Sinners (2025)

 Sinners blends a heart-rending historical drama with the thrills and spectacle of a horror flick. The movie begins after the climax as Sammie (our lead protagonist) is confronted by his father to repent his sinful ways. As he contemplates this, we see glimpses of what's in store for him through the briefest of flashbacks. This acts as a promise of the violent horrors to come before going back in time 24 hours and taking the audience on a (mostly) peaceful journey across the Mississippi Delta. The cast is introduced slowly, and a lot of time is given to exploring the cast and their relationships to one another. The plot is simple to the point of only being an excuse to bring these characters together.

This works because the real conflicts in the first half of the movie are all interpersonal. We see grief and heartbreak but also hope and joy as we get to know all the members of this family. We're also introduced to Remmick, an ancient Gaelic vampire who turns a racist couple. It is a strange experience to be grounded and immersed in the lives of the characters for over an hour before watching them be stalked and taunted by very campy, almost theatrical vampires in a rapid genre shift. Remmick's appearance in the story is directly caused by Sammie, whose music is so true and soulful that it can summon ancestors and descendants alike, uniting familial spirits across time. The scene which demonstrates this was bold and provocative, carried by a truly beautiful song. This power is desired by Remmick, in a not-so-subtle metaphor for cultural appropriation. However, the wrinkle that elevates this plot is Remmick's origin. He and his people were victims at the hands of colonizers, the same as Sammie and the rest of the cast. At the climax, he tells Sammie that the English used the same prayers and religious language to justify his oppression, just as they did for black Americans. It is at this point that we realize that Remmick is perpetuating exactly the kind of oppression that was done to him. He kills people to free them from their ways, promising they will be united as a family after death - just like a colonial missionary might say. For Remmick however, his motivations are more human; he simply doesn't want to be alone. He feels outcast and forgotten and seeks to build his own family of outcasts through murder. Making the antagonist share motivations with the protagonists (they both seek the company and comfort of family) is incredibly compelling, so much more so than if Remmick were another typical racist or nebulous force of evil.

This also ties into themes of freedom. Sammie expresses a desire to be free early on in the film. Free to travel and play his music without being bothered by racists or constrained by their laws; to have his soul totally untethered. Remmick in turn offers a kind of freedom in the form of immortality and makes a genuinely good case for how enticing it would be. He and his victims happily dance and sing and are psychically linked like a sort of hive mind. It's a false freedom however, as it costs you your soul, severing your connection to your ancestors and erasing your descendants. At this point we've found our way back to the cultural appropriation allegory, in which the protagonists are literally fighting for their souls from powerful people who wish to use them. This is why towards the end of the film, Sammie rejects his father's pleas to repent. Suddenly now the language he uses sounds like that of Remmick: lofty promises of soul-stifling false-freedom. In the end Sammie chooses to hold on to his soul, because that is the gateway to the purest freedom there is.

Spensers stamp of approval!