“Sinners” is about to take a bite out of the spring film calendar in 2025.

Ryan Coogler’s ambitious big swing “Sinners” marks the “Black Panther” director’s first original project, out from under the weight of I.P., since his 2013 Sundance sensation “Fruitvale Station” put him on the map. The 38-year-old mega talent has had an impressive run directing both “Black Panther” movies along with the Rocky spinoff “Creed” (2015), while also producing that film’s two sequels — all major box office coups. But he wrote the Warner Bros. supernatural horror epic “Sinners,” out April 18, from his own idea, and first reactions are already praising a vision that welds classic vampire mythology to the metastasizing racism underlying the mid-century American South.

“Black Panther” and “Creed” star Michael B. Jordan plays dual roles as twin brothers Smoke and Stack, each representing their own side of a coin of good and corrupt. They...