Why is “Sinners” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “strong bloody violence, sexual content and language.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes a few sex scenes, discussions of sex and lost love, numerous vampire attacks leaving very bloody wounds, many people reviving after vampire attacks and developing glowing red eyes, long teeth and nails, people fighting vampires using wooden stakes, people being shot and killed or injured, several arguments and about 30 F-words and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.

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When twin brothers (both played by Michael B. Jordan) return to their Mississippi home to open a juke joint in the 1930s, they are prepared to face resistance from the Ku Klux Klan, but have no idea what other evil lurks all around them. Also with Miles Caton, Saul Williams, Andrene Ward-Hammond, Jack O’Connell, Tenaj L. Jackson, David Maldonado, Aadyn Encalarde, Helena Hu, Yao, Sam Malone, Ja’Quan Monroe-Henderson, Li Jun Li, Delroy Lindo, Jayme Lawson and Hailee Steinfeld. Directed by Ryan Coogler. [Running Time: 2:17]

Sinners SEX/NUDITY 6

 – A woman straddles a man’s lap and they kiss, she thrusts on top of him, they stop when she drools from her mouth and he lies back and she drools into his mouth; a teen boy opens the door and sees the woman straddling the man and then a man opens the door (please see the Violence/Gore category for more details). A man and a woman kiss and she caresses his clothed crotch, they continue to kiss and he lifts her skirt and thrusts into her from behind. A young man and a woman kiss, she sits on a table, he lifts her skirt, he kneels on the floor and moves between her legs (we see her legs wrapped around his shoulders as she lies back and moans deeply); a man outside the door hears the woman moaning and smiles.
► A woman breastfeeds an infant and we see the woman’s bare breast. Several women wear low-cut dresses that reveal cleavage. A man is shirtless and we see his bare chest and abdomen.
► A man advises a young man how to properly perform oral sex on a woman and compares it to ice cream. A young man approaches a woman and they shake hands; she says that he should be careful because she is married. People dance in a juke joint with a variety of traditional music and moves including hip thrusts.
► A woman argues with a man about waiting for him when he left town and makes reference to love and lovemaking.

Sinners VIOLENCE/GORE 8

 – Many people in a building are attacked by many others that charge in: several people are shot, others are stabbed (blood sprays and pours from wounds) and a few are set on fire (one woman tackles a person engulfed in flames and we see her burning as she screams); a woman is bitten and she pleads with a man to kill her (he stabs her in the chest), a man uses a broken bottle to cut his arm and entice others to the blood and he is surrounded by many as they bite and tear at him. A woman walks through her house looking for a man and finds another man seated in the dark with blood on his face, mouth and shirt and glowing red eyes, while the man she was looking for lies motionless on the floor; he then revives covered with blood and she screams. A man opens a door and finds a woman straddling a man and we hear tearing and slurping as the man’s legs twitch; the woman stands up and we see her mouth and clothing covered with blood and another man shoots her repeatedly (blood pulses from the man’s neck wound and he dies). A man tries to bite another man on the arm and the second man shoots him through the face (we see the gaping bloody wound). A man bites another man on the neck and we hear tearing and crunching. A man with glowing red eyes, long pointed teeth and nails leaps into the air and attacks a young man, pushes him into a pond and tries to bite him, the young man slams a guitar into the man’s face and he smolders and blood pours from the wound, the man is stabbed through the back (blood gushes from the wound) and he and many others burst into flames when the sun rises (we hear yelling and moaning), and the man is engulfed in flames, swirls around and shoots into the air.
► A man with numerous large guns shoots several men (blood spurts when they are struck), and throws a grenade into a truck as it drives away and it explodes; he is shot in the abdomen and we see blood gush from the wound as he collapses, and a man is shot repeatedly (blood spurts from the wounds). A man with smoldering and bloodied flesh pounds on the door of a house and a woman holding a shotgun answers. A woman pulls a gun on a man when his eyes glow red and he drools, she runs away and the man leaps off the ground following her as the scene ends (we understand that she is attacked). A woman holding a shotgun answers her door and holds the gun on a man outside that asks if someone has come to their home; she closes the door on him, and he and other men in a truck and on horseback leave. Two men steal from the back of a truck and the owner of the truck shoots one of them in the leg (blood pours from the wound), he then shoots the other man in the leg (blood gushes from the wound and the man yells in pain) and leaves. A man holds a gun on a young man and the young man says, “Shoot me” (he does not). A young man puts his face against a door and a knife is plunged through from the other side (the young man is not struck).
► Several men argue in a juke joint and one man has a switchblade that he used to cut another man on the face (we see a bloody wound); the armed man is struck and knocked to the ground where he is kicked repeatedly by several other men gathered around him. A woman throws pickled garlic on a man and he smolders and yells. A man talks about another man being accused of raping a white woman and that he was lynched and his genitals were cut off (we hear the sounds of a person being lynched and the cutting of flesh, but do not see the violence). Two men enter a building and discuss buying it from another man; the owner of the building becomes doubtful and one of the other men points a gun at him while other men outside point their guns into the building.
► A young man sings and the roof of a building is seemingly engulfed in flames, with flames on structures outside the building as well (we see it later without flames). A young man enters a church carrying a broken guitar neck and he has bloody scratches on his face; when the preacher speaks to him, the young man has flashbacks to violent and bloody mayhem with people fighting and dying. A snake coils up in the back of a truck, it hisses and a man stabs it and throws it on the ground where we see it wriggle and die (blood is visible). Many people with bloody faces and clothing and glowing red eyes sing and dance.
► A man threatens a man that if they see him or any Klan members on their property they will be killed. A man tries to make a woman leave a juke joint but she refuses and they argue. A man talks about being arrested for vagrancy. People are shown working in cotton fields and they talk about needing to make their quota. A young man talks about his mother handing out physical punishment. A man places flowers at a spot on the ground marked with a small rock that has a child’s handprint on it; the man says, “Papa’s here.” A woman describes vampires as having their souls stuck in their bodies after death.
► A man goes to the woods to urinate and we see a urine stream against a tree and hear trickling. A man spits on the ground a couple of times and we see saliva leave his mouth. People eat garlic to prove that they are not vampires.

Sinners LANGUAGE 8

 – About 30 F-words and its derivatives, 7 sexual references, 50 scatological terms, 18 anatomical terms, 43 mild obscenities, 19 derogatory terms for African-American people, 2 derogatory terms for Native American people, 1 derogatory term for white people, name-calling (fool, trouble, awful, monsters, demons, slaughterhouse, weird, peckerwoods, crazy, coward, scary, cursed, stupid, baby, evil), exclamations (glory be, hoo-hoo, my goodness, woof-woof, shut-up), 12 religious profanities (GD), 18 religious exclamations (e.g. in the name of God, Jesus, God, oh God, Lord, dancing with the Devil, Amen, may God watch over you, oh my Lord, in the house of God, the Lord’s Prayer is recited). | profanity glossary |

Sinners SUBSTANCE USE

 – A man drinks from a flask, a man talks about drinking corn liquor, a man drinks a bottle of beer, and many people in a juke joint drink wine, corn liquor and beer. A man smokes a cigarette and shares it with another man, a man and a woman smoke cigarettes in a car, and a man smokes a pipe. Children buy concoctions from a woman (like herbs and powders) presumably used for treatments of ailments.

Sinners DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Legends, spirits, vampires, sharecropping, Jim Crow Laws, Ku Klux Klan, temptation, fellowship, freedom, Blues music, respect, magic, demons, gift of music.

Sinners MESSAGE

 – Some evil is hard to fight.