One Killer Moment Justifies Seeing Sinners In IMAX

This article contains major spoilers for "Sinners."

The riveting, bold, and spectacular "Sinners" is in theaters now, and "Black Panther" director Ryan Coogler has given audiences a bloody (literally and figuratively), magnificently refreshing take on the vampire subgenre that has been in desperate need of an overhaul after authors Anne Rice and Stephenie Meyer veered the bloodsucking monsters into much different territory with "The Vampire Chronicles" and "The Twilight Saga."

In the film, Michael B. Jordan takes on dual roles as twin brothers known as Smoke and Stack. They've just returned to their rural hometown, after working for famed mobster Al Capone in Chicago, with the hopes of using the money they earned (and some contraband they stole) to create a juke joint where Black people can gather for music, dancing, drinking, and gambling without being bothered by the racist whites in the area. 

Despite the Ku Klux Klan being "dissolved" in the area, the racism clearly still lingers, even as Smoke and Stack present one of those good ol' boys with a bag of cold hard cash to pay for their new venture. So the new juke club gives them a place of their own, one where Smoke and Stack's cousin Sammie (Miles Caton) and the drunken but immensely talented musician Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo) can crank out some serious blues, while Smoke's estranged wife Annie (Wunmi Mosaku) fries up catfish for everyone.

Unfortunately, during the evening of the grand opening of Smoke and Stack's new juke club, a trio of vampires led by a man who calls himself Remmick (Jack O'Connell) attempts to enter the establishment. When they're politely but firmly rebuffed (because vampires have to be invited indoors before stepping inside), they hang around outside playing their folk music, and without spoiling the specifics about how it all unfolds, all hell breaks loose when they turn Stack's jilted ex-lover Mary (Hailee Steinfeld) into a vampire, and a crowd of transformed bloodthirsty locals, with their eyes glowing red in the night, becomes a mob ready to wreak havoc in the club. 

It's during this climactic sequence that "Sinners" delivers a killer moment in the IMAX version of the movie that had the audience cheering and clapping during my advanced screening. 

In the IMAX version of "Sinners," some sequences were shot specifically for the large format, and they fill the entire giant screen with Coogler's visuals. That includes the unbelievable musical sequence that lets the energy of the juke club transcend time and the eclectic span of Black music stylings, as well as the film's bloody final battle, which is where the aforementioned killer moments unfold. 

When everything comes to a head, Stack has already been turned into a vampire by Mary, along with Smoke and Stack's friend Cornbread (Omar Miller), and the town market owner Bo Chow (played by Yao), the latter leaving his wife Grace (Li Jun Li) distraught and angry. In fact, Grace is so upset that she puts together a Molotov cocktail and shouts, "Come on in, motherf*****s!"

Now that the vampires have a confirmed invitation, everyone else in the juke joint is forced to prepare for battle, grabbing whatever they can to defend themselves before the horde charges into the club. In this moment, as Smoke, Grace, Sammie, Delta, Annie, and a woman named Pearline (Jayme Lawson) arm themselves and stand in a line ready to fight for their survival, the film's aspect ratio suddenly expands from the standard wide screen into the full IMAX frame, creating a visual ramp up to the blood-soaked confrontation that's about to begin. 

The line-up of characters and the lead-up to this fight created such a badass moment that I couldn't help but clap my hands and lean forward in my seat, as many audience members in my Chicago screening also clapped and cheered. The moment reminded me of a similar IMAX expansion in "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire," where the frame also expands as Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) prepares for her own battle:

It's a similarly thrilling moment that leads to an action-packed fight that shoots blood in every direction as the club burns around them, creating a fiery glow around the entire sequence. Stakes puncture through vampires' chests and backs, Remmick has his body burned with holy water, and it's an all-out brawl that unfolds on the expansive IMAX screen, making "Sinners" worth seeing on the trademark format. So you'd do well to see where the closest IMAX screen is, even if it's not one of the few legitimate IMAX screens out there.