Sinners by Ryan Coogler brings new twists to the vampire horror genre that audiences have been seeing for decades. Through its unique take on identity, music, and brotherhood, the movie brings an entirely new perspective to supernatural plots that have become common in recent films. The story takes place in the 1930s and follows twin brothers Smoke and Stack, both played by Michael B. Jordan. The two brothers return to their hometown of Mississippi in the Jim Crow South in hopes of creating a new life for themselves, and leave their troubled past behind. They planned to create a juke joint, a place where people could enjoy good food, music, and company to leave behind their worries. However, as people of color, Smoke, Stack, and their community face trouble with white citizens who constantly threaten to harm them. The first half of the movie introduces the characters, the racism they face, and the Juke Joint where the twins are faced with supernatural danger: flesh-eating vampires who tear not only through hearts but also familial bonds.
The movie’s historical Southern background, blues music, and use of vampires combine to create an amazing experience for the audience. Sinners draws parallels between humans and vampires, describing them as two sides of the same coin. Both vampires and humans face similar struggles that make them question their identity. Sinners doesn’t use vampires as a simple audience scare as seen in most horror films, but rather as a way to incorporate issues of survival and power into the movie. Sinners introduces blood as more than a gory source of horror, using it to show just how much families have to sacrifice for each other. This is easily seen in the bonds that Stack and Smoke have with their community, despite not all being blood-related.
The deliberate choice to use heavily African-American-influenced music, particularly the blues songs in the movie, serves to remind the two brothers and their community of their identity as they are faced with racism and supernatural forces of evil. By connecting supernatural horror to racism and injustices in real life, the film suggests that monsters are not the only “sinners,” but also in the oppressive systems that exist in our world.
In the end, Sinners is a film that succeeded in transforming the cliche vampire genre into something more relatable and human. The choice to blend supernatural horror with real-life issues allows it to be relatable, making it stand out from conventional vampire plots. Although the beginning of the movie may seem slow for some, it is worth sitting through for the majority of the movie. Sinners is a film that stays with the audience like a bite from a vampire: personal, piercing, and impossible to forget.
