On a whim, I decided to go see Sinners this past weekend. After hearing all the fanfare about it—and considering I’m a big fan of horror films—I decided to check it out. And I am so glad I did.
Horror is a genre I adore deeply. Within this genre, you can create hard-hitting pieces that say a lot about society, culture, race, and even religion. With one glance at the title, Sinners, you can certainly expect some religious commentary within the piece. And sure enough, there was a Christian theme, but not in a typical sense.
You see, I saw other Christians saying that this film was anti-Christian or bashing Christianity as a whole. But respectfully, I disagree. I didn’t see this film doing that at all. On the other hand, I believe there were important observations about Christianity being made within this film. I’m excited to elaborate because I have not seen many people sharing these thoughts, so it’s nice to get the conversation started. I would also love to hear what other Christians think about this film.
To summarize, Sinners focuses on two brothers: Elijah and Elias Moore. They’re better known as Smoke and Stack, and they’ve returned to their Mississippi hometown after many years away, serving in WWI as army men and then working for the mob in Chicago. They’re now rich and infamous, wanting to build a club for the Black community to help invest in their own people and community.
Their little cousin, Sammie, is a talented musician who loves the blues, but his father is a preacher who deeply disapproves of his lifestyle. His father wanted Sammie to follow in his footsteps to become a preacher as well, but Sammie’s passions lie elsewhere.
Smoke and Stack start hiring people for their club’s grand opening, with Sammie being enlisted as one of the musicians to perform. An ensemble of characters come together for the club’s grand opening, including Smoke and Stack’s former lovers, their friends, and many laborers from around town.
At the same time, an Irish vampire named Remmick has plans of his own. He wants to create a community, as well, but he intends to do so by turning as many people into vampires as possible. His first victims are a young white couple who are Ku Klux Klan members. And once Remmick realizes that Sammie’s musical gifts allow him to conjure up spirits of the past and future, he wants to turn Sammie into a vampire so that he can poach his skills and use it for his own selfish desires. Specifically, since Remmick is a deeply lonely individual who misses the Irish traditions he lost centuries ago, he hopes Sammie can let him see his ancestors again.
An Overt Commentary on the Dangers of Gentrification
I believe the most obvious message in this film is the dangers surrounding gentrification and how forcing cultural assimilation can fully erase a community’s traditions and identities.
When Remmick turned his victims into vampires, they lost their identities. As a vampire, they could no longer live in the sunlight. They were no longer a part of the community they once were a part of. Instead, Remmick forced these victims into his vampiric cult, forcing a sense of community against their wills.
Remmick, I think, can be seen as the force of gentrification, which can come and dismantle communities, stripping them of their identities in the guise of equality and inclusion. One of Remmick’s reasons for doing this to the Black community was that they were going to be targeted by the Ku Klux Klan anyway, so why not join him? And then they could kill the Klan members and be a vampire family.
At the same time, Remmick specifically wanted Sammie—his gold egg, in a way. He wanted to strip Sammie of his identity, his humanity, his lifestyle. He didn’t see Sammie as his own person. Instead, Sammie was an instrument to be used for Remmick’s selfish desires.
Historically in the United States, this was a common way to treat Black people. They weren’t truly seen as “people” by many white people, but if they had special talents or uses, Black people were often exploited as a result. I’m reminded of Jordan Peele’s Get Out, which explores a very similar theme in regards to Black bodies and how they’re treated in society.
What’s truly interesting is that Remmick felt a certain camaraderie with the Black community, being of Irish descent. The Irish weren’t treated well throughout American history, as well. However, his skin color still granted him certain privileges in the deep South, such as receiving the help of the oblivious Klan couple when he’s fleeing from Choctaw vampire hunters.
Remmick seems to be “well-intentioned” on the surface, but deep down, his goal is to completely destroy the Black community of this town because he believes his lifestyle is better. And really, one could argue that gentrification is a process that does the same to the communities it affects. Gentrification seeks to change communities completely, all while ignoring and uprooting the traditions, customs, and stories of the people still in that community. But considering there are “good intentions” in doing this, people can easily get away with gentrification.
It’s interesting that the vampires ended up attacking Mary first—a woman of mixed heritage who was struggling with her identity. Society treated her as a white woman, but her closest friends and her lover were all Black. She deeply wanted to help the Black community thrive, and she wanted to help Smoke and Stack financially with their club, which is why she sought out the vampires to see if they had money. This well-intentioned move was ultimately the cause of the club’s undoing.
How Easily Humans Are Corrupted
At the same time, I also think Remmick can be seen as a force of corruption or sin. Remmick spoke about wanting to create an eternal paradise on Earth, which made me think of how the Devil likes to trick and swindle people into turning their backs on God in pursuit of material things, like money or power.
Due to our very essence, humans are easily corrupted. In speaking to Remmick and his turned followers, the surviving group within the club felt extremely tempted to join them. Smoke wanted to join them, as his brother had been turned into a vampire. Sammie wanted to join them, as well.
It’s extremely easy to fall into sin, but I believe Remmick and the movie’s vampirism as a whole represent a point of no return, where one has fully embraced the material of this world and has completely shunned God as a result.
And in accepting vampirism, I believe this could be a metaphor for accepting eternal damnation. Living as a vampire in this world seems to be similar to living in hell: you can no longer live in the sun, you live forever while the world around you ages, you’re able to have money and power and glory, but at the cost of your humanity. At the end of the movie, when Stack and Mary visit an older Sammie, Stack admits that he has never felt freedom as a vampire, even though that was Remmick’s enticing way of convincing them to accept this new lifestyle.
It’s an accurate conversation about sin, in my eyes. When choosing sin, it’s the path of least resistance. It’s the easier route. It’s what gives a lot of temporary happiness, perhaps in the form of gluttony or greed or adultery or lust. But to choose these sins and be unrepentant of it like Remmick was, you are cut off from God completely. You live apart from the light of God, away from his truth. And you are never truly free, like the vampires were.
I believe this is also seen in the fates of Smoke and Stack. Stack becomes a vampire, and while he gets to live his life with Mary, he is stuck in this perpetual cycle of bondage. He is no longer the person he once was.
On the other hand, Smoke (who was portrayed as the more sensible brother) gives up on wanting to have a life of money and power when everything is said and done. It’s revealed in the movie that he lost a baby with his estranged wife, Annie. And deep down, he always wanted to settle down and be a father, but the loss of his child was perhaps the catalyst of his original leaving. In the end, Smoke ends up seeing Annie and their baby at the cusp of his death after killing many Ku Klux Klan members. And he ends up staying with them, as this is what he’s always wanted. In contrast to his twin brother, Smoke finds freedom and happiness with his family in the end.
Perhaps, this is why the film is titled Sinners. We’re all sinners, at the end of the day. And people like Remmick would like people to believe that there’s no use seeking eternal glory with God when you could have an eternal paradise on Earth by engaging in sin unrepentantly. Sin is a corrupting force, and it sneaks up on us, it attacks us, it makes us stumble and fall on a day to day basis. But as Christians, we’re called to fight against it, to keep getting up and doing our best to follow Christ’s path. Remmick is the personification of someone who has completely turned away from God for cynical, earthly reasons. Yet in the end, he is defeated all the same.
But most importantly, it’s Sammie’s plotline that serves as the backbone for this whole story. And I’d argue that his story holds a deeply Christian message despite everything.
The Parable of the Talents
Sammie, the young talented musician, is also called “Preacher Boy” for being the son of a preacher. However, Sammie is treated like a prodigal son for wanting to pursue a career as a blues singer instead of becoming a preacher.
He clearly has incredible talent. One of my favorite scenes in Sinners is when Sammie sings while the club dances around him, and he ends up conjuring spirits of the past and future, so you see different iterations of history coming together in this one moment. It was a beautiful scene to watch unfold on the huge movie theater screen.
Sammie’s talent is what puts a target on his back due to the envy of what he can do. But when Remmick is defeated and the vampire threat is extinguished, Sammie returns bloodied to his father’s church, where he is accepted with open arms. However, his father insists that he lets go of his love for music and the blues.
But Sammie doesn’t.
Instead, Sammie flees Mississippi and goes to Chicago to start his career as a blues musician, and he ends up succeeding. I saw people speculate that this was his rejection of Christianity, but I don’t see it this way.
I believe Sammie is rejecting an iteration of Christianity which has been forced upon people throughout centuries. Specifically, the type of Christianity that was forced upon the African slaves and upon the colonized Irish like Remmick. It’s a hateful, violent, warped Christianity that should have never been forced upon people. The type that destroyed lives and communities, the type that gives people a cynical view of Christianity as a whole.
This was never supposed to happen. Christianity was never supposed to be forced on others, but throughout history, it has to devastating results. Many, many people were killed in the name of Christianity, and it’s not an attack on the religion to acknowledge this dark side of Christian history.
Our Lord Jesus Christ gave us the gift of free will. As humans, we make our own decisions to do good or bad. We follow our hearts, and Christ hopes that we will choose Him, as He will always be there waiting for us when we do.
Honestly, I juxtaposed this form of violent Christianity with Remmick’s vampirism and found some key similarities. The common factor is force, as well as an intense egotism. The belief that one’s lifestyle and ways are better than the another’s, therefore enabling someone to force their beliefs onto other people in a “well-intentioned” way even if it means destroying lives in the process.
So when Sammie turns his back on his father’s wishes, he isn’t turning his back on Christianity as a whole. Instead, I see Sammie fulfilling God’s will, as seen in the Parable of the Talents.
14 “For it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants[a] and entrusted to them his property. 15 To one he gave five talents,[b] to another two, to another one, to each according to his ability. Then he went away. 16 He who had received the five talents went at once and traded with them, and he made five talents more. 17 So also he who had the two talents made two talents more. 18 But he who had received the one talent went and dug in the ground and hid his master's money. 19 Now after a long time the master of those servants came and settled accounts with them. 20 And he who had received the five talents came forward, bringing five talents more, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me five talents; here, I have made five talents more.’ 21 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant.[c] You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 22 And he also who had the two talents came forward, saying, ‘Master, you delivered to me two talents; here, I have made two talents more.’ 23 His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful over a little; I will set you over much. Enter into the joy of your master.’ 24 He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, 25 so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’ 26 But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? 27 Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest. 28 So take the talent from him and give it to him who has the ten talents. 29 For to everyone who has will more be given, and he will have an abundance. But from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. 30 And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
— From Matthew 25:14-30
God gives us talents for a reason. We’re not supposed to suppress and hide these talents from the world—we’re meant to do good with them. And by the film’s end, Sammie has achieved just that. He ended up with an impressive musical career, touching the lives of millions with his music.
This is why I enjoyed Sinners so much. It’s complex, it’s multi-layered, and it holds a deeply Christian theme buried beneath everything with Sammie’s development.
Sammie turns his back on the type of Christianity that has been forced upon his people, alienating them from their true identities and natures. He also turns his back on vampirism, on Remmick’s desire to give him eternal life for eternal damnation.
In a way, Sammie represents all of us—people who are trying to do good with the talents we have. And while it’s true that we’re all sinners, salvation and true freedom are still possible, so as long as we don’t turn away completely from God.
What a coincedence - I just watched Sinners last night after hearing a lot about it, and I was so glad I did. Not only is it great to see a unique and original movie from Hollywood for once, but it's the rare modern film that I think had something to say. While there were some criticisms of the American Christianity of that time period from the characters, the film didn't embrace atheism or moral relativism, and was clearly trying to advance a moral worldview of its own that I would agree is more authentically Christian than many forms of institutionalised Christianity. There was a real emotional core at the heart of this story.
As an aside, I also really enjoyed the male and female characters in this movie. They felt very human. The men were strong, hearty and masculine in a believable way, and I really enjoyed how intelligent and dynamic the female characters were (especially Smoke's wife) without being "girlbosses".
As an aside, as an Irish women I adored the use of Irish history and music, it was a blast to see my culture on screen portrayed so well. I have "The Rocky Road to Dublin" on repeat all day 😂
This is right on, thank you! I could kinda see some of these connections but you really fleshed it out. You're right, I think they're very much drawing a parallel between the false community the vamps offer and how often Christianity offers false community for the price of some essential part of you. Which is also a great way of looking at gentrification - from a certain POV you can say everyone is getting a good deal but it's killing everything essential that makes a place what it us. So many layers - now I want to see it again!