Haints & Saints: The Sinners Review
My thoughts on this very magical film and a special surprise!
Hey Family,
“I been gone for a minute / now I’m back with The Jumpoff”
It has been almost one month since Sinners kicked in the cinema doors, waving the .44, and letting everyone in the film industry know who the big dog in town is. I went alone on opening night, and while being sandwiched between two white couples, I had the time of my life. I laughed, I cried, I swooned, I rooted for the protagonist. It was a beautiful display of Blackness; our trials and tribulations in sharecropping 1930s Mississippi. We saw every stage of life portrayed: youth, adolescence, young adulthood, elderhood, and ancestors. As someone who equally enjoys Black folks and film, Sinners was a brilliant display about the intersection of drama, comedy, fantasy, and spirituality.
Growing up, I was terrified of most scary movies, but I have come to love and enjoy Black horror films. The reason being, Black horror as a genre has an entirely different set of rules and setups. The things that Them Folks™️ do in their scary movies simply do not make sense to me as a Black person. Moving into an obviously haunted house without so much as a prayer or a good cleaning? Going outside to investigate an odd sound in the middle of the night? Splitting from the group?! Yeah, none of that shit makes sense to Black folks. Even the trope of the Black character being the first to die is problematic and racist because it operates under the assumption that Black people don't have survival skills. So yeah, traditional horror flicks are not made with Black people in mind. As I’ve gotten older, I can safely watch movies that used to terrify me in my youth and even enjoy them with a critical eye.
I’m rooting for the haints and the demons at this point because the stupidity is too much. Little Timmy is spewing pea soup, and the family dog is walking on the ceiling, yet that's not enough to inspire y'all to start packing? You discover the house was built on a sacred Indian burial ground, and you don't have smoke for the realtor or the sense to immediately book a hotel for the night? The furniture is moving, blood is running from the faucets, and the lights are flickering, yet yall going to work and school like everything is fine? Y'all deserve whatever the hell you get, if you ask me.
This is why Sinners has been receiving the acclaim, accolades, and multiple viewings from Black folks. It’s set in the 30s, which was an oppressive era for Black people in this country, but the movie isn’t focused on our oppression. The looming danger of the Klan is there truly as an afterthought and a footnote. Most of the movie is set up to feel like folks getting ready for a party and enjoying said party. We see Smoke and Stack, your favorite big cousins, returning home to Clarksdale, MS, with mixed feelings and to an even more mixed reception. They make a plan to divvy up to cover more ground, and this feels natural as it is the only time splitting up makes sense to Black folk. Smoke goes into town to handle some business, pay respects to his baby, and see his woman. Stack takes their little cousin on a joyride, rounding up the posse, running into his old piece, and imparting some wisdom on Sammie in the process.
As far as setting the stage goes, the first act of Sinners does an incredible job of placing us in the characters' world. The stark white church house. An expansive and brilliantly color graded skyline of Clarksdale, MS. A singular dusty road flanked by endless cotton fields. The segregated shopping area of Clarksdale with Bo and Grace Chow’s respective shops parallel to one another. Annie’s cabin as a quiet oasis of solitude and power. The sepia-toned railroad station accented by the sound of Delta Slim's haunting harmonica. Towards the end of the first act, we briefly get a glimpse of our villain and are reminded: “Oh snap, this IS a vampire movie.” But again, it feels so easy and natural.
Even the way Remmick is introduced is done masterfully. The frame centers around a lone shack in the middle of a dusty wasteland and is interrupted by a frantic and smoldering Remmick, who subtly shows us what's to come while leaving the audience questioning how he will execute his plan. Gaining access to turn Bert and Joan is simple: appeal to their obvious ignorance, throw in a few racial slurs, and the rest is history. Just as the Choctaw gentleman who tried to alert the couple knew there was no fighting with bigotry, Remmick knew it was an easy in. Even though I wanted more from the Choctaw characters (I honestly could watch an entire movie about Indigenous vampire hunters because they were FIERCE), the brevity of their interaction made the scene even more impactful. In a few short lines, their message to Joan was loud and clear: racial biases were going to be the least of her worries, but she was free to have the day she deserved. God speed!
I felt so seen the minute Wunmi Mosaku’s Annie came on the screen. I’ve always said all I wanted was a little house on the edge of town to have my garden, a few animals, and the solitude to do my work. Seeing Annie’s cabin full of herbs, roots, and magic was so affirming. And her utility belt?! It’s all any of us can talk about - we need costume designer Ruth E. Carter to drop the details on who made it and how we can get our hands on one. Everything about Annie was a breath of fresh air: from her complexion to her hair to her shapely figure.
One of the best parts of Annie's characterization is the way every other character deferred to and respected her personhood. Smoke had conflicting emotions over Annie’s spiritual beliefs, but he kept that mojo bag on him for seven years, didn’t he? Alright then. As Annie was refreshing Smoke’s mojo while he sat off to the side quietly puffing his tobacco, I was very proud of the way our traditional practices were tastefully displayed, without giving too much away. Shout out to Ryan Coogler for tapping Dr. Yvonne Chireau as the official Hoodoo consultant. Those who understood what that was knew what it was. Everyone else would have to guess and wonder. As Honey stated in her Sinners review: “For those with eyes and ears, it was an invitation.”
Annie was the first to sense trouble the minute the Milk of Magnesia trio showed up at Club Juke to do their little song and dance. As they sang about picking poor Robin clean and they whirled those instruments around in unison, Annie, unlike Stack, remained unmoved. As soon as they left, she said, “They give me the willies”. Again, showcasing that Black skepticism is not only a method of real-life protection but is a defining trope of Black horror. In Jordan Peele’s Get Out, Chris is saved by his best friend Rod’s unshakeable and oftentimes comedic suspicion.
When the story unfolds at the beginning of Act Three, there’s a brief moment where a now-turned Stack is speaking to Smoke through the door, trying to convince him that everything is fine. The scene is a brilliant callback to the Stephen King horror classic The Shining when Jack repeatedly attacks the door with his axe to a frightened Wendy on the other side. Only in this iteration of the trope, Smoke is supported by his very knowledgeable woman, Annie, and an elder, Delta Slim, who both remind him to trust what he saw with his own two eyes just moments prior. There’s a brief moment where Annie goes off-screen and comes back just in the nick of time to splash a jar of pickled garlic on Stack, who recoils at the touch of the burning liquid and flees the juke joint. A masterful crescendo of the film's score comes to a head as we learn exactly what we’re dealing with: vampires.
Now I’ve been trying to figure out exactly what Annie was cooking that required pickled garlic. Was it being served as a condiment on the side of the fried catfish? Or was it a garnish for the whiskey? I honestly don’t know why she had it on hand, at the ready, but it highlights something that all of us spiritual folks know to be true: there are times when you are asked to prepare specific things without any knowledge as to why. The ancestors sometimes tell you to do things that don't make any sense at all until the moment calls for the exact thing they've asked you to prepare. If you had known ahead of time, you might've tried to argue with them and fight the inevitable. They aren't there to give you the lottery numbers (even though that would be nice); instead, they are there to help us navigate the trials and tribulations on the road ahead. Even when Annie throws the bones and it's obvious she's told the same message twice, she trusted her fate and didn't try to fight it. She simply told Smoke to honor her wishes and send her where she rightfully belonged. I thought that was a very beautiful way to encapsulate what it means to be a believer of our traditional beliefs: we are not promised an easy life, but we know where we are going and who will be there when we get there.
I haven't even gotten into the brilliance of Delroy Lindo’s portrayal of Delta Slim, the spiritual relevance of twins in African cosmologies, that ancestral scene smack dab in the middle of the film, or the commentary that was made on the danger of the proliferation of whiteness in Black spaces; we’d be here forever. I have something up my sleeve, though: I spoke to a dozen spiritual practitioners, all former guests of The How To Be Magical Podcast, for a very special series of episodes breaking down several themes of the movie.
Starting during Gemini season (obviously), I’ll be dropping a compilation of conversations I had with fellow Hoodoos, priests, and priestesses about their thoughts on the film: what they loved, what they wanted to see more of, and what they could've done without. I think y'all are gonna enjoy these episodes. I honestly was trying to keep it short and sweet, but with over 5 hours of footage to edit, y'all are really in for a treat. It’s looking like a 4-episode series, minimum! Paid subscribers of The Boneyard will get first access to these episodes, but I can’t wait to share these conversations with y'all. So be sure to subscribe to the podcast on whatever platform you choose, follow How To Be Magical on all of the socials, and stay tuned!
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Until Next Time,
Nikki
“I’m rooting for the haints and the demons at this point…” Never have I related to an opinion of horror cinema more LOL. Was just talking about Steven King movies with someone this morning. I’m supposed to feel sorry yall built an uglass house on an indigenous burial ground?? Sucks to suck. I hope they win!
Chuckling at Them Folks™️ and will be using this moving forward thank you! This was a beautiful review, I can’t wait to see what the community has to say about the film in the episodes!