Amid the endless churn of remakes and spin-offs, latest box office horror Sinners (directed by Ryan Coogler) proves that cinema is still capable of originality and searing creative brilliance.
Set in the Jim Crow era of 1930s in the US south, Elijah ‘Smoke’ Moore and Elias ‘Stack’ Moore (both played by Michael B Jordan) are twins returning home to the Mississippi Delta to open up a juke joint after a stint as gangsters in Chicago. The twins’ tenure of crime in the north ended under dubious circumstances but their new start back home with the aid of their friends is foiled by greater and more supernatural evil than the troubles they had fled.
The movie is a rich tapestry that pushes the boundaries of conventional horror and does not rely on gore to overcompensate for a weak narrative. The story is immersive, beautiful, poignant and deeply human — a rare feat to achieve in horror.
The 1930s was a period of racial segregation in the US south, marked by casual violence such as lynch mobs and the movie’s ability to overlay supernatural horror onto these everyday acts of terror is ingenious.
Jordan’s portrayal of twins was so distinct and crisp that it was easy to forget the roles are played by one actor. CGI-effects notwithstanding, Jordan’s grasp of the differences between the twins was so nuanced that he was able to convincingly execute their symbiotic bond.
This masterful performance was the driving force of the plot’s fluidity because Jordan brought their personalities to the surface with uncanny realism.
The cast is replete with talent that brought depth to the characters where conventional horror flattens them into caricatures.
Sammy ‘Preacher Boy’ is the heart of the movie because he embodies its central theme; the otherworldly power of music.
The movie opens with a reference to music’s capacity to pierce the veil between the material and spiritual worlds and though Sammy’s gift unleashes a harrowing evil, in the end it also affirms to him is desire to worship at the altar of music rather than the church pulpit his father expects of him.
The movie is filled with abstractions that may go over the heads initially of an SA audience because of the film’s US roots. It makes no attempt to over explain the depth and specificity of its symbolism and although this may difficult to grasp in the first screening it allows for multiple viewings of the movie that with each screening reveals something new.
Sinners is genre-defying, layered, original, courageous and will surely be heralded as a movie for the ages in years to come. You can stream it on Amazon Prime Video
