I had plans to go see a movie and I really wanted to see Final Destination Bloodlines. For several reasons, one being that doing a review on opening weekend is always a plus. But apparently knowing when things come out is important. So while technically Sinners wasn’t my first choice, it had been on my list of movies I wanted to see. Although I knew absolutely nothing about it, other than there was a twin aspect to it.

There is an amazing feeling to going into a movie without any hype. Allow me to infect your mind with some hype for Sinners. And yes, there will be spoilers in this.

Where to start? The beginning you say… Ok, but here’s the thing. I hated the first 5 minutes of this movie. To the point of planning to only watch it starting at the credit scene, fast forwarding past it. A couple of things I hated about those 5 minutes. First off, they have some jump scare moments in it where Samuel is mentally showing glimpses of what happened the night before. When the movie actually starts after the credits, we get an on screen caption saying “one day ago.” And now we know that something terrible is going to happen and Samuel survives it. To me, this instantly ruins the coming story. It would be better to simply let it play out. I was recently talking to another writer about a different project and he quipped that every story has a start, and what we were talking about was wasting 3 pages with something revealing the mystery of the story and then saying “the story starts now.” I feel this is exactly the same thing that Sinners did here. Because we now know that Samuel is never in peril. No matter what happens, he will walk away. Not unscathed, because he was in the middle of it all. But he walks away.

So now that I have my least favorite part of the movie out of the way, let’s get to the actual starting point of this movie. Samuel has gotten up early to get his chores done for the day so he can take his guitar and go out to play some blues. His cousins, the twins Smoke and Stack, arrive to pick him up from his father’s tiny church. They are recently back from Chicago where they were working for gangsters, notably Al Capone. They are dressed to the nines and their pockets fat with cash. The brothers have just bought an old mill and plan to turn it into a Juke Joint starting that night. I love the next hour of this movie.

I’ve long said that for me having horror overlaid into a normal story is one of my favorite things. And that is what Ryan Coogler did here. This is the story of two brothers starting a Juke Joint and bringing their cousin along to play blues guitar there. The brothers split up because they have a lot to accomplish in order to get this ready for the night. Along the way, they pick up people essential to the night working on opening night. Cornbread is to be the bouncer. Delta Slim is a legendary blues harmonica player. Add in a cook. Bartender. Sign maker. And along the way they are hyping up the night to the community. Setting up what will hopefully be an amazing night. We know from the moment that Sammie plays for Stack, while riding to pick people up, that this is going to be an amazing evening.

Now I’m going to throw a curve ball at everyone. Because this movie, in my mind, is an amazing musical. Now hear me out. It isn’t the type of musical where the characters are singing their lines. But music is the driving force behind many aspects of the events. Sammie is the main character and he is a budding blues musician. Smoke and Stack are setting up a Juke Joint, which will be the central location for the second half of the movie. When the vampires show up (did I mention there were vampires?) at the Juke Joint, they literally audition for entrance by playing a song for Smoke and others at the door. Denied entrance, they linger outside and manage to slowly add to their numbers, culminating in a moment where the main vampire (who is Irish) engages in a ritualistic feeling Riverdance with all the new vampires joining in. An interesting aspect to these vampires is that there is a hive mind. So they all know everything the others know, which is how they are all able to join in the singing and dancing.

The revelry and bloodletting are practically a religious experience. The vampiric ranks swell through violence, but as soon as the individual is transformed you can feel the camaraderie inherent in the pack. The small group of holdout survivors has their own camaraderie, but their numbers have only dwindled as the night wears on. Their saving grace is holding on until sunrise. And the rule that a vampire has to be invited in. Something used effectively here. Up until someone breaks.

And there are a few moments here that don’t work for me. Someone is turned inside the building, but when attacked he runs outside. Now subject to needing an invite in. A rule that I found myself wondering about. Who has the authority to invite someone in? I would think it would be the person whose property it is. In this though, we are shown that doesn’t matter. The twins own the building, but one of them gets turned and once outside, he can’t come in unless invited, even though it’s his joint. When the big confrontation happens (the survivors had worked up weapons to fight with) it is just one of the random people still alive who invites them all in. And the fight itself seemed a bit one sided to me. When it is about 10 to 1 odds in favor of the vampires, that seems overwhelming. And many of them don’t make it, but the vampires do wind up almost all going back outside. And then subject to needing a new invite. Which makes me wonder how long the invite lasts for. Simply one crossing of the threshold?

The more I analyze this, the more I realize some additional things are bothering me. The rules aren’t great at times. During the fight, part of the place catches fire. But somehow the structure survives the night. And one last gripe here. The Klan comes a knocking in the morning to find an ambush set by Smoke. This little action movie sequence just felt out of place to me.

But then we get back to Sammie, and where the movie started in the church. With Sammie’s father begging him to put down the guitar and relinquish ties to the devil’s music. But Sammie is no longer the naive child he was merely 24 hours ago. And he walks away from family to embrace the Blues.

Which leads to a great end credit scene some 70 years later with an old Sammie playing in a nightclub.

For a 2 hour 17 minute movie, I can safely say that I thoroughly enjoyed 2 hours of it. And that is what leads me to 9 stars. I may have wavered there a bit and almost dropped it to an 8. I started this review with the thought that this is my third favorite vampire movie with Lost Boys and Near Dark as my top two. But this may have slipped a bit from top three status just by virtue of me writing this up.

If you have seen it, I’d love to hear your thoughts.