A Feast for Music Lovers and Horror Fans

            Ryan Coogler’s newest film, Sinners, is incredible, and for the first time this year, we have had back-to-back weekends with great movies, last week being Warfare. This was much needed, because I was starting to lose faith in the theater for the year, but just when I thought I was out, they pulled me back in! And like Warfare, Sinners was a unique movie experience. It told a monster story, but the way in which it was packaged was like nothing I have seen before, and its two hour and seventeen-minute runtime flew by.

            Sinners starts with what basically is a long montage of getting the gang together. It reminded me of a heist movie, but instead of creating a group to rob some body, they are creating a group to create a bustling juke joint. Smoke and Stack are twin brothers that just got back to their home, Mississippi, from Chicago in the Jim Crow era, and they brought a truck full of liquor, beer, and wine with them. So they needed food, a chef, and a band. Their cousin Sammie could play the guitar incredibly, and despite his father’s protests, who was a preacher, that working in a place full of sinners was not a good idea, Sammie went with them anyways.

            All was going well with the opening of the bar, the booze was flowing, the music was making people dance, and people were enjoying the food, but then some unusual visitors arrived. Three white people, who are of course met at the door skeptically. They ask for an invitation in, but they are politely refused entry, so they start to hang out in the parking lot. After a discussion with Stack, Mary, his girlfriend, who is the only white person in the juke joint, goes out and talks to them, but she realizes there is something sinister about them too late, and she gets bit and turned into a vampire, and once Mary makes her way back into the juke joint, all hell breaks loose.

            The aspect of this movie that stands out the most is the music. It is the heartbeat of the film, both as background music, but also with performances by the characters throughout the story. It keeps the movie flowing, and it is the main reason why it feels like the story goes by so fast. There is one sequence shortly after the juke joint opens that shows a progression through time of music, and it is incredible and depicts how music interconnects us all. It was so well choreographed, and it was electric. It reminded me of the party scene in Babylon, but without copious amounts of sex and drugs… While they are doing this amazing musical arrangement, the barn starts to burn down, not literally, because none of the patrons seem to notice or care, but it is an incredible visual.

            There are many other music scenes in Sinners besides that one, but that one sticks out the most, but there is a scene of Sammie playing the guitar in the car for his cousin for the first time and singing, and his cousin realizes the talent that he has sitting next to him, and there is Sammi playing the guitar with the harmonica player downtown as the advertisement to get the people to come to the joint that night, as well, and that would have convinced me to go undoubtedly. Finally there is another incredible music scene in the juke joint, where the girl Sammi likes goes up on stage, and while she is singing, someone in the bar starts getting beat up because he pulled a knife on someone, and they are kicking him to the rhythm of the song, which coincidentally is also the part where all hell breaks loose, and the first person in the bar gets bit. An incredible scene.  

            Personally, I am not a huge vampire movie fan. I still get excited about them, but they always let me down. I do not know what it is. Even Nosferatu, which I waited all year to go and see, let me down, but Sinners did not! Honestly if I had not been told going into it that it was a vampire movie, I would not have known until like an hour into the experience. Initially when they showed the vampire for the first time, I thought it was silly, but it grew on me, just like the army of vampires grew. They even used traditional vampire rules like their inability to be out in the sunlight, that they need to be stabbed in the chest with wood, and that they must be invited in to a house, they cannot just enter. The knowledge of the last part I felt worked comedically in the movie, but only if you know the rule, but they ended up explaining it anyways. Also the final battle scene was incredible. It was a very cinematic moment, when the lady invited all of the vampires in, and the two forces were standing facing each other before starting the brawl.

            There were two key themes to the movie the importance of freedom and what people put their faith in, which play hand in hand with one another. Being black in the Jim Crow south meant that they were lacking many rights, so their freedom was restricted. The north was looked upon as a freer place, but when the brothers returned from Chicago, they shared that this was not the case. Also I am sure it is no coincidence that the first few vampires were white and that they came out to prey on the black people in the juke joint.

            When it comes to faith, there is the very obvious mention of the preacher as Sammi’s father, but also the vampires kept asking for their faith, that they could allow them to live forever and that they just wanted peace and happiness. A promise of eternal happiness, not too different from the one that Christianity promises, but this one was packaged behind red demonic eyes, but it did become more alluring for characters when their loved ones were turned into vampires. There was also the faith that there is a better place out there. Many people had heard that the north was a better place, so they had faith in that, but the twins also told another story of faith. They told of a town that was run only by black people, and they told Sammi that if he were to go somewhere that that is the only place that he should go. So constantly in this story, people were telling Sammi where to go and what he should be doing, but at the end of the day, it was his choice to make, and that is the way it is for everyone, you have to decide what you place your faith in and you have to fight for your own freedom.

            When I got to the theater, there was no one at the ticket scanning counter, so I got in line at the concession stand to have the guy scan my ticket, which is not unusual, but the guy in front of me was older, and despite having Regal unlimited, he still waited to buy his ticket at the counter, which is a crazy waste of time, and he said he had a free popcorn and drink, but it did not show up on his thing, so they had a whole conversation about then, then the guy told him his unlimited pass was about to expire, so they had a conversation about that, and none of that would have been a big deal, except for by the time I had my ticket scanned and got into the theater, the movie had started. Now, I think it had only been a few seconds, but it bothers me so much even if I miss a few seconds, and the bigger problem is the inconsistent amount of previews, it had been so consistently 25 to 30 minutes of previews, and for some reason on this movie that has had a lot of press they decided to only do 20 minutes of previews. That is crazy, and it is unfair of them to change the number of previews they show. Like that should be consistent. There were two more people that came in late on my row too. I digress.

            Overall, this was a great movie. It was super intense at times, the story was compelling, and the music was great. It was filmed for IMAX, and it should be seen there. Ryan Coogler has shown that he is a very talented director, and hopefully he will continue to chase new and interesting stories like this. It is not only great for fans of vampire movies, but it is also great for those that love music. I highly recommend going and seeing it. Michael B. Jordan was incredible in it, and he had to play two roles, that is no easy feat, and the others acted so well too. 4 Stars!