Ryan Coogler’s Sinners is the latest film to get the method dressing treatment. Before flocking to their local movie theaters to watch the critically acclaimed bluesy vampire epic that has some Hollywood executives shaking, many enthusiastic moviegoers are dressing for the gory but dapper occasion.
Set in Mississippi in 1932, the Southern Gothic horror flick stars Coogler’s longtime muse, Michael B. Jordan, doing double duty as entrepreneurial twin brothers with a criminal past. The characters, Smoke and Stack, return home to Clarksdale, Miss., to open up a juke joint. Steeped in blues music and rife with bloody showdowns against vampires, the film is seen as a metaphor for the appropriation of Black culture. It’s also been described as a love letter to African American culture.
Wearing outfits inspired by ’30s fashion or leather-clad vampire slayers (or a bit of both), creators, many of whom are Black, are showing up and showing out for screenings of Sinners.
Amari Starks and Jude Cuesta attended a screening of the film in Dallas. For the occasion, they curated outfits they felt were period accurate. Starks revealed on TikTok that he wanted to “show out for the Black vampires and Black vampire hunters.”
Starks and Cuesta told Yahoo Entertainment in an email they were trying to channel the 1930s, but with “our own personal vampire flare [sic].” Starks opted for a vest and trousers, while Cuesta leaned into the mobster aesthetic of twin protagonists Smoke and Stack with a waistcoat, tie and vintage button-down shirt.
Starks said their TikTok page “is dedicated to highlighting people of color and in this specific instance, Black characters, actors, writers and more in horror and alternative spaces and media where they get overlooked. That’s extremely important to us, and there’s something really special about dressing up for a movie.”
This isn’t their first time dressing up for a Coogler film.
“I think back to when we all dressed up for Black Panther and how magical it was, and I wanted to replicate that same feeling and celebrate being seen in a genre that we love,” Starks said. “We dressed up for Nosferatu, there was no way we were not going to bring that same energy and hype for Sinners.”
Obiageli Amina is another creator who felt compelled to method dress for Sinners.
“I dressed up because I love and appreciate art in all forms, especially clothing and how I choose to show up in the world,” she told Yahoo in an email. “Dressing up to me is putting on what makes you comfortable, feels good and showcases you, no matter how others around you may feel. I love all of [Coogler’s] films, and this film brought me back to the theater. I have not been to the movies since 2019.”
At a screening of the film in Houston, Amina went “for a masculine suit and tie look with a twist.” She wore an oversize button-down that she cinched with a safety pin, and draped a tie over her shoulders for what she describes as an “I’m-off-the-clock” look.
“I was inspired a lot by Ernie Barnes paintings, more so ‘Pool Hustlers,’” she said. “His work can be seen in the background of my [outfit video], and I think it was cool that his art [“The Sugar Shack” and “Club 55” paintings] is sort of emulated in that amazing scene in Sinners.”
Michael B. Jordan in Sinners. (Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection)
Since its April 18 release, Sinners has continued to dominate at the box office. On the first Monday following its theatrical debut, the period horror movie earned $7.8 million in tickets — making it the second-best Monday ever for an R-rated horror film after 2017’s It, which earned $8.76 million, according to Deadline. Sinners also nabbed the No. 1 spot at the box office over the weekend, earning $48 million domestically and $63 million globally.
In a letter, Coogler thanked fans for supporting the film in theaters.
“I had the gift of the opportunity of making a film inspired by my family and my ancestry but it was always a film that we wanted to make for audiences, in theaters,” he wrote. “We always had our minds on you, the audience, and felt a deep responsibility to entertain you, and move you in the way only cinema can.”
Method dressing has long been a way for fandoms to show their appreciation for their favorite pieces of media.
The release of Luca Guadagnino’s Challengers in 2024 inspired a full-blown “tenniscore” movement as fans attended screenings of the Zendaya-led film wearing quiet luxury staples like cable-knit sweaters and pleated skirts. For Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, released in 2023, troves of fans wore all-pink outfits to screenings in honor of girlhood and the beloved Mattel doll. Just last year, fans honored Elphaba and Glinda at screenings of Wicked by incorporating green and pink into their outfits.
Coogler’s Southern Gothic film isn’t the first to inspire thematic dressing among moviegoers — and it certainly won’t be the last.
