Sinners is a movie based on Black history, Irish history, and the myth of vampires. It even shows the roots of Hoodoo from the Mississippi and Arkansas Deltas. Some people might be aware that Voodoo is a religion based closed practice with West African spiritual notes. Hoodoo is also an African closed practice, but is not religion-based. The movie takes place in Stack and Smoke’s hometown Clarksdale, Mississippi, circa 1930s. Stack and Smoke are twins related to the main character, Sammie.
This movie represents the in-between of slavery and freed people, the Klan, and how the Irish were also discriminated against. It starts off with an opening of Sammie holding his broken guitar, his face cut up, and his clothes ripped. Later in the movie, we find out why Sammie has those cuts, which also represent Nigerian Tribal scars.
Remmick, the Irish Vampire, is against racism and shows equality, but he fails to realize he’s becoming what he is against, a colonizer. You see this in the movie as he gets asked if he’s a part of the Klan, which he denies. But later, he preaches on how if you become a vampire, you’ll be saved and live a better life, ultimately symbolizing colonization by requiring everyone to become what he is.
Mary, who is in a distant relationship with Stack, is a white passing woman with black ancestors. We see this representation as Stack wants Mary to marry a white man for a better life, but she really just wants Stack. When she shows up to the Juke, a Blues house the Smokestack twins own, we see people call her family. Thus, they let her into the Juke regardless of how she looks. Mary’s character during this era, would have been more accepted by people of color than many white people. Sammie’s friends and family were more her family than what she passed as.
Near the end, Remmick threatens to come for the daughter of Grace, a Chinese family friend and businesswoman. Grace ultimately tells them to, “Come in.” The grant they needed to come in the Juke. She does this because the vampires physically cannot go in unless invited in. The people within the Juke and the vampires fight, ending with several deaths of the vampires and civilians. Sammie, in the end, is alone with Remmick in the pond near the Juke. He starts praying, and as he does, Remmick repeats the same prayer back. Remmick tells Sammie that his father and people were killed as that said prayer was getting repeated to the Irish. This symbolizes how religion can’t always save you, and it can kill you in some instances.
Sammie begins to lose the fight with Remmick, but last minute, he swings the guitar at Remmick’s head. The metal part of the guitar is stuck in Remmick’s head. Being a vampire, Remmick can’t touch metal. This slows him down and burns him slightly. Sunrise begins, and Remmick finally burns away. In this way, “Music” saved Sammie, not Religion, which is a main point of the movie.
