How The Movie ‘Sinners’ Subverts Christianity In Vampire Mythology
(REVIEW) Evil vampires are having a heavy resurgence lately. Sympathetic and antihero vampires dominated the 1990s and early 2000s with “Bram Stoker’s Dracula,” “Twilight” and “True Blood.”
While each embraced the status of a virtuous outsider, modern vampire movies have returned to the paranoia of being corrupted by the seductive “other” – whether that’s the aristocratic foreign pagan (“Nosferatu”), small town conformity (“Salem’s Lot”) or racism, which is the topic of “Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners.”
“Sinners” follows two brothers (played both by Michael B. Jordan) trying to leave a troubled past behind by opening a juke joint for the Black community within their hometown, alongside their cousin Sammy (newcomer Miles Caton). But while they’re told the threat of racism isn’t what it was in town, a new, more vampiric horror waits to destroy what they’ve built as well.
I’ve always said that Coogler has never made a bad movie – from “Fruitvale Station” to “Black Panther” to “Creed” – and his strengths are on display here. Coogler knows how to check the boxes of good storytelling while creating energy in his execution, from the characters, to the dialogue, to the camera and the editing. The film’s most powerful and creative moments are where he combines the music and dancing to a time-hopping spiritual experience that brings the scenes where it’s utilized to layered crescendo.
The main artistic flaw in “Sinners” is its predictability. The film fits snugly in the “don’t trust white people” genre of Black horror, where protagonists are punished for trusting friendly white people that harbor horrors that serve as metaphors for racism. These have become ubiquitous since “Get Out” to “The Front Room”, often mixed with the similar “don’t trust rich people” genre with films like “Blink Twice” and “Sorry to Bother You.” Even one with vampires, like “The Invitation,” use such storytelling devices. These movies can be good, although their uniquity and viciousness can encourage toxic “us versus them” stereotypes.
But while the best of these movies try to say something different or thoughtful with each incarnation, “Sinners” seems content to just check the boxes. It’s fairly easy to see which trope they’re going to move toward next, which makes the slow pace of getting there more tiresome than it should be. It picks up once the fighting starts, but even there, it doesn’t last as long or end up being as creative as it could. The rules also keep changing, where the vampires can’t come in without being invited until they can, and no vampire can be trusted until they can.
Where this movie is actually most interesting is how it handles religion. Traditionally in vampire stories, Christian beliefs and symbols are powerful forces against vampires, and some vague vision of Christian cosmology is affirmed. But “Sinners” inverts that. In this film, Christianity is either powerless or oppressive, and pagan spirituality is powerful and affirmed.
It’s the pagan spiritualist Annie (played by Wunmi Mosaku) who’s the wisest and knows the most about vampires. It’s the folklore weaknesses of vampires like garlic, sunlight and silver which are able to harm them (with only a quick mention of holy water), while crosses are never mentioned or used. And when Sammy says the Lord’s prayer, the other vampires join in, with the leader saying that the prayer gives him comfort. Likewise, Sammy’s father condemns Sammy’s music and the lifestyle of sex (including adultery) and drunkenness of the musician lifestyle Sammy wants. But Sammy’s happy ending involves him choosing that lifestyle over his father’s church.
This follows the recent trend in Hollywood films to portray the battle between good and evil not as secularism agaoinst faith, but rather pagan spirituality versus organized religion (specifically Christianity), whether it’s films such as “The Exorcism,” “The Front Room,” “Presence” or “Death of a Unicorn.”
This makes sense because organized faith is increasingly seen as conservative-coded, the refugees from religious environments overwhelmingly still believe in God and value faith, just not organized religion like Christianity. That's one reason why, as Dr. Anthony Bradley wrote in “Why Black Lives Matter,” the Black Lives Matter movement was the first American Black civil rights movement not to be based on Christianity.
This is unfortunate because data shows that organized religion is better for individuals and society than disorganized spirituality. Whether it’s mental health, building social bonds, fighting toxic masculinity, creating safety nets to avoid poverty or creating social change (just remember the Black church’s important role in pushing forward civil rights), there’s no doubt that the house of worship has more power than cloves of garlic to ward off the evils that plague us. But when our movies tell us differently, that’s often hard to see.
“Sinners” comes out in theaters this Friday.
Joseph Holmes is an award-nominated filmmaker and culture critic living in New York. He is co-host of the podcast “The Overthinkers” and its companion website theoverthinkersjournal.world, where he discusses art, culture and faith with his fellow overthinkers. His other work and contact info can be found at josephholmesstudios.com.