With Sinners, Ryan Coogler proves you don’t have to reinvent a classic monster to make it compelling. All you need to do is surround it with a stellar story, cast, and themes. Oh, and a breathtakingly gorgeous soundtrack doesn’t hurt either. Sinners has all these elements and more. So much so that it’s one of the few movies that earned the approval of the Horror Hating Husband (H3). How does Coogler breathe new life into something as done as vampires? In Sinners, it’s all about setting and character
- Directed by: Ryan Coogler
- Written by: Ryan Coogler
- Starring: Michael B. Jordan Miles Caton Jack O’Connell
Review and Recap – Mild Spoilers Ahead
Set in 1932 in the Mississippi Delta. Michael B. Jordan plays twins Smoke and Stack returning home after serving in WWI and spending some time in Chicago. The twins have an unsavory past, and everyone they meet is either afraid of or in awe of them. This includes their cousin Sammie, an aspiring blues player and the son of a preacher. Sammie’s dad is trying to keep him away from music and temptation, warning him that it will only attract the devil.
Sammie immediately falls in with the twins to play at the opening at their juke joint. As they get ready for the grand opening, we get to know the trio better. Both Smoke and Stack are dealing with their own personal trauma and losses. All of this is layered on top of the very real dangers they face being Black in 1932. The threat of the Klan is present and even though they have money, the twins know how they are perceived by white society.
The Characters
Smoke is the restrained and responsible brother, looking out for Stack and keeping him safe. It’s a role he’s taken on since childhood. Stack is brasher and quicker to act. He’s also the brother who smiles. Jordan does such a good job inhabiting both characters, it’s easy to tell which is onscreen (although they did color-code them for convenience’s sake).
The movie takes its time establishing not just the characters and the dangers of the period, it also establishes the importance of music and culture. This is a movie in part about the blues. Sammie equates music to freedom. Delta Slim another musician, played perfectly by Delroy Lindo, states the blues is from their community. But it has transcended that and touched and influenced so many more people through time. About at the midpoint, there is a visually and emotionally resonant scene that makes this point clear in a way I never would have imagined.
The Vampire
It also announces the arrival of our villain: Remmick. He’s an Irish immigrant that’s also a vampire. While the first people he turned were Klan members, his motivations are far more complex than bigotry. He’s not after the twins and their customers because of hate. It’s the opposite. Remmick is looking to rebuild the community that colonizers stole from him as well.
He’s in an interesting position as someone also perceived as an outsider in the community. While his struggles in America by no means measured up to the horrors endured during slavery and in the decades after, Remmick also speaks of invaders destroying his lands and forcibly converting his people to Christianity. I’m thinking he’s pretty freaking old.
The point is, this and other vampire abilities puts him in the position to make some pretty convincing arguments to the group about the benefits of vampirism. Nothing he says in his speech is incorrect. No matter how much the twins might try to buy land or start a business, nothing would really stop the Klan from finding a way to take it from them. The system is rigged. So come be a vampire, and let’s eat the town and be happy!
The Vampire Band
He’s also drawn by music. Once he starts to make more vampires, he celebrates with them, dancing and singing old Irish folk songs. It’s a very different vibe from inside the juke joint. Everyone looks happy, but they’re all in sync in an unnatural way. They’re singing songs they probably didn’t know before, now part of a hive mind.
Freedom is key to Smoke. Everything he’s done up until now, running around the world, Chicago, the juke joint; he was looking for a place to be free, and Remmick’s offer doesn’t look like any kind of freedom. So, the group makes a last stand.
About Freedom
The pursuit of freedom means different things to all the central characters in Sinners. For musician Sammie, it’s choosing a harder life in order to follow his true passion. It’s a choice that’s reaffirmed through his struggles overnight with the vampires. For Stack, it’s being able to be with the woman he loves and controlling his own fate, two things that are impossible in his current world. Smoke’s freedom is more complicated and wrapped in family obligations and guilt. He has dreams and goals but like Stack’s, the world is working against him. The world they live in has created impossible obstacles for these characters. It’s also made nights like the opening of the juke joint so important, so worth celebrating and protecting.
In the end, every character gets a proper ending. I won’t spoil it exactly, but it’s satisfying on so many levels. In the showing we went to, some people walked out a bit early and missed how everything really, truly resolved. Don’t leave once the credits first roll; there’s still more and it’s important.
Back to Monsters
The vampires in Sinners are about as standard as vampires get, lore-wise. They hate garlic, the sun, and stakes through the heart. They need an invite to enter a house, and don’t handle silver well. All of that is used well in the story. Because the characters have so much depth, keeping the monsters basic saves a lot of time. That time was well spent making the monster human, and the humans monstrous.
Final Thoughts
I don’t often get to review prestige films. I’ll freely admit I’m a little out of my element here. Good horror is still good horror, and Coogler knows his stuff. He uses jump scares to get the audience’s attention at the right moments, and established tension and mood with the brilliant soundtrack. Seriously, I cannot overstate how good it is. It even has the highest CinemaScore for an original R-rated horror film ever. It’s an A. Sinners absolutely deserves it.
If you are a fan of great music, deeply thematic horror and well crafted characters, Sinners has a lot to offer. Those looking for more fast paced scares and tons of blood and gore might be a little let down.
Sinners is now playing in theaters
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