By Ezae Darby
Sinners. It is almost impossible for one to go on social media nowadays and not hear about the culturally-impactful that is sweeping the nation. Directed by Ryan Coogler, who is best known for his large success with the films “Black Panther” and “Fruitvale Station”, Sinners proves to be yet another graceful addition to his resume. “Sinners” is a movie symbolizing the African-American struggle by approaching it as a horror film.
Let’s first explore the historical context of this film. The movie takes place in 1930s Mississippi, where some African-Americans in the film are sharecroppers with the rest being free, but financially burdened. Warning: The following content in this article contains spoilers.
The audience is first introduced to twin brothers, Stack & Smoke. It is revealed that they have returned home after some time spent in Chicago, and have returned to Mississippi to purchase a sawmill, which they intend to turn into a juke joint. The twins immediately notice blood on the floor of the mill and question the owner about it, who reassures them that it is no issue.
Touching back on the mention of the twins coming from Chicago, the historical significance is major as this was a period known as the “Great Migration”, in which the African American population in Illinois increased by 81% from 1920-1930.
Later in the movie, it is revealed that the White-Supremacist Group, Ku Klux Klan (KKK), is still active and they intended to kill all the African Americans who went to the grand opening of the Juke Joint, which they ultimately fail in doing at the end of the film.
This mirrors the time period of the Great Depression in the 1930s, in which the Klan’s membership dropped and was believed to have been temporarily disbanded, which is also mentioned in the film.
The KKK represent not only the villains in the film, but also mirror the history of America, which is rooted in colonialism. Colonialism destroyed and stole many different ethnic cultures over the course of centuries, which is mirrored in the film as the KKK intends to steal the land owned by the twins and the vampires stealing the bodies of African Americans in the film.
Similar to how history has played out in mainstream media, with many black artists being exploited by big record labels and companies, the vampires’ big goal during the film was to steal Sammie’s body, in particular to utilize his musical abilities.
Also, the twins, who are notoriously known in the movie by the townsfolk as troublemakers, mention that they left to go to Chicago for business-related reasons. However, through the brothers’ interactions with one another, it is revealed that they worked with gangsters in Chicago, with one townsfolk mentioning rumors of their involvement with American gangster Al Capone.
Let’s take a look at Sammie, the main character of the film. He is first introduced at the beginning as “church boy,” being that his father is a pastor of an African American church in their neighborhood. Unfortunately for our main character, his father is very much against his son playing the guitar, saying that it goes hand-in-hand with aiding the Devil. This causes Sammie to leave the church at the beginning of the film to head off with his two cousins, the twins, to play his guitar on the opening night of their juke joint.
At the end of the film, following the aftermath of the group’s night of survival with the vampires, Sammie returns to the church, scarred and bloodied. This duality of the church serving as both a haven and a place of condemnation is very interesting and poses an emotional dilemma for our main character.
Shortly after joining his cousins, the group encounters a deadly snake on their way to set up for their opening event. Sammie is hesitant to engage with the snake, but Smoke quickly puts down the lizard with a blade that his brother tosses to him.
The snake and Sammie’s paralyzation when encountering it, is a callback to the biblical story of Adam and Eve. In this story, the woman, Eve, is tempted by a snake to give in to her desires and bite into an apple. This ultimately led to Adam and Eve being kicked out of the garden of Eden, which was a beautiful paradise.
In that same breath, Sammie is tempted by his desires to play the guitar and ultimately gives into playing it, despite the evils that his father warns that playing music brings. This duality of evil being in everything that humans do is touched upon again later in the film, during the juke joints opening event.
During this event, Sammie plays his guitar and sings the blues along with it. In doing so, a gateway of sorts is opened between time and his ancestors, from past and future, to join in the celebration along with the people there. This included MCs (rappers who controlled the atmosphere of a party) from the 1990s, a group of dancers twerking from the modern-day era, and even African people performing the Zaouli dance, a tradition that pays homage to feminine beauty, which is believed to be more than 200 years old. It is practiced by the Guro communities in Yamoussoukro, a city in West Africa, even today.
To conclude, there are some other important aspects of the film that should be taken into consideration, one of those being the mention and practice of Hoodoo. Annie, who is Smoke’s love interest in the film, practices hoodoo in the film in order to aid the group in surviving the night with the vampires.
Hoodoo is a real form of African ritualism that follows traditions of spiritual healing, ancestral devotion, and protection. It is also believed to still be practiced in modern-day Louisiana.
Voodoo, which sounds almost the same, is a creolized religion that is practiced in Haiti and hails from practices by tribal religions in West Africa. Both originated from a combination of traditional West African traditions along with Native American practices, European folklore and magick practices.
Sinners is undoubtedly a film for the ages. Coogler’s recollection of African-American history, alongside the added supernatural elements, makes this movie one of the most distinctive projects to grace the genre thus far.