10 out of 10, don’t recommend

I watched Sinners on its second opening night and started to write a review the next day with intentions of sharing it on Easter Sunday. I don’t do reviews let alone written ones but felt compelled to do so. I decided to wait to write the review and wasn’t sure if I should even share it. By Monday morning following Easter I realized I wasn’t the only one who felt the need to do a written response to the film. I mean sure everyone has a podcast and I knew they we would possibly hear from the usual suspects but I was surprised to see a few opinion pieces on my timelines. See these opinions on my timeline defiantly added to ‘well I guess my piece is not needed then.’

Wrong. I’m reminded that it is our unique perspectives that help elevate those who feel voiceless, unseen or in need of guidance and direction. So here’s my take on the movie Sinners. I have not taken the liberty to read anyone else piece before writing this to avoid any outside opinion outside of what I gathered when watching. Like the Baptist preacher on Sunday morning, I won’t be before long. 

The title of this piece is 10 out 10, I don’t recommend because it was beautifully shot, artistically depicted and the script writing didn’t seem to miss a beat in my opinion. So this piece isn’t about its cinematic value or the brilliant portrayal by the actors. or how well written the script was. No, it’s about the usage fiction narrative that at times taps and traps us into the unknown. 

The movie starts off in a church with a bantering pastor. Which already is off putting and triggering to those who want no affiliation with the church and/or have prior traumatize experiences that will never allowed them to step foot back into a such a building. Our main character Sammie drives up the church with bloody and battered clothes, enters the church shocking the congestion with his appearance and sudden arrival. The preacher tells him to promise and tell the whole church leave music alone or ever go back to playing the guitar or something to that effect. It’s less about what he said and more about the positioning for me. To start off this way is always telling the audience or at least it told me, that this preacher believes the music he was playing, the guitar and wherever he was coming from, was the devil or is associated with the devil. Setting the stage yes brings context to the time period of how preachers felt about non church/christian music but it’s also putting a bad taste in our months towards preachers from the get-go. Because what’s wrong with a guitar and whats wrong with music outside the church? 

The narrator tells us that music can connect us to our ancestors and that it brings up good things and also some evil things as well. We see this portrayed as Sammie plays his guitar and everyone present day in the juke- joint are dancing to the music, as we start to see others dancing along with them in native African clothing, which part of Africa -I’d have to see it again to identify it if there was a specific country and tribe. Not only do we see others from the past dancing in African cultural outfits, we see Asian cultural outfits and a couple others. 

Another scene shows a white man who appears to be burning and possibly just jumped out off the sky. He knocks on a door asking if he can come in and hide from someone who is trying to kill him. He even offers some gold as long as he can get away from whoever is looking for him. They eventually let him in. Native Americans come to the door looking for the man and she lies about him not being there the Native American man essentially says ‘well I hope not for your sake he is evil’ and offers a short prayer for her while another Native American he was with says we must get going before it gets to dark or before the sun does down. They leave and when the wife goes to check on her husband she sees him dead with blood and the man, the stranger who asked to come into her home hovering over him. 

We see all threes of these charters again but this time at the juke- joint where Sammie is playing. So no her husband did not die. The husband and wife became vampires. They ask to be let in and they do not get permission so they go away but they don’t go to far. They eventually do get into the building because one by one they bite into the skin of our main characters transforming them into vampires. 

I’ll pause here because again this is not a typical review or opinion piece about a movie and I don’t want to spend too much more time exploring the movie scene by scene but based on this set up if you haven’t seen the movie here are my take aways. 

1. The biggest take away from the film is this concept here, accepting an invitation. The vampires came to the door nice, smiling and polite and even singing. But never the less they are vampires. So when they ask to come in and listen to music, they only want one thing to kill, steal and destroy. Sound familiar? 

2. The vampires eventually get one of the twins and this symbolizes, even you’re own kin, your own blood can lie to you and say I won’t harm you because a spirit inside of them wants to do differently. 

3. All of the ancestral spiritual stuff the ex girl friend practiced, wasn’t working she knew a lot of things and maybe it worked on somethings but it didn’t bring the baby back nor did it help save anyones life in the film. 

4. The lead vampire lies about how you’re basically reborn and have a belong a new community where you can commune with others and belong. Much like satan perverting Gods original design and trying to emulate it in a perverse way. 

5. The leader also says he wants sammie because he knows his music will touch reach many people. Therefore he will be able to get many others on his side. 

6. Sammies is face to face with the leader, cornered with no where to go and nothing to defend himself. He closes his eyes and says the Lord’s prayer. I clapped screamed at this point because, yes! But then the leader starts saying the lords prayer as well and just like satan he knows the scriptures and he know the Bible. So just because someone comes to you and seems to know how to pray, how to read scripture and know God’s word, doesn’t mean he is of him.  Because we are not all God’s children as much we say and would want to believe. Read ya bible.

7. Although the leader knows the lords prayer and it seems Sammie is done for, it did by him time. In other words mercy. He should have gotten killed in that moment but didn’t get what he had coming to him. Now Sammie has time to eventually grab something like a weapon and kill him.

8. Music that is not explicitly about Jesus is not evil but take your time is understanding and discerning what music is 

9.  The vampires were also connecting with ancestors, in a bad way. No all things from our cultures are good, or should be accepted. 

10. Lastly, I don’t recommend believes to watch this film, because of possible exposure of open doors in the spiritually sense. You are ‘inviting’ something in your you eye gates and don’t know the ride it will take you on. 

My husband made a good point. This movie exposes things in the music and visually that is not needed to make any of the point made above. Once you believe in Christ you are no longe a sinner so this movie is not for those who believe it’s for sinners because folks who like these types of films will watch them anyway, I believe what the enemy used for evil God is using of good to go after all of his lost ones, which are the sinners. We were all sinners at some point until someone us decided to become saints. Not perfect, but working to sanctification. 

Over all this film is brilliant not all of us need to see it.