Ryan Coogler’s Sinners is a genre-bending period piece. With a diverse musical soundtrack, a racially charged narrative, and vampires, the film promises a complex story. Coogler borrows from different genres, making this two-hour Western a worthwhile experience.
Why the vampires? Vampires have been circling the media for years, being adapted into TV series such as The Vampire Diaries and True Blood. What these shows have in common is their racial theme—though they both do a poor job at it, presenting the vampires as retired confederate soldiers. Twilight is notorious for its weak attempt at paying homage to the Native American community in Washington. Interview With The Vampire is possibly the closest thing to handling racial themes as eloquently as Sinners did.
But why make the antagonist an Irish vampire specifically? Sinners offers the viewer a history lesson, reminding us of Irish and Black oppression. As well as the relation to both of these communities, due to the Irish immigration waves of the mid-1800s.
Sinners
It’s 1932, and gangster twins Smoke and Stack, played by Michael B. Jordan, return to their hometown. When they plan to hold a juke joint that night, they ask their cousin Sammie (Miles Caton), a blues guitarist, to play at the party. We know that Sammie’s preacher father disapproves of blues music, which he perceives as ‘the devil’s music.’ Fans have speculated that Sammie was modelled after the legendary blues musician Robert Johnson, who allegedly sold his soul to the Devil.
The film hones in on Christian themes in the South, starkly contrasting Annie’s character (Wunmi Mosaku) and her Hoodoo practices. And Coogler doesn’t stray away from highlighting other marginalised communities. The couple Bo (Yao) and Grace (Li Jun Li), for example, represent the Chinese laborers in African American neighborhoods at the time. The two Choctaw characters, assumed to be vampire hunters, are shown at the start when Remmick the vampire is introduced, but are never shown again.
When Sammie plays his music at the party, he calls on his ancestors, highlighting how his music transcends decades. Remmick hears this from afar, feeling drawn to Sammie’s supernatural talent. Remmick believes Sammie’s music can bring him closer to his Irish ancestors. Coogler’s vampires are eerie creatures of the night, but not demonic, contrary to the Christian beliefs of some characters in the film. With their counterclockwise dance in an attempt to lure the others outside, they almost have a Fae quality to them. Ultimately, Annie’s Hoodoo and Sammie’s guitar save the day.
Irish Solidarity
We first meet Remmick when he stumbles upon a white KKK couple, whom he turns into vampires. To convince the Smokestack twins to let them inside their party, the vampires play “Pick Poor Robin Clean,” a track originally sung by African American blues singer Geeshie Wiley. The song choice makes sense, highlighting Remmick’s efforts to appease black culture. It also references the well-known trope that vampires need permission to enter a home.
Remmick reveals his Irish origins through the traditional folk song Rocky Road To Dublin in the iconic Irish gig scene. But the dance not only creates a haunting atmosphere but also reflects Remmick’s cultural pride. The circular nature of the dance is a nod to the Irish folklore belief of ‘fairy rings,’ which are formed by the natural growth of mushrooms found in forests.
Remmick’s intrigue with Sammie’s music reflects his desire to connect with his own Irish ancestors. Remmick is a centuries-old vampire, meaning he experienced Britain’s 700-year-old oppression. Contrary to the white supremacist characters in the film, Remmick presents himself under the guise of peace and understanding. But in the end, he is just a cultural appropriator.
In one of the film’s last scenes, Remmick hovers over Sammie, dunking him into water as Sammie starts praying. Coogler films O’Connell in dark lighting, capturing Remmick’s glowing red eyes, an inharmonic, haunting score playing in the background. This scene almost plays out as a baptism scene, except Remmick reminds Sammie that Christianity is an imposed religion, another effect of colonisation. And though Remmick promises these Black characters freedom through vampirism, he fails to realise that his non-consensual actions are similar to those of his oppressors.
Interview With The Vampire
Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles has had several film adaptations, including the ongoing AMC TV series. Among the many changes in the show is Louis and Claudia’s race. Louis (Jacob Anderson), a black, closeted gay man in Jim Crow-era New Orleans, adds an extra layer of complexity to the story, as opposed to book Louis, a white plantation owner of the 18th century—an outdated, problematic protagonist.
The period change, especially, is significant here. Throughout the seasons, the series takes place from 1910 in New Orleans and 1940s Europe, during the Second World War, and of course, the 2020s. In the first season, Lestat (Sam Reid) promises Louis that vampirism would cure his mortal suffering—a way to opt him out of racism and homophobia, which were prominent issues in segregated America.
The series takes Anne Rice’s homo-erotic undertones and elevates the relationship between Louis and Lestat. But despite their shared vampirism– and love–, Louis remains affected by the disadvantages of his race, creating a shift between the two. The series becomes a gothic soap opera when they adopt Claudia (Bailey Bass), a young girl turned baby vampire. Much like Louis, she experiences an identity crisis due to her immortality and prejudices against her race. In season two, the gritty post-World War setting sets the tone for the season, where Louis is haunted by the ghost of Lestat, his paramour.
Armand’s (Assad Zaman) character, whom we briefly meet in the first season, becomes more prominent this season. His ethnicity is changed to South Asian descent compared to his Slavic origins in the novel. We see him practising Muslim prayers in the first season. Armand’s religion and cultural identity play a significant part in his characterization, especially when it’s revealed that his history centers around colonization. The race swap decisions of the story complicate the vampire tale, creating a new genre: vampires’ post-colonialism.
Vampires Post Colonialism
If you’re familiar with the vampire genre, you’d know many things Sinners got right about vampire lore. But in Ryan Coogler’s words, Sinners is more than just a vampire film. Compared to Interview With The Vampire, where vampirism is the core– and race is just an added layer–, Black history is the heart of Sinners. It’s comparable to Lovecraft Country, a series about a young black man surviving 1950s white America amidst a world of monsters. (No vampires, though.)
But what is so similar about Interview With The Vampire and Sinners is the period. The supernatural elements within this post-colonialism context add a layer of horror. Not to mention, watching these marginalized characters be represented as vampires offers a new perspective. It falls into an uncommon trope seen in vampire media, as vampires are usually represented as pale white.
In comparison, the vampires in Sinners are portrayed as the terrifying nocturnal creatures that they are, unlike the humanized, messy version we see in Interview With The Vampire. Nonetheless, both stories offer a racially and politically charged narrative that explores the dark parts of history and cultural identity. While other vampire media have grazed the surface of these topics, Sinners delves deeper.
