Alex Wheeler Movie Ops

After several massive successes within the IP-based world of Hollywood, Ryan Coogler knew what the people wanted to do next, and what he wanted probably didn’t thrill Warner Bros. His follow-up to Creed and both Black Panther movies is an original period Southern Gothic film, replete with gooey horror and dense racial themes. It’s not the sure-fire hit Warner Bros. probably wanted, but they still invested a massive sum in the project. The result is a lavish, sweaty wonder, one that drew viewers en masse and engulfed them in a twisted but very American tale.

The film follows Sammie (Miles Caton), a young Black man in 1930s Mississippi who works hard and has a preternatural feel for the blues. He’s been a good kid up to this point, living under his preacher father’s rules and helping to support the family under the brutal rule of Jim Crow. But manhood is upon him, and he dreams of plucking away at his guitar for a living. There to give him an opportunity are his cousins, identical twins Smoke and Stack (both played by Coogler staple Michael B. Jordan), who need musicians for their new juke joint. They’ve been out of town for a while, serving in WWI and getting involved in ‘business’ up in Chicago (remember, this is the era of Al Capone). If anyone could teach Sammie about a different kind of life, it’s them. 

And then the vampires show up, which throws a wrench in things. Sinners actually takes a long time to get to this overt horror element, but everything leading up to it is still drenched in uneasy danger. Smoke and Stack are violent men, and they move with a bravado that intentionally reinforces that quality. Jordan does a good job of making both men distinct, complicated people, neither saviors nor devils. But they’re sauntering through 1930s Mississippi, causing them to knock against the KKK and the poor Black people trying to scrape by. Any misstep could mean death or financial ruin, and Sammie is swept up in the endless charge of their presence.

But they get the juke joint set up, and the community gathers for an unsavory opening night. By the time Sammie takes up his guitar, the film has already grappled with entrenched racism, complicated personal histories, and flirted with the mysticism that always accompanies human suffering. So when Sammie’s skill conjures a very literal link to the past and future, it’s hardly a surprise when an old Irish vampire is drawn to the possibility of regaining what he’s lost. 

The film is a significant departure from Coogler’s previous work, freeing him to show off a lush, inventive style. Everything has a sort of heightened beauty, weaving together the mundane and the magical, even as Smoke, Stack, and Sammie go about the dirty business of setting up their establishment. It’s when Sammie take up the guitar at the juke joint, though, that he’s really able to let loose. The dance that ensues, blending the characters with their ancestors and their descendants, is sure to be a highlight of the year, a sweeping statement on art and its permanent fixture in our lives without speaking a word. 

And then there’s the horror element, which is sure to be more polarizing. It’s not that the vampires and their bloody siege of the juke joint isn’t scary, but it does rely less on terrifying situations than mood. Suspenseful kills are sparse, but at every turn characters are faced with inescapable and unpleasant realities. Oppression weighs them down, even the vampires, who are headed by an Irishman old enough to remember England’s brutal rule of his homeland. He tempts them with sweet words about a common plight, his piercing eyes giving away the danger of the claim. Coogler trusts his audience to either already know or to intuit the complexities of that history and to know that his claim is far too stretched to be trusted. And yet he is almost offering them a satisfying way out of everything hanging over them.

The horror, then, isn’t simply vampires. It’s all those unending things limiting their lives: personal and cultural history, racism, religion, and more. Which means the vampires aren’t all that need defeating.This notion is what holds your attention through the long lead-up to the vampires. That and the immaculate production elements that are well worth wallowing in on their own. What Sinners offers up isn’t a run-of-the-mill horror film. It’s weighty, smart, and downright creepy, and ultimately it gives you what the characters assembled at the juke joint are in search of: a good time.

Release: Available on Max
Director: Ryan Coogler
Writers: Ryan Coogler
Cast: Michael B. Jordan, Miles Caton, Hailee Steinfeld, Jack O’Connell, Wunmi Mosaku, Jayme Lawson, Omar Miller, Delroy Lindo