On the Movie Sinners and the Vicious Circle of Colonialism
I just got back from watching the movie Sinners with Vince.
First, I will say that my taste in horror movies is very specific. I’m a fan of movies that make you think, and a lot of horror movies just don’t have that weight to them. I’ve felt that way about a very few horror movies, such as Midsomer and possibly the first Smile movie. Smile 2 was terrible, and nothing you might have to say about it could convince me otherwise. I’m happy to have a really long conversation in which I point out to you all of the numerous ways in which that movie completely ruined the original, thought-provoking premise that Smile explored.
Back to Sinners… I wouldn’t even put it into the category of horror, but I supposed the marketing team had to pick some genre, and it’s not a psychological thriller. It’s not a drama. It’s not a period piece. At the same time, it’s kind of all of those things, and a whole lot more. I guess horror was as good a category as any.
Second, if you haven’t seen Sinners yet and don’t want spoilers, please close this browser window and hop onto your favorite platform and grab a ticket and go now! No, really, what are you waiting for? It deserves every dollar that it earns plus an Oscar nomination or five, and Ryan Coogler is a genius and an amazing storyteller.
Sinners is not only an atypical horror movie but also one of the best films that’s been made in years. I’m not a filmmaker, but I am a storyteller and an avid, critical reader in the speculative fiction genre, and in this movie, Coogler explores slavery, colonialism, and the idea of cultural assimilation with such artistry that I would think he was a nothing less than a reincarnation of the great Octavia E. Butler. Also, if you do go, make sure to stay all the way until the lights come up!
Like any great piece of speculative fiction, this movie infiltrated my soul. Before it was even over, my brain was whirring with the connections it was making. Sinners lingers. Its fangs aren’t just on the faces of its amazing actors. The trailer might make it seem like another slick, stylish vampire horror flick with moody lighting, fanged faces covered in gore, and a soundtrack with a blues guitar that steals your breath. All of these qualities are in Sinners, particularly the amazing music, but that’s just the Louis Vuitton suit on the meat of this movie. This movie is about colonialism. It’s about how hunger for power, desire to force assimilation, and the cyclical nature of colonialism that ripples through our history create generational echoes that linger… apparently even into one’s undeath.
Sinners deftly explores each of these themes through the vampire mythos and still manages to break your heart, make you smile wistfully, and give a sense of hope that maybe it is possible to break cycles of oppression.
One of the sharpest points the film makes is how victims of colonization often go on to perpetuate the same structures of domination. In Sinners, the siring vampire, Remmick, in one moment is explaining how he was the victim of colonization in Ireland and in the another breath states that he wants Sammie’s music and songs. It’s not just that this movie is about colonization and cultural appropriation. It’s even more specifically about the circular nature of it. One victim escaping to freedom turning around to enslave another, sometimes with chains and sometimes with lies about being part of something greater.
Vampires colonizing people by taking their bodies and enslaving their souls isn’t really the point. Colonization isn’t a vampire problem. It’s a human one. History is full of oppressed groups who, once given a taste of power, replicate the violence done to them, such as those people oppressed in Europe for their religious views who then came here to the “new world” and enslaved others to realize their dream of freedom. Sinners doesn’t flinch from that contradiction. It shows us what happens when trauma isn’t healed but inherited, ritualized, and weaponized. It also posits that it’s possible to break this cycle. It might require sacrifice and bravery and for people to choose to move past it, but it is possible.
Colonization isn’t just about taking up physical space, however, and Sinners is equally adept at discussing the physic damage of colonization, namely that many colonizing groups requiring assimilation of the subjugated while at the same appropriating the qualities that make that culture unique. There’s a seductive rhetoric to it in Sinners, as the vampires take great pains to try to convince the humans that they will be stronger, immortal, and share all of the collective knowledge of the “pack”. They try to convince Sammie, Smoke, and Annie that they’ll be part of something greater and that they’ll all belong. Remmick even talks about making the klansmen in the town vampires, and none of this horrible bigotry will be a problem anymore.
Sound familiar?
Colonial powers have always peddled a similar lie. We bring civilization. Our knowledge will enrich. You will be so much better off! In Sinners, the vampires sell transformation like a gift. But, again and again, haven’t we learned that the only ones truly thriving are the ones at the top. The rest of us are either feeding in the trenches or being fed upon.
Another subtle but chilling thread in Sinners is the idea that all the vampires are the same. All the uniqueness is stripped away from each individual, including their food, language (Remmick starts to speak Chinese after he consumes Bo), and particularly important to Sinners, their music. Remmick’s primary draw to this town in the first place was Sammie’s music. Remmick wants Sammie’s music and songs, but he wants them for himself. All the vampires sound the same when they sing. They sing the same song, play the same music, feel the same feelings, live the same way.
There is no freedom for the vampires, and that’s the lesson at the very end of the movie. When Stack and Mary find Sammie in his old age to offer him eternity, Sammie passes on the opportunity and poses the following question:
Sammie: You know something? Maybe once a week, I wake up paralyzed reliving that night. But before the sun went down, I think that was the best day of my life. Was it like that for you?
Stack: No doubt about it. Last time I seen my brother. Last time I seen the sun. And just for a few hours, we was free.
The last line of the movie is Stack admitting that his physical power, youth, and immortality don’t make him free. Was freedom humanity? Maybe. Maybe it was the ability to live life on his own terms instead of the ones imposed by Remmick.
Sinners doesn’t pretend that it has the cure for colonization, generational trauma, and the ripples it’s had through all of our lives—especially the lives of black people in America. It does, however, offer up a mirror. If you can see your reflection, you might just still be able to escape being a vampire. If you’re willing to look into it, you might see how you’re a cog in a system, and if you’re really honest about your part in it, you might find that bravery to stand up to that system.
It’s when you look in the mirror and don’t see yourself at all that you should be worried.