clarksdale, Mississippi. At the start of the movie, the two have recently returned and started a juke joint. The movie’s main antagonist, Remmick, is a vampire. Where he comes from is unknown, but it is hinted that he is hundreds of years old. Remmick can turn other people into vampires by biting them, like zombies, but it’s a lot scarier and more fun.

The story’s main conflict is the struggle between the two brothers and Remmick. It’s a struggle that is physical (fighting vampires, shooting, punching) but also mental, as the all-powerful vampires use their brains to manipulate humans. This creates a complex conflict that is interesting to watch. One of the main plot points in the movie is figuring out who is a vampire and who isn’t since they still look like humans. Even though this is a fun twist on vampires, it takes away some of the magic that traditional vampires, with long teeth and bat wings, have.

Even though I think this movie is good, I don’t think it deserves all the love it’s gotten. It’s simply not realistic, and the lack of explanation makes it a hard watch for someone trying to get into it. Of course, a movie about vampires isn’t going to be the most realistic thing on the planet, but this movie is set in Mississippi in 1932, and the lack of racism shown makes it feel unrealistic. “Sinners” also leaves some annoying things unexplained; for example, we have no idea where the vampires came from. They just pop up out of nowhere.

Overall, this movie is good, but I think if they had taken more time to flesh out the story and explain the little things, it could have been great. If give it a 7/10. “Sinners” is currently showing at Alamo and Regal in Charlottesville.