Sinners(2025)

From beginning to end this is such a beautifully shot film. Combined with the fact it's a period piece you're completely immersed in the hot sweaty southern gothic 1930s, Jim Crow laws and all. The rich setting is populated by an amazing cast which doesn't really need any introduction - everyone's role has an important part to play, known or unknown by name. A unique aspect of this movie is that you can't really put it into a bucket. Is it horror? Sure, I mean obviously it has to be, it's here on Watch Darkly. Practical effects, makeup and unapologetic violence create powerful horror imagery, if not necessarily terrifying. But it's also a drama drenched in historical reality, an action thriller that evokes the sights and sounds of a period not far removed from our reality but still feels like a different world. Every element bleeds over into one another, and the connective tissue that holds it all together is the music. And the music combined with the shots is extraordinary. I never expected the music to play such a central role and it does so without explicitly telling you - it does by allowing you to discover it through feeling. The caliber of these films is few and far between, and to have one of this magnitude spill into the horror genre is a gift.