Mary (Hailee Steinfeld) in ‘Sinners’
Warner Bros.
Ryan Coogler’s Sinners is an incredible vampire film with a lot going on under the surface, and an ending that implies a larger story beyond the film.
Sinners sees twin brothers Smoke and Stack (Michael B. Jordan) attempting to escape their violent criminal history and return to their hometown in the Mississippi Delta to open a juke joint.
The twins can’t help drawing attention to themselves, firing bullets and handing out thick wads of cash, but it’s their younger cousin Sammie (Miles Caton) who attracts an unearthly danger.
Sammie is the son of a preacher and a gifted blues singer—his father wants him to give up the guitar and live a life of virtue, but Sammie’s ambitions are greater than the church.
Sammie’s father is right to be concerned, but wrong about the sinful nature of the blues—Sinners depicts musical talent as a divine blessing, a power that can pierce the veil between worlds, for good or for ill.
The vampires of Sinners initially seem like mindless, bloodthirsty maniacs, but it turns out, the creatures have an ear for good music.
These bloodsuckers operate using many of the old-fashioned, often forgotten vampire rules, like being repelled by garlic and needing permission to enter a building.
Sinners uses the “permission to enter” rule very effectively, not just for building tension, but as a reminder that evil must be welcomed in with open arms, before it can begin wreaking havoc on the innocent.
What Attracts The Vampires In ‘Sinners’?
Midway through the film, an incredible scene of Sammie playing to the crowd, his music moving through time and space, concludes with a horrific vision of the juke joint burning.
Sammie’s music has caught the attention of Remmick (Jack O’Connell) and his newly converted lackeys.
Remmick, the Irish vampire who started the local outbreak, is introduced to us on the verge of death, pursued by a group of Indigenous vampire hunters. The couple who encounter Remmick are members of the Klu Klux Klan, and find Remmick’s lies more convincing than the earnest warnings of the Indigenous hunters.
From the beginning, the vampires are associated with whiteness and colonialism, but they also represent the allure of money.
When the vampire trio show up at the juke joint, offering to play music and spend their coins, Smoke and Stack are rightly suspicious. The twins refuse them entry, fearing that any trouble might spark up racial tension and attract the attention of the Klan.
However, the twins are beginning to worry about the viability of their new business, having realized that many of their patrons don’t have access to real American dollars, and that their debts might soon catch up to them.
Having survived the battlefield and the criminal underworld, the twins are searching for freedom, and understand that money is the only real path to get there.
Hence, Mary (Hailee Steinfeld) and Stack reckon that it might be worth talking to the vampire trio, if the three really have the money they claim.
Remmick immediately shows Mary that he has solid gold coins, but Mary doesn’t survive the walk back to the juke joint.
After turning undead and hiding her bite wound, Mary easily gets permission to re-enter the building, and quickly seduces Stack, before murdering him and infecting him with the vampire curse.
Stack’s death ends the party and results in the crowd dispelling out into the car park, where they are quickly bitten and turned. From there, it’s a small group of humans versus the ever-growing hoard of vampires, as the arcane knowledge of Annie (Wunmi Mosaku) proves vital to survival.
While the vampires share a telekinetic link and an uncontrollable bloodlust, Annie clarifies that their souls are trapped inside their dead bodies, implying that they still retain much of their human character.
Remmick makes it clear that he doesn’t care about the majority of the survivors, only Sammie, as his musical talent is more valuable than any of the others’ souls.
What Happens At The End Of ‘Sinners’?
Michael B. Jordan and Miles Caton in ‘Sinners’
Warner Bros.
As the night wears on and the body count rises, Remmick and Sammie face off against one another, and Sammie says a prayer.
To his surprise, the vampires start singing Christian prayers in perfect synchronization, highlighting that the creatures exist in a space beyond human conceptions of divinity.
Remmick explains to Sammie that he remembers when Christianity was forced upon his people, but admits that the prayers still give him comfort.
This highlights how ancient Remmick really is, if he has memories of living in Ireland’s pagan era, but also the parallel between Irish colonization and the horrors of the slave trade.
Remmick’s people were once marginalized, even if he finds kinship with the Klan now, and he attempts to reason with Sammie, offering a kind of freedom in being undead, a freedom beyond race and class.
Notably, Remmick wants to pull Sammie’s music into his homogeneous blob of bloodsuckers, and likely use it to attract more innocents into the vampire circle. The parasitic nature of vampires, it seems, goes far beyond blood.
Sammie resists, using his guitar as a weapon, and at the very last minute, Smoke manages to come to the rescue, driving a wooden stake through Remmick’s heart.
The rest of the vampires succumb to the fatal light of the sunrise, but notably, two are missing—Mary and Stack.
Smoke sends Sammie home, choosing to stay on his property and fight a violent invasion from the Klan, ultimately finding peace in death.
Sammie reunites with his father, but despite his traumatic experience, chooses to pursue the blues instead of the Bible.
A vital mid-credits scene reveals what happens next.
What Happens In The ‘Sinners’ Mid-Credits Scene?
60 years later, Sammie is an established musician (now played by blues legend Buddy Guy), and has followed his passion as far as it can take him.
It is revealed that Stack and Mary have been living as vampires all this time, and haven’t aged a day. Stack reveals that Smoke spared his life, choosing not to stake him in exchange for Stack promising to leave Sammie alone.
Perhaps, in this world, vampires cannot break promises any more than they can enter spaces uninvited, but Stack also seems to be a big fan of Sammie’s music.
After hearing him play the blues, Stack offers to turn Sammie into an immortal vampire, but Sammie declines, reckoning that he’s “had enough of this place.”
Stack and Mary seem to have fully embraced their life as vampires, and have finally entered an era where mixed-race relationships have been fully accepted. However, Stack and Sammie reminisce on that fateful, bloody night at the juke joint, and both conclude that it was the greatest night of their lives.
Stack and Mary are bound to the night and their appetite, but have found a twisted kind of freedom in vampirism. Sammie rejected entering Remmick’s circle, and rejected the simplistic limitations of his father’s faith, finding freedom in pursuing his art.
Sinners suggests that the path to freedom is paved with compromises, and lets the audience decide which are worth making.
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