Sinners and the Doris Day Fan

Originality, I have been told, is mashing together two separate things or ideas to generate something new. Sometimes it really is that simple. Have you tried a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup? Two good things mashed together. Chocolate yumminess meets the salty splendour of Peanut Butter to produce something delicious.

Sometimes, that’s all that needed – two delicious ideas married together. However, most marriages need more work. But the premise for originality remains the same. And that is Sinners – a movie that takes vampire tropes and bashes them forcefully together with a blues musical. And boy does it deliver. Sinners is original and startingly creative.

Sinners is the work of writer-director Ryan Coogler. It follows the fate of twin brothers (Smoke and Stack – presumably after the blues legend Smokestack Lightning) – both played by Michael B Jordan. It is set in rural Mississippi during the Great Depression. The twins arrive fresh from their gangster career in Chicago to open a Juke Joint in their old hometown. They are a force to be reckoned with. Buying property and shooting looters who get in their way. They are the big players in town and things are about to get scary.

The scary is also sexy and stylish, underpinned by a blues-infused score. It pays homage to the music and lives of the period. And there are vampires!

Yes, amidst the dust of the cotton fields, the simple church service, and the grinding poverty – there are new visitors in town. While Stack and Smoke bring in friends to help with the catering, entertainment and security, their music summons an evil presence, with jump scares so skilfully cut it is impossible to turn away.

The movie also has an incredible beauty. A colour palette of richness. Sensual performances. Stunning choreography. An unhinged wildness. A soundtrack to live by and die for.

It has a false ending when the lights don’t go up, because there is one more treat – Buddy Guy.

I left the cinema, tense, but thoroughly entertained.

And I’m not alone. The movie has been universally critically acclaimed and proved a box-office hit.

So, is there anything I can add?

Well, how about I mash in a little Doris Day?

I know, I know. That sounds weird right. But I'm just following the principle. Originality comes from putting two unrelated ideas together and coming up with something novel.

So, how can I discuss a modern Vampire film and the cutesy star of Classic Hollywood musicals?

Sinners is primarily a film about racism, set in a toxic era of white supremacy, that speaks to our current massive backward step in race relations.

We are living through the full force of the Civil Rights backlash. “Woke” and “DEI” have become casual insults to those of us who believe that racism can be found in the structures of society, like education, justice, and healthcare and needs to be addressed. Progressive language becomes cheap insults for those of us who believe that equality is a worthwhile goal.

Sinners holds up a mirror to those things we cannot currently say, by using an historic setting and the metaphor of the vampire. It shows how, without the language and thrust of enlightenment, we cannot name the things that hurt us. We cannot name solidarity. We cannot recognise allies. We cannot call out colourism. We can only avoid our enemies rather than confront them. We cannot name rage or joy or how close they can feel to each other. We turn on each other, until our backs are against the wall. The Klan looms large and unchallenged.

But what does this have to do with Doris?

Doris Day also made a film about the dangers of the Klan. I wrote about her turn in Storm Warning (1951) – a film about the perils of small town politics dominated by KKK thugs. But with a big hole in the writing. The Klux might be thugs in Storm Warning, but there is no acknowledgement of their overriding agenda – racial genocide. (Read more here)

Storm Warning fails to use the words – white supremacy or racism.

Much like there is a backlash when we try to name those things today.

And if creatives can’t use those words, they will turn to metaphor. Vampire – the oldest monster, the diseased creature, the blood-sucker, the coloniser of people’s souls.

Storm Warning works on its own terms as a tense noir thriller. But it does not stand the test of time. And disappointingly, it did not use the full talents of Doris Day and the other leading lady – Ginger Rogers. There was no singing or dancing.

Sinners, on the other hand, introduces the new talent Miles Caton as Sammy and uses his soulful voice to show a joy in music. The Juke Joint shakes with the rhythm of the cast. And then as Sammy sings a song dedicated to his preacher father we see the ancestors and descendants of protest music across cultural lines and history summoned in a gorgeous, choreographed cinematic montage. It is the perfect response to the attempted destruction of culture and justice.

This Doris Day fan approves.

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