Sinners

I am so glad I managed to see this at the cinema holy fuck. Literal chills up my spine when that one sequence (you know which one) started and the diffferent kinds of music synchronized and moved through the speakers. The camera choreography was everything. Costumes were on point, accents, too, and the acting made me really believe that the characters were real. The film took longer to set up the main action than I thought it would, but the pay off was so worth it.  While I usually find the old vampire myths like the garlic and stakes and the whole “let me in” shtick cheesy (in a good way) it really packed a punch when the vampires were weak to all these things but gave fuck all about prayers and crosses. It grounded the fantastical in the reality of the matter: which is that God wont save you from the horrors he himself helped create. Sin, corruption, colonialism, slavery, you name it. Christians have pillaged, killed and raped in the name of God. Christians have ripped the people from their land and the culture from the people in the name of God. But that doesn’t mean that the pillaged and enslaved cannot find comfort in God. Religion is very prevalent in this film considering that the main character Sammie is a preacher’s son, but it is chockful with less obvious symbolism. Smoke killing the serpent of temptation, Sammie eating the forbidden fruit (pussy), the Cain and Abel conundrum that the Smokestack twins go through, and Sammie’s baptism before sunrise.  Vampirism in on itself is grounded in biblical symbolism. The blood drinking is communion, you rise from the dead like Jesus Christ. The vampire which made you becomes your Maker, and God becomes obsolete. The vampires are knocking on your door like missionares, sweet-talking you to let them in beyond the threshold so they can make you one of them— and in contrast to Jehovah’s witnesses they actually have some great talking points. If you think about it, this film is a story about loss of faith.  That mid-credits scene were one of few I’ve seen which actually mattered. It really mattered to me that Sammie didn’t give up music. While his music’s soulfulness lured the vampires to the juke joint, giving up on this one joy in his life was never the answer. Becoming a church mouse like his father was never the answer. As cliche as it may sound, it was the music which set him free. It was a source of comfort and empowerment during the Jim Crow era in the South, and succumbing to Protestantism out of fear from what he witnessed that fateful night would only strip this power from him. Anyway. Loved this movie. If you like sexy vampires, music, the kkk being slaughtered, and oral then you’ll also love this movie.