section_path: Reception/Critical response
section_name: Critical response
paragraph_text: Critical response
  
  On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 97% of 373 critics' reviews are positive. The website's consensus reads: "A rip-roaring fusion of masterful visual storytelling and toe-tapping music, writer-director Ryan Coogler's first original blockbuster reveals the full scope of his singular imagination." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 84 out of 100, based on 55 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale (the highest grade for a horror film in 35 years), while those surveyed by PostTrak gave it a 92% overall positive score, with 84% saying they would definitely recommend the film.
  
  Reviewers praised Coogler's vision and the film's cinematography; Rolling Stone critic A.A. Dowd commented that the director was "swinging wide and far beyond the boundaries of franchise fare", while Wendy Ide of The Observer wrote that "Coogler's assurance and vision holds everything together." Ann Hornaday of the Washington Post cited Coogler's "impressive self-awareness", as well as Jordan, Mosaku, and Caton's performances. A number of critics suggested that the film's more grounded first half was superior to the supernaturally driven later acts. Peter Travers of ABC News declared Sinners the best movie yet released in 2025, writing that it was Coogler and Jordan's "best and most daring work yet". In a more negative review, The Wall Street Journal 's Zachary Barnes praised Jordan's performance, but wrote that Sinners did not pull together thematically, arguing that "Mr. Coogler's imagination remains limited by the conventions of Marveldom." Sho Baraka of Christianity Today notes, "Just be aware that... the bawdy themes will tutor you in practices that would make your marriage counselor blush.... Sinners does speak frankly about the bloodsucking perversion of religion in the United States. But the same plantation folks who suffered hypocrisy knew of a healer who gave joy spawned spirituals, which gave birth to blues." Several critics drew comparisons between the film and Robert Rodriguez 's 1996 action-horror film From Dusk Till Dawn. Coogler cited From Dusk Till Dawn as an inspiration for the film, but compared it more to The Faculty, another film by Rodriguez.
  
  The music of Sinners was widely praised by critics, who noted its centrality to the film's story. David Ehrlich of IndieWire wrote "This isn't the first time that a Ludwig Göransson score has been inextricable from the texture of a Ryan Coogler movie, but Sinners opens with someone talking about a kind of music 'so pure it can pierce the veil between life and death, past and future'... and then proceeds to show us exactly what that sounds like." Mae Abdulbaki of Screen Rant stated "The music alone, from the songs played by the characters to the score by Ludwig Göransson, takes the film to another level." Amy Nicholson of Los Angeles Times described the score as "phenomenal", adding it is music "you've never heard and yet it seems to come from deep inside our pop-cultural soul". David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter described it as "flavorful with the score and the blues performances fusing together to intoxicating effect." Barnes, of The Wall Street Journal, called Göransson's score "a twangy marvel of genre-crossing interpolation."
  
  On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 97% of 373 critics' reviews are positive. The website's consensus reads: "A rip-roaring fusion of masterful visual storytelling and toe-tapping music, writer-director Ryan Coogler's first original blockbuster reveals the full scope of his singular imagination." Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 84 out of 100, based on 55 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale (the highest grade for a horror film in 35 years), while those surveyed by PostTrak gave it a 92% overall positive score, with 84% saying they would definitely recommend the film.
  
  Reviewers praised Coogler's vision and the film's cinematography; Rolling Stone critic A.A. Dowd commented that the director was "swinging wide and far beyond the boundaries of franchise fare", while Wendy Ide of The Observer wrote that "Coogler's assurance and vision holds everything together." Ann Hornaday of the Washington Post cited Coogler's "impressive self-awareness", as well as Jordan, Mosaku, and Caton's performances. A number of critics suggested that the film's more grounded first half was superior to the supernaturally driven later acts. Peter Travers of ABC News declared Sinners the best movie yet released in 2025, writing that it was Coogler and Jordan's "best and most daring work yet". In a more negative review, The Wall Street Journal 's Zachary Barnes praised Jordan's performance, but wrote that Sinners did not pull together thematically, arguing that "Mr. Coogler's imagination remains limited by the conventions of Marveldom." Sho Baraka of Christianity Today notes, "Just be aware that... the bawdy themes will tutor you in practices that would make your marriage counselor blush.... Sinners does speak frankly about the bloodsucking perversion of religion in the United States. But the same plantation folks who suffered hypocrisy knew of a healer who gave joy spawned spirituals, which gave birth to blues." Several critics drew comparisons between the film and Robert Rodriguez 's 1996 action-horror film From Dusk Till Dawn. Coogler cited From Dusk Till Dawn as an inspiration for the film, but compared it more to The Faculty, another film by Rodriguez.
  
  The music of Sinners was widely praised by critics, who noted its centrality to the film's story. David Ehrlich of IndieWire wrote "This isn't the first time that a Ludwig Göransson score has been inextricable from the texture of a Ryan Coogler movie, but Sinners opens with someone talking about a kind of music 'so pure it can pierce the veil between life and death, past and future'... and then proceeds to show us exactly what that sounds like." Mae Abdulbaki of Screen Rant stated "The music alone, from the songs played by the characters to the score by Ludwig Göransson, takes the film to another level." Amy Nicholson of Los Angeles Times described the score as "phenomenal", adding it is music "you've never heard and yet it seems to come from deep inside our pop-cultural soul". David Rooney of The Hollywood Reporter described it as "flavorful with the score and the blues performances fusing together to intoxicating effect." Barnes, of The Wall Street Journal, called Göransson's score "a twangy marvel of genre-crossing interpolation."