When Annie is in her home, connected to her ancestors by practicing Hoodoo and speaking Yoruba to the man she loves , her skin tone blends into the earthy, natural tones of her home. Who she is, is not at odds with her environment . She even wears the same deep blue as Smoke

When Sammie is singing the blues, filled with passion and surrounded by the love and joy of his community, his shirt matches the warm yellow glow of the lights in the Juke Joint. He fits in perfectly and effortlessly

Delta Slim is the embodiment of The Blues, every part of him is harmonious with the dark brown walls of the Juke Joint

In contrast, the church walls and the clothing of the congregation reflect the assimilating influence of whiteness to the land and people, the false binary of black and white. The pop of green of the wild, natural world beyond the stark walls stands out as a symbol of freedom and untamed passion. There is no warmth or vibrancy in this place that demands Sammie give up his music, his voice, his culture.

And this split dividing the twins is interesting to me. Stack shown with the open air behind him, foreshadowing his eventual escape and freedom from the Jim Crow South. His red hat, tie and car reflecting the blood spilled and his vampirism as the only means he has for leaving this world of division.

tl;dr — sinners challenges the audience’s preconceived notions of vampires by throwing one into an atypical setting, subverting audience expectations to create a fresh vampire story rooted in historical and societal realities

saw a post comparing remmick to other vampires in media, specifically how unlike most vampires, he freaks people out and doesn’t have this suave, unearthly charm… but here’s the thing. he isn’t the one they’re freaked out by. they were suspicious to begin with, because of the sociocultural atmosphere of the time

1. should be obvious why the black characters suspected him of foul play. most white people in 1930s Mississippi did not seek out black companionship. if a white person wanted to deal with black folks, there probably was some kind of nefarious ulterior motive — case in point, the klan guy selling the mill to smoke and stack.

2. the white people in the film had reasons to suspect remmick as well. 1932 set us smack dab in the immediate fallout of the stock market crash of 1929 — the Great Depression. things were rough, and it made desperate people so desperate things. people would walk up to a house claiming to need help, then rob the family blind and sometimes even kill them. for remmick to run up to a white couple’s home out of nowhere and beg for help… that would be a red flag. his offer of money and appeal to their racism helped smooth that over, but their immediate suspicions of him came from the desperate atmosphere of the times and their own struggle for survival. you can tell they’re not wealthy from the ramshackle appearance of their home and their simple clothes. they don’t want some vagabond to waltz in and kill them for what little they have.

3. this would require a much longer post to fully flesh out, but i would argue that remmick does have that otherworldly charm — just for the right kind of person. while most people are suspicious of remmick from the jump due to their experiences with racism, poverty, etc., mary is the one person who seemed to fall for his platitudes and charm… and i would argue it’s because of who she is.

stack tells us that mary has a rich white husband that owns a successful, lucrative farm. she has no need to worry about her livelihood or safety from strange white people. in fact, she is probably used to them kissing her ass because she’s rich, pretty and passes for white. remmick, bart and joan are just white people to her, and they show her empathy and compassion when they learn her mother passed away, which further disarms her. only when they begin exhibiting monstrous behavior (the drooling especially) does she really clock that they’re dangerous.

i bring this up because in a lot of media, vampires find success in charming others because they can relate to them. yes, they are depicted with glamoring powers that can draw people in, but think about the classics.

dracula targets jonathan harker after placing himself in a position of power over him, then goes to hunt mina and lucy, both members of higher society. they defer to him because he is a count — a powerful person societally. his strangeness is offset by their unwillingness to challenge or question his authority.

or perhaps a newer example — lestat and louis in the amc iwtv show. louis is less suspect of lestat early on because he has made a living from dealing with white people, playing to their position of power above him and deferring to them. lestat uses this to get close, then begins appealing to louis’ desire for power over the white men who disparage and control him. again we see that while it’s true that the vampire has an otherworldly charm, it’s their knowledge of power and societal dynamics that makes them effective

we don’t normally see poor white trash vampires, so it seems like remmick isn’t as successful at charming others, but really what’s happening is that the film is challenging our preconceived notions of what a vampire looks like by throwing one into an world that we normally wouldn’t find them in. vampires aren’t normally poor, wounded and hunted — they have power, money, influence and good looks.

that said, remmick still uses the same playbook as other vampires; he just has his work cut out for him, and has to navigate an inherently desperate, dangerous world in more calculated ways to protect himself. otherwise, he never would have had a chance in hell of getting close enough to the juke to achieve his goals. coogler did this on purpose. which is just another way this movie slaps major ass.

stories inherently abt Black music and Black culture and Black labor. and the horror when those things are exploited and used and destroyed, but. stories still abt the beauty in that music and culture.

stories with a boy. some call him naive but with his life he couldn't be. stories about boys with a guitar, and a magic to them. boys who could heal the world with their songs. boys who healed old wounds.

stories with a girl that boy loves. a girl who softens for him and finds love in a night with him, a girl who he makes feel lovely.

that boys song brings the world back to Life, and for a moment - everyone dances, and the joy is real, and there is no danger. but the song ends when a white man comes calling.

a white man who promises eternal life in death, in eternal night, who promises he'll save you. who says it will only hurt for a moment, and never again. a white man who erases you to make you be apart of him.

a dance where that white man is in the center and the Black people hes "saved" dance like corpses around him, their heads hung down and all the spirit gone from them.

you try and save the ones you love most from their fate, but - you can't. damn, you can't. you look back. and you let them go, to live an awful half life forevermore.

a boy being held by a white man, who tells him to sing him a song before he kills him. like hes a songbird. and that boy escapes.

no girl, no family left. the boy wanders this earth alone. but he still sings. wherever he is now. he grows old alone. and its a sad song, its a tragedy. but for a day, forever ago?

goddamn, he lived. the people who are dead now lived.

this right here shows what they had, and what they lost. family. friends. community. freedom. this is what smoke is willing to die for. it’s not just remmick that took that from him, but the klan, because the klan was going to take that from them come morning light anyways. but it’s not just the contextual importance of the scene that makes it the hardest hitting one for me - it’s the social importance.

because THIS is what colonialism and white supremacy has taken from people of colour, especially the black community.

I am not a member and so cannot speak on the matter, but as someone who comes from a country very heavily exploited by colonialism, I felt this in my bones. our oppressors took this from us - they took our brothers and fathers, our husbands and sons, our grandmas and sisters and wives and daughters. our friends, our culture, our history.