In his most significant work, “Das Kapital”, Karl Marx described capital as “dead labour which, vampire-like, lives only by sucking living labour, and lives the more, the more labour it sucks.”
Fan or no of the bearded revolutionary socialist, his use of language reflects a dimension to vampires we rarely get to see on screen.
The mythical creature has been used countless times as the metaphorical embodiment of desire, puberty, drug addiction – even dehumanizing work culture in the underseen 2015 horror-comedy Bloodsucking Bastards, starring Pedro Pascal – but rarely as a political parable.
Now, Ryan Coogler (Fruitvale Station, Creed, Marvel’s Black Panther movies – and hopefully a new iteration of The X Files) brings us vampires as colonialist bloodsuckers with appropriation on the mind.
Sorry, fangs.
Set in Jim Crow Deep South, Sinners stars Coogler’s lucky charm Michael B. Jordan, who plays twin brothers Smoke and Stack. They’ve been through war and return home to rural Mississippi after a stint hustling for Al Capone in Chicago. They buy a piece of land with an old sawmill from a rumoured Klansman, intent on opening a juke joint. For the opening night, they enlist the talents of their young cousin ‘Preacher Boy’ Sammie (newcomer Miles Caton), who is already a gifted bluesman.
Once they’ve recruited liquor fiend and musician Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo), grocery store owner Grace (Li Jun Li), affable bouncer Cornbread (Omar Benson Miller) and Smoke’s ex Annie (Wunmi Mosaku), a cook and – rather handily – voodoo priestess, the “real ring-a-ding-ding” can get going.
Things get tense when Mary (Hailee Steinfeld) shows up. Stack’s former squeeze is welcomed by the community, but as a white woman, there are fears that her presence could cause trouble. Especially when three white strangers led by Remmick (Jack O’Connell) come a’knockin…
Let them in and the communal space could be jeopardized. Refuse them entry and word could spread to the KKK.
Turns out that the Klan are the least of Smoke and Stack’s worries… The first defense against the undead may be rejecting entry, but as the opening voiceover foretells, cultures throughout history have written legends about those with the gift of music so true that it can conjure spirits from the past and the future. The baby-faced Sammie has that gift – and evil forces are interested…
Coogler takes his sweet time to get to the survival horror – and necessarily so. He lays the groundwork and conjures a seductive mood, making the multifaceted second half of the film all the more potent.
In this respect, Sinners is unavoidably similar in its construction (and in the presence of two gangster brothers) to another vampire joint – Robert Rodriguez’s From Dusk Till Dawn. However, both films may be paced similarly and end up in a club setting, but the intentions are very different.
Sinners is first and foremost a film about music, specifically the blues. By establishing it as a sort of magical conduit between worlds but also across time, Coogler shows that blues music is not only a precious connection to the past and a reminder of post-slavery resilience but also a future refuge that can be exploited. In one virtuoso sequence, the director literalizes the power of music as a connecting ritual through visual and auditory anachronism; it’s an extended sequence destined to be one of 2025’s most spellbinding and memorable shots.
The deliberately odd pacing allows Coogler to seamlessly intertwine the history of America with the mythology of blues music and vampire lore, to create something layered and truly exciting. Without showing us or directly referring to Robert Johnson selling his soul to the Devil, these are the stakes. So to speak. Under the guise of integrationism, vampires want the soul of a culture. Like many white artists across history, they are cultural disseminators and homogenizers.
As Slim says at one point: “See, white folks, they like the blues just fine. They just don’t like the people who make it.”
The parasitic relationship seen here through a barrier between planes comments on racial structures – and not just in the US. Those who dismiss and dehumanize others often yearn for their culture and appropriate it. Coogler shows this still timely social observation through both literal and metaphorical bloodsucking, and he does it with brio.
For all its allegorical layers, of which there are many, Sinners doesn’t forget to be a damn entertaining time at the talkies. Somehow, its allegorical strata collide and complement in a thrilling film that benefits from Michael B. Jordan’s work as the slicker Stack and the more soulful Smoke. And man alive, can that man wear a suit.
Out of the three Warner Bros. films recently released that feature a big-name actor playing twins (Robert Pattinson in the excellent Mickey 17 and Robert De Niro in the much-less exciting The Alto Knights), Jordan sits on the top spot of the podium. That said, let’s not continue making this a thing, Warner… A-listers playing opposite themselves is fun, but someone somewhere in the building has a twin fetish that needs to be kept in check.
As for Delroy Lindo, he steals every scene he’s in, while Miles Caton is a star in the making – hopefully one we’ll be seeing again sooner than another twin-centric project.
The cast’s work is bolstered by stunning work from cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw, Ludwig Göransson and his entrancing score, and editor Michael P. Shawver. The latter deserves singling out, as Sinners is a true masterclass in editing. The numerous extended sequences mirror bluesy rhythm and up the tension, while certain quick cuts not only elevate the horror but bolster some of the humour throughout.
What prevents Sinners from being a complete knockout is one mild bum note: the climactic showdown. After having carefully set the stage, nailed the crescendo, and even hat-tipped to John Carpenter’s The Thing with a garlic-munching circle of trust, the final confrontation between the survivors and the horde of sanguinary bastards feels a smidge rushed.
But then again, that may be a case of not wanting Sinners to end.
Speaking of which, woe betide the cinemagoers who don’t sit through the credits.
Firstly: filthy heathens.
Secondly: Coogler delivers two final surprises in the form of post-credit scenes.
Granted, these are usually a complete waste of time or a cheap stinger announcing yet another Marvel multiverse about to be discovered. However, Sinners’ first mid-credit epilogue is vital, as it is a hugely satisfying and emotional scene that features a terrific cameo from a real blues legend. It ties together the narrative and its ambitions, and is the film’s true ending.
The second is another excuse to showcase Caton’s singing talents, and you can never have too much of that.
Only once you’ve actually finished the film with these two epilogues will you be able to appreciate the daring and fascinating take on classic vampire lore Coogler has achieved. He’s not only politicised vampires; he’s also made one of the best films of the year so far.
Sinners is out in cinemas now.
