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Black Panther and Creed director Ryan Coogler reunites with longtime collaborator Michael B. Jordan for Sinners, one of the most anticipated thrillers of the year. The director’s first foray into horror, it’s also a genre film shrouded in mystery, with rumours of vampires and Mississippi blues swirling around the internet.
Interviewed in a press conference by Juju Green on Monday, the director gave more details about what to expect from his first film back on celluloid since Fruitvale Station, as well as the movies that influenced Sinners, and the connection between the supernatural and the history of blues, where deals with the Devil are said to be made.
So, we’ve summarised what we learned about Coogler’s much-anticipated new film — including what you should watch before it comes out.
1. What is Sinners about?
Set in the 1930s Jim Crow-era South, Sinners blends history and horror with the power of the blues.
Jordan stars as twins Elijah and Elias, two men who return to their hometown and the lively music venue that provides a respite for segregated Black residents from the ever-present white threat. But there’s something supernaturally monstrous encroaching on the joint, and it could have something to do with the blues roaring from the stage.
Here’s the latest trailer:
Wunmi Mosaku, Jack O’Connell, Jayme Lawson, Omar Benson Miller, and Delroy Lindo also star, as well as Hailee Steinfeld who looks positively vampiric in the trailer. Plus, Coogler recruited longtime collaborators for the project, including cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw, production designer Hannah Beachler, and costume designer Ruth E. Carter, so expect Oscar-worthy detail here.
But wait, is Sinners all about vampires as the rumours say?
2. Sinners is more than a vampire film
There’s been talk of vampires appearing in Sinners, and Coogler confirmed it during the press conference on Monday. However, the director described the film as “genre fluid,” and insisted there was more to the film than the usual bloodsuckers-by-numbers path.
“There are vampires in the film but it’s really about a lot more than just that,” Coogler said. “It’s one of many elements, and I think we’re gonna surprise people with it.”
“When you think about the vampire as it exists, it’s got an association and a counterpart in almost every culture, but it is the supernatural creature that’s most associated with seduction, that’s most associated with choice,” he added later. “You know, in that aspect, it’s something that’s very present in, you know, blues music was often called the devil’s music.”
“There are vampires in the film but it’s really about a lot more than just that.”
During the interview, Coogler unpacked the duality of blues, often torn between secular and spiritual spaces, and mentioned the stories associated with blues legends Tommy Johnson and Robert Johnson in which the musicians were said to have sold their souls to the Devil. And if you watch the new Sinners trailer, a voice over speaks of “legends of people with the gift of making music so true they can conjure spirits from the past and future.” It’s a gift that “can bring fame and fortune but it also can pierce the veil between life.”
The film’s historical setting also meant Coogler’s team enlisted consultants of Hoodoo culture, the ancestral religion and spiritual practice created by enslaved African Americans during the period, which plays a major part in the film.
3. Sinners‘ Mississippi setting is personal to Ryan Coogler
Sinners is set in Mississippi, a place with personal connection to Coogler and his family, particularly his grandfather and his uncle.
“My maternal grandfather is from Mississippi and my Uncle James, who passed away while I was finishing up Creed, also from Mississippi. It was a place that I had never been. My maternal grandfather passed before I was born. We grew up in a house that he built in Oakland after he had moved to California. And I was fortunate to have a really, really close relationship with my Uncle James,” said Coogler.
“This movie, the seed of it started with that relationship with my uncle. He would listen to blues music all the time — he would only talk about Mississippi when he was listening to that music. And he had a profound effect on my life. I got a chance to kind of dig into my own ancestral history with this film, and it’s been extremely rewarding.”
The blues, a genre born in the Mississippi Delta, plays a massive part in Sinners, with the film’s music consultants’ list “a mile long” and composer Ludwig Göransson at the helm.
“Before [Göransson] was a composer he was a guitarist because his father is a guitarist and taught him,” said Coogler. “His father was obsessed with the musicians from this era, from this region. We actually did the Blues Trail when we were researching the film and doing some early location scouting. His dad came along, we went to B.B. King’s club in Indianola, Mississippi, and played on the stage.”
4. What to watch before you see Sinners
Sinners is Coogler’s first foray into horror himself, stemming from a lifelong love of the genre.
“It was my first time experimenting with the genre head on and I loved it, man. I got to dig into the films that I loved coming up and get to analyze why I loved them, what drew me to them and try to really lean on those influences and figure out a way, you know, how to tell my story in that space,” said Coogler.
Coogler mentioned a whole host of influences, films, TV shows, and books you should absolutely get into before seeing Sinners. This includes Coen brothers movies Inside Llewyn Davis, O Brother Where Art Thou?, Fargo, and No Country For Old Men, as well as Stephen King’s legendary vampire novel, Salem’s Lot.
“Robert Rodriguez is a big one. I think it’d be on the nose, it’d be very easy to make comparisons, but it’s actually quite close to to The Faculty, quite a bit, which is a remake of The Thing, which is one of my favorite movies, definitely my favorite horror movie,” said Coogler. “So it’s a lot of [John] Carpenter in the film as well.”
“But truthfully, the biggest influences are not in a cinema. The [Stephen King] novel, Salem’s Lot, that’s a massive influence on the film. And then there’s a real deep cut influence — my favorite thing ever made is Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone, OK? My favorite episode of that is an episode called “The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank.” You know, Salem’s Lot and “The Last Rites of Jeff Myrtlebank” are probably the biggest influences.”
5. Sinners sees Ryan Coogler back on celluloid
Coogler dug into the actual film cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw worked with for Sinners, which will delight photography and film nerds.
“It’s my first film back on celluloid since Fruitvale. I’m a big fan of the medium, so I was excited to be back working there, and it made a lot of sense for the time period to bring it back to that kind of analog capture,” said Coogler.
“Working with Warner Brothers, they allowed us to shoot the film on large format. So it’s the first film I’ve ever done like this. It alternates between Ultra Panavision, which is a 2.76:1 aspect ratio; we also filmed quite a few scenes with 1.43:1 IMAX, 15-perf. But every shot is large format photography and it makes for a really unique look. It’s intimate. It feels old and and fresh at the same time. And this format is capturing some of our finest craftspeople in Autumn [Durald Arkapaw], Hannah [Beachler], and Ruth [E. Carter], so it’s been phenomenal to see the work shine.”
Notably, Coogler said Sinners is a movie made to be seen in cinema with a crowd, and paid tribute to the film as one meant to be commentated aloud on.
“Horror films, specifically in Black culture, we’re known for talking to the screen. This film was made to be talked to,” he said.
6. Sinners has twin consultants
In the film, Jordan stars as twins Elijah and Elias, playing both characters with their unique characteristics.
“What we are dealing with in the film is a lot of archetypical characters, you know? And these are identical twins, but they also are like that concept of twins,” said Coogler, pointing out that twins in a community can often be “notorious, kind of local celebrities.”
Sinners wouldn’t be the first film to use one actor to play twins, a technique that often really bugs me as a twin myself, but at least Coogler had actual twins consulting on the film.
“It’s unique in that they are identical twins, but they are two different people. It’s not as simple as two sides of the same coin in that there’s a dynamic that exists with identical twins. It’s kind of known,” said Coogler.
“We had twin consultants on this movie — two friends of mine that are actually filmmakers as well, Logan and Noah Miller, from Northern California where I’m at — and they were able to consult and work with Mike on the mindset of sharing a womb with somebody, you know. And growing up with them and how unique of a dynamic that is — but at the same time not making it a caricature. So the differences between these two guys are slight but they are there.”
Sinners opens in theaters March 7.
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“Sinners” director Ryan Coogler gave more details about his first horror film, including whether vampires are in it or not.
