There’s little that gets me more excited in this world than a horror film that nobody seems to be able to stop talking about.
And that is exactly what Sinners, Ryan Coogler’s historical vampire movie, has done – you can’t turn around for people praising it, dissecting it, marvelling at just how much money it’s made, the lot. Following twins Smoke and Stack (both played by Michael B Jordan) as they return to their Mississippi roots to start a nightclub, they soon run into trouble in the form of Remmick (Jack O’Connell), not to mention some connections from their troubled pasts.
Music thrums at the heart of Sinners, both on screen and off. The whole film feels like it’s moving to the rhythm of inevitability, from the strike of a match to the sound of footsteps to the various musical styles that wind through the film. There’s a constant sense of forward momentum, bringing us towards the fateful night at the heart of the film – but, honestly, it’s what the movie does before the real horror starts that really sets it apart. In particular, in the movie’s central sequence, a time-hopping, genre-bending song and dance number seeped in the supernatural power of art and its ability to reach through cultures and generations, a scene that almost feels too artistically bold for a movie that’s become as much of a blockbuster as this. Perhaps it would have felt too abstract in different hands, but what Coogler does with it here is downright sublime.
Because Ryan Coogler is confident here – confident enough here to really take his time building these characters and this community before we get to the scary stuff, supplemented by a superb ensemble cast to boot. Michael B Jordan forces you to forget about the gimmick of the two-handed leading roles by developing them both into such rich characters with such ease – both Smoke and Stack are given time to breathe as their own characters and as two halves of a whole, their pockmarked backstory unravelled through meticulous dialogue. Miles Caton delivers a quite extraordinary debut as Sammie, while stalwarts like Delroy Lindo have no trouble bringing their supporting roles to life. For me, the standout was Wunmi Mosaku (and not just because I never got over His House, though that’s part of it), a magnetic screen presence with searingly-great chemistry with one of Jordan’s brothers.
But the scary stuff, when it turns up, is sincerely worth the wait. Mainly, and let’s be real, because of Jack O’Connell – I’ve been obsessed with him since Skins, and he can give charismatic villain like almost nobody else out there. He finds a perfect balance between the seductive and the sharp-edged – and, God, it’s good to see some genuinely spooky vampire designs for a change, you know?
There are certain tropes of the vampire genre which have been done to death, but Coogler finds a fascinating approach that weaves in the oppressive structures present in this part of the world at the time – what the vampires here represent is a sinister promise of assimilation, of taking and consuming stories and memories of these communities. Yes, there’s the straight-up obvious symbols of racism here like the KKK, but this more subtle approach really worked for me – alluring but destructive in its own way.
Sinners is a movie utterly deserving of every ounce of hype around it – ambitious, stylish, and muscular, it delivers on character and setting as much as it does be-fanged spookery. I would love to hear your take on the film below – hop into the comments with your interpretations, takes, and favourite moments!
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By Lou MacGregor
(header image via IMDB)
No But Listen 