Y’all, I’m not gonna bury the lede here. Sinners is a 10/10, it’s the best thing I’ve seen in a long while. It’s everything I want in a movie. It’s super badass, it’s sexy, it’s funny, it’s mystical, it makes wild choices, it pulls no punches, it’s a period piece, a musical, a horror film, a social commentary. It never stops being the most insane and awesome vampire movie while the themes run deep through every scene. This is exactly the kind of best case scenario for Coogler who has spent the last decade plus making big studio IP films to kick down the doors and remind us he doesn’t need any of that to make a great ****ing movie.
There is a sequence in this movie that had me levitating out of my seat with tears down my face, and I struggle between not spoiling it here but wanting to discuss it in depth. But I do want to talk about what this movie is getting at, because it’s such a brilliantly nuanced conversation taking place in a legit vampire movie and neither ever feel forced together. On the surface it might be easy to compare this to a Peele film and say it’s about race, but really it’s about culture. This movie is about why creating space for furthering the culture through art is important. The sequence I’m referring to is a little abstract and it’s the first time this movie’s thesis really opens up, but it’s so incredible. Musically and visually and thematically it’s an absolute home run and feels like Coogler showing off what he’s had up his sleeve all this time. And the horror of this movie begins with the end of that sequence, when you see the three vampires watching these people have a great time and while it’s not stated out loud, the visual message here is that these boring cultural vampires cannot stand not being invited to join the party. And that’s about to ruin everyone’s night.
I honestly feel like this movie does such a fantastic job of conveying its theme that I will do it a disservice here, but I’m going to try. The lore of this movie is that some people are so ****ing good at making music that they awaken evil spirits to challenge them, which is already cool as hell. Sammie is the one the vampires want the most. Why? Because he’s culturally significant. The vampires want him to become one of their collective consciousness, sharing his music and talents with the monoculture. But these people that have worked so hard to carve out a space for themselves know Sammie is meant to enrich their specific culture, that’s why they're so protective of him and why Smoke basically threatens him to stay. It’s not about keeping anyone out, it’s about how when there’s plenty of places to go enjoy folk music or the mainstream, there should be no problem with there also being a space for the minority culture to thrive.
And how about these vampires? This movie is hilarious as much as it is frightening, and the vampires being Irish sea shanty folk singers is maybe the funniest thing about it. I didn’t take it as a knock on any specific culture, but folk music like that is so dependent on synchronization and unity while the cultures being explored in that club music scene feels much more based in individuality and unexpected flavor. It’s so genius to make that the collective consciousness style and how their ultimate goal is to consume other cultural art to be one with their mainstream ideals. It actually works so well with the old lore of vampires, for example them needing to be invited in is so perfectly indicative of how personal it feels to not be invited into these spaces even if it’s for the purpose of preservation of the art. I love folk music, but what a great director does is show you their perspective and I can feel how Coogler feels when he hears it with this movie.
And the cherry on top of this insane movie is how religion plays into it all. I think this is a little more buried in the text, but it is called Sinners and opens with a church so it was on my mind. In the climax when Sammie defaults to the Lord’s Prayer and the vampire starts reciting it too, something really clicked for me. Something about how organized religion is the original monoculture, forced upon people and now so deeply rooted that separating it from current culture is almost impossible. Sammie isn’t just fighting the idea of mainstream music and people trying to bite his lived-in style, he’s fighting his father who has religious expectations and sees his creativity as an obstacle stopping Sammie from being Godly. It’s a brilliant opening because of the vibe of that first scene, seeing Sammie go back home, my immediate thought was “oh look what the nightlife did to this boy” and after seeing the movie you know how important that night of playing was to him, how it wasn’t the club that destroyed him.
This movie committing to the ending, having him clutch that guitar neck and drive away, it’s so powerful. The best thing we can do in this world is be true to our creativity, and this movie is all about that idea. Not to mention the loving eye this movie puts on the brief period where the brothers owned their own profitable business and gave their people a safe space to celebrate their culture, that really got to me. I believe the title, Sinners, refers to the creatives who reject any sort of monoculture and truly seek the unique, the art that could only come from them and their background, and it’s so brilliant because that’s what this movie is. Fully unique and only possible through the lens of the creative force behind it. Coogler is Iron Chef level cooking with this, arguing that being an artist/sinner is better than being a boring saint.
Thematic poetic waxing aside, this movie just absolutely ****s. It’s so sexy and entertaining, I couldn’t take my eyes off it. It has some WILD dialogue but these actors sell the hell out of it, especially Hailee who has a really tough role with some insanely explicit lines that she sells so well. And with all these amazing and lived-in characters, this movie is not precious about keeping them alive or from turning. The build-up to the vamps getting invited in was so damn good, I was in tears when the shopkeeper screamed it out. And that shot of everyone grabbing weapons while the vampires open that giant barn door, I swear you could have punched me in the ****ing face and I wouldn’t have stopped watching. The swiftness with which that scene devolves into just death and massacre and violence is what a good climax is all about. Even if you’re not paying attention to the themes, this is a fully satisfying vampire horror extravaganza.
I’m going to wrap this up, but I need to highlight how rare it is to really earn an ending like Michael B. Jordan mowing down racists. Like, it’s such a tropey blaxploitation revenge moment, but it feels amazing with those guitar riffs and with everything leading up. In maybe this movie's most brilliant turn, the vampires aren’t even the most evil characters. At least they offer some semblance of a life, and I really don’t think this movie damns the vampires fully as much as sees them as a naturally occurring obstacle to overcome in order to keep cultural identity unique. No, the real villains of this movie are the Klan racists, and it can be argued that the most convincing argument the vampires make for assimilation is how the racists were going to kill everyone anyways. Why not join mainstream culture and go on to turn the racists into vamps as well? So it feels earned and oh so right when the racists show up for the final scene and get what’s coming from an angry Jordan who had lost everything except his guns.
This movie rocks but the ending plus the mid-credits scene blast this off into undeniably incredible territory. It sees the vampires with such empathy, in a way, and there’s real literary value in how the only survivors of the night are the artist and the entrepreneur, and how Smoke had to overpower his vamp brother in order to get them to leave Sammie alone. This is a movie that will be talked about and thought about for years and years, and I for one can’t wait to rewatch it a million times. Like I said, 10/10.
