Starring: Michael B. Jordan, Hailee Steinfeld, Miles Caton, and Jack O’Connell
Directed by Ryan Coogler
Rated R
Streaming HBO Max
First Impression: Director Ryan Coogler (whose prior work includes the “Black Panther” superhero films) has made a genre-bending epic horror triumph. This could have been a typical run-of-the-mill vampire romp, but Coogler took time and paid attention with the script and the characters to deliver one of the most memorable and must-see movies of the year.
When you think about the typical vampire film, you have a lot of highs and lows—from completely terrifying, like “Salem’s Lot” and “30 Days of Night,” to campy and fun like “The Lost Boys” and “Fright Night,” to the downright embarrassing “Twilight Saga” series. But all these films follow the usual principles and rules of the vampire myth and lore, where Count Dracula lives in his mountainous castle in a region of eastern Europe, commonly Romania and the region of Transylvania, where he sleeps in a coffin and drinks the blood of his unsuspecting victims.
Now while this is good fun, it’s all for a lack of a better word: baloney. The modern version of Count Dracula was a complete fiction cooked up by Irish writer Bram Stoker. The real Dracula was named Vlad Dracul; he was from Romania and lived in the 1400s. He loved to impale people and was admired by Pope Pius II for his military achievements. He was raised in the court of the Ottoman Empire. (Quick aside: there is a great miniseries on Netflix called “Rise of Empires: Ottoman” where we see the real Vlad Dracula battle Sultan Mehmed II).
Why is “Sinners” such a breath of fresh air in the vampire canon? Because director Ryan Coogler has given us something totally original and thought-provoking—a film that touches on race relations, criminal syndicates, religious belief, and the birth of blues music set in the Jim Crow Mississippi Delta region.
Coogler employs the talented Michael B. Jordan in a dual role as twins named Smoke and Stack who have returned home to Mississippi with the intention of opening up a juke joint after being away for years in Chicago. Along the way, the twins take with them their cousin Sammie (Caton), an exceptionally talented blues singer and guitar player but Sammie is conflicted playing blues music because his father is a preacher who condemns the blues and its lifestyle.
In the first half of the film, Coogler is patient and doesn’t try to spring the vampire part of the film too early. We see both Smoke and Stack visit old friends and acquaintances, one of whom is Mary (Steinfeld), who Stack had an intimate relationship with before he left town. Mary is an interesting character because she is of mixed race and treated differently by both black and white characters in the film.
After the crew is assembled and we are introduced to everyone, Coogler brilliantly springs the vampire antagonist, Remmick (O’Connell), an Irish outsider (an ode to Bram Stoker) on us. He literally comes out of nowhere and begs an unsuspecting couple to let him into their house, as he tells them he’s being hunted. Remmick later turns these two people into vampires and the three of them make their way to Smoke and Stack’s juke joint, where chaos ensues.
“Sinners” will make you want to watch it again and again, picking up smaller details that you may have missed on the first viewing. It’s a rare vampire treat that’s fun and thought-provoking at the same time.
