This image released by Warner Bros. Pictures shows director-writer-producer Ryan Coogler, left, and cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw on the set of "Sinners." Eli Adé/Warner Bros. Pictures via AP

Many full moons ago, I remember being in a long line that curled around the third floor of the Wharf Cinema Center in Lahaina, waiting to see “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” on opening night.

Everyone in line around me was discussing their favorite actors to play the ageless count. Bela Lugosi’s name came up, while my favorite Dracula was always Frank Langella. Once we crammed into the sold-out screening, the audience experienced a fresh take on the ageless count that wound up changing the image and expectations of every vampire movie that followed. I suspect “Sinners” will have the same effect, as the genre standard has once again been raised.

Writer/director Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” is exactly the kind of lavish, risky period drama and genre-fluid work that modern filmmakers rarely ever attempt anymore. Aside from Christopher Nolan and Martin Scorsese (to name a few), it’s rare to see a 21st century film with the patience and character building of literature but demonstrating go-for-broke showmanship.

I’ll be careful to not ruin any surprises, though the trailer and promotional materials have already alerted audiences that this is a vampire film. OK, but you’ve still never seen one like this before.

Michael B. Jordan stars as Chicago-based twins and war veterans named Smoke and Stack, who are traveling through Mississippi of 1936. The twins purchase a massive mill and turn it into a juke joint, for a night of music, dancing and drinking. A select group of friends are permitted on the premises but, over the course of a long night, a strange trio shows up at the door, requiring permission to be allowed entrance and sporting glowing red eyes.

Coogler’s big swing of a lavish genre melting pot is overstuffed but full of brilliant moments. Jordan gives a pair of stylish performances and neither his take on the characters nor the screenplay worry about making his roles (or anyone else’s) likable. The visual effects are so good, I sometimes forgot that Jordan was playing two characters, as the twins interact (and even fight) seamlessly.

Here is a vampire movie that neither bites nor sucks. Even more miraculous, this epic-sized period piece, historical allegory, quasi-Western, part-musical, vampire thriller doesn’t combust, even when mashed together. Somehow, it’s spellbinding.

The story is, on one level, a metaphor for cultural appropriation (the use of musical styles is a key to this angle) and a love letter to the blues, and it just barely avoids coming across as heavy-handed.

What Coogler doesn’t do is race to the second act, as the long set up to the juke joint party, and the many endings on hand, suggest there isn’t a single deleted scene. What stands is likely Coogler’s director’s cut, the kind you can only make after a slew of proven hits (in Coogler’s case, “Creed” and the two “Black Panther” films). I applaud Warner Bros. for taking a chance on such wondrously offbeat material.

Like Nolan’s most far-out and indulgent films (namely “Inception” and “Tenet”), it’s a lot to digest at first and the tonal shifts will challenge some, but there is unmistakable joy in the storytelling and filmmaking.

A sequence depicting a dance that becomes a portrait of the evolution of music history is extraordinary. Of the large supporting cast, the always terrific Delroy Lindo, playing an alcoholic pianist, gives one of the best performances of the year. Even the out-of-left field late addition of blues legend Buddy Guy in a key role pays off big time.

Sure, “Sinners” could have been tighter and shorter, though anyone who binges hours of their favorite online series shouldn’t complain about length. Some stories need more room in the telling and this one’s a whopper.

By the third act, it finally goes full tilt with the bloodletting and ultra-violence (as well as foul language and sexual frankness — seriously, don’t take your kids to see this). There are moments that reference “The Thing” and “The Shining.” Yet, despite how much it satiates the bloodlust of horror fans, some of the best scenes in “Sinners” are the smaller, character notes, as well as the out-of-nowhere musical numbers that are initially perplexing but stunning in their staging and ambition. I wish more major studio films would take these kinds of chances.

(3.5 stars out of 4)

Barry Wurst II is the founder of the Hawaii Film Critics Society and teaches film classes at University of Hawai’i Maui College.