Sinners: Christianity and Colonialism

 

Sinners: Christianity and Colonialism

A Brief Analysis by Alexander Imhof 

 

I wanted to discuss the movie Sinners, and the themes of Christianity and Colonialism present throughout the film. Many others have already commented on this fact, either in articles or YouTube videos or in conversations with me. I have tried my best to avoid the existing commentary on Sinners, since I think I agree with the popular interpretation of the film, and don’t want this to stifle what little original commentary I may have to have to offer. With that out of the way, I will begin.

 

The main conflict of Sinners is not the vampires or even the rise of the Klan, but the internal struggle within Sammy Moore over whether he will live a life of virtue as represented by his father, or a life of "sin" as represented by the smokestack twins. I use "sin" in quotations as while the film presents the conflict as a struggle between Christian good and Satanic evil, the film resolves to subvert this conflict by having Sammy choose the path of "sin" and asking the audience whether this was truly sinful. Overall, the films main point is that "sin" and "sinners" don't exist, or are at the very least, a western-christian construction that is not used properly when describing the love of blues music, dancing, and partying. Some more explicitly defined Christian "sin" such as drinking, gambling, and premarital sex does occur at club juke, but we will get to that later, as Sammy is not shown to be a heavy drinker or gambler, and his "sinful" activities do not seem to make him seem like a bad person to the viewer. Sammy's choice at the end of the film to use his musical talent for himself also rejects the Augustinian struggle of god versus the devil by not lending his music to either Remmick (the devil) or his father (the Christian god). He chooses a third way, which is the rejection of the Christian moral framework.

 

So, now that we have established the central struggle has something to do with rejecting the Christian moral framework and the nonexistence of Christian "sin",  we can dive into the supernatural part of the movie. The film is structures in classic fashion where the first and third parts of the movie are set in the real world, with the second part being largely in the supernatural world. Likely not coincidentally, these parts are conveniently divided by the time of day - we are in the human world on the day before the club opens, supernatural events happen when the sun goes down, and we return to the human world when the sun comes up again. I believe part of the reason why the film chose to have a supernatural component is because the vampires have richer potential for symbolic meaning than normal human enemies (the other part is that vampires are cool).

 

So, vampires have symbolic meaning. I won't go through a history of vampire symbolism however it’s a very interesting topic and lots of authors and creators have covered this. Importantly though, vampires are almost always used to symbolize Christian "sin" rather than Christian virtue. Vampires typically symbolize sexuality and desire, and in some cases greed, pride, or envy. They are almost always portrayed as devilish or demonic. In Sinners, the vampires are a bit more complicated. There is certainly some "evil" in the way they turn people, and they do try to tempt the protagonists into leaving the building, however I contend these strengthen the argument that vampirism symbolizes Christianity and the events of the night are a telling of the forced Christianization of black people in the united states (although this could probably be generalized to the forced Christianization of any group, as we will see when talking about Remmick and the Chow family).

 

So, the night is a retelling of mass Christian conversion, lets walk through it. We start the night with Remmick, the sole Christian in a land of pagans. As any good evangelical, he wants to spread his faith to everyone he can (Vampiric need to turn others = Christian desire to evangelize). His first targets are two white people, relations of the local Klan leader - this will be important later. The vampires are then called to club juke by Sammy's music, looking to convert everyone there. We've already discussed the symbolism behind why Remmick and Sammy's father both want to use his music for their own ends, but to restate: Remmick wishes to use Sammy's music as Christian leaders have always wanted to use art and artists, to bring them closer to god and assist in the endeavors of the faith. The vampires are turned away at the door - representing how first attempts by whites to evangelize blacks were rebuffed. Stack and Mary contend the vampires will have money to spend at club juke - When the offer of faith is rebuffed, physical boons such as money and goods are offered. Mary is an interesting character as she represents the trusted white person that "got Christianity in the door" with black people.  Once Stack, Mary, Bo Chow, and others are all converted, the final offer is made - community and everlasting life. It should be pointed out that beyond the brutal way one is killed, the Christian/vampiric offer is not inherently a bad one. Remmick offers community and fellowship in the vampire horde, and very importantly offers to assist the remaining humans in killing off the KKK come morning. I say this piece is very important because black Christianity has long been a force that fought against white supremacy in the south. There is a reason why so many early civil rights leaders were Baptist reverends. I think most people see the vampires and the KKK as two forces on the same team, working against our club juke protagonists, however I contend these groups are actually in competition, much in the same way Christians have always been in competition with Colonizers, over what the proper policy on colonized people should be. Christians, such as Diego de Landa who was a priest in the 16th century Yucatan, typically offer oppressed peoples a benevolent yet assimilationist future - "you should be protected from exploitation, but you must become one of us" as opposed the more strict colonizers that wish to either exploit oppressed people for their labor, or simply kill them off. This story repeats over and over in colonial histories.

 

Sinners has Sammy and Smoke reject this offer, and we will go over why each of them does. Another important theme in Christianization is the way that families spark a wildfire of conversions. I have something of a running joke asking my friends "would you convert to your partner's religion" although its somewhat important in the context of sinners. Of the four couples at club juke, each has a different fate when it comes to one person being turned Christian/vampire. When Mary is converted, Stack follows her (The second dimension of race is especially important with them, as interracial couples probably face the most pressure to be on the same page religiously - "a black man dating a white woman better be an upstanding Christian" etc). Then there is Smoke and Annie. Annie tells Smoke to kill her if she is converted - Annie would rather die than give up her culture and become part of the vampiric/Christian covenant. Annie's death is part of why Smoke remains lives and is able to fight the Klan the next day. We will get back to Stack fighting the Klan soon. Remmick attempts to get Sammy the same way he got Stack, by turning Pearline, but he is too late. The Chows are the last couple, and the commentary here is that Bo and the vampires want to turn Lisa into Christian/vampire, which causes grace to sacrifice herself - "It’s a shame that Bo was converted, however she would die before she lets it happen to Lisa". In the end, the characters that survive the night are the ones that reject Christianity, largely by avoiding 'familial' contagion.

 

Before we jump into final thoughts I have a few more things to say about Remmick and Smoke. Remmick being an Irishman was a very purposeful choice, when he certainly could have been a white American or English vampire. I think his being Irish assists the argument that vampirism is Christianity as the forced subjugation of Ireland is well known and is one of the few majority Caucasian places with religious tensions. In a way, Remmick is meant to represent someone one step down of the chain: His culture and music were destroyed by Christianization, and he roams the world searching for a way back (through Sammy's music) but the only tools available to him are corrupt, since he took the Christian bargain [we are not told Remmicks origin of how he became a vampire, however he seems to like it, so we can assume his conversion is something like Stack or Mary's]. Lastly, to hammer home the idea that vampires are Christianity - Sammy recites the lord's prayer in hopes it will protect him, however Remmick knows the lord's prayer and it does not stop him because he is Christianity. Now onto Smoke. Despite Remmick's offer that the vampiric horde could be used to fight the Klan in the morning, this is a somewhat disingenuous offer since the vampires cannot operate in broad daylight when the Klan arrives. I believe this is saying that the tools of Christianity are insufficient to fight white supremacy. Christianity is a religion, not a gun, and so the work that can be done with it to fight the KKK and white supremacy is restricted to the shadows of changing policymakers minds, and by the rigidity of its own nonviolent principles. Christianity shrivels when the sun is shining (vampirism) because its moral framework is either not capable of, or not powerful enough to stand against bold face threats like the Klan. It's important then, that Smoke is a non-vampire (non-Christian) killing off the Klan with guns, because this type of violent resistance is not what Christian resistors typically advocate for. Anyway, smoke dies and goes to hang out with Annie and his son, leaving the smoke behind him. I will say this scene is particularly odd since smoke embracing his given name of Elijah seems kind of like accepting a Christian side of himself, however it probably has more to do with the conversation about fathers passing bad blood down to their kids and how smoke doesn’t pass his badness - his smoke - down to his kid - in this version of heaven.

 

So, final thoughts. The relationship between fathers and sons is incredibly present in the movie and this is also a very important theme in Christian theology. I hesitate to say the film is anti-Christian because neither the vampires or Sammy's father are good guys. What I will say is that the film very explicitly rejects Christian sin. The gut punch of it all: Sammy is a saintly man that hangs out with "sinners", forgiving and leading them, while having a strict father that presides over a hall with pearly white doors. Whom does this sound like? Yes, Sammy is Jesus. But I think this is done for the opposite reason most characters are analogized to Christ. Sinners sees both Sammy and Jesus for his mortal qualities, choosing to embrace love, humility, and eventually death - rather than becoming a Christian (in the "part of the Christian religion" sense) and thereby saying that Jesus would not be proud of the church that bears his name today, and reject its moral framework as Sammy does.

 

There is much more to say about this movie, especially characters I didn't talk much about like the Chow family or the other employees like Delta Slim and Cornbread. I think there's a lot of analysis to be had about Annie, the meaning of American Indian vampire hunters, or the meaning behind the twins time in Chicago. This was certainly the most thought provoking movie I have watched in 2025, and I hope you found this short review interesting or enlightening.