Jakarta. American filmmaker Ryan Coogler has tried making an unexpected combination of blues music and vampire lore in his freshly released film “Sinners”. The movie shows that these two can make a great pair if done with the right hands.

“Sinners”, which clocks in at 137 minutes,  is set in 1930s Mississippi.  Michael B Jordan, known for being the big bad in the superhero film “Black Panther”, plays a dual role as twin brothers Smoke and Stack. These charismatic gangsters are trying to open a blues club in an old sawmill. They have recruited some old friends -- including their talented baby cousin Sammie (Miles Caton) -- to get the place running. 

The first half has the story focusing on the club work and some romance. Stack runs into his past lover Mary (Hailee Steinfeld), a biracial woman who has just lost her mother. Smoke rekindles romance with Annie (Wunmi Mosaku) -- the two previously had a child who died. The first half also touches on racism, cotton slavery, and poverty. Enthusiasm soars high as Sammie swoons the entire crowd with his killer voice.

The club, however, runs into a financial problem on the opening night. The place does not earn enough cash as many of the customers pick cotton for a living. Despite some early hints of a looming vampire attack, it takes a while before the horror starts. But the delay in the action is actually what makes “Sinners” a well-crafted piece. It lets the audience get to know the characters. "Sinners" takes the audience on a nice time machine to the past.

After about 40 minutes, the slow-burning “Sinners” finally gives its audience much-awaited, adrenaline-fueled combat sequences. But scenes of one of the vampires jumping very high might probably make you laugh. But because of how well put together "Sinners" is, small details like this is forgiven. The characters that do survive the initial vampire apocalypse make smart decisions -- something that can be said extremely rare in horror movies.

“Sinners” is now playing in Indonesian cinemas.