Sinners - Insert Witty Thing Here

I...still don't completely know how I feel about this movie. When I saw the trailer for this it looked interesting, but I didn't really know what to expect with it either. To me, it felt like evil spirits came to the opening night of the juke joint. Did NOT know it was vampires.

The plus side is they followed the rules of vampires for the most part. Blood, creatures of the night, need invites and what is that all important one? Oh right, THEY DON'T SPARKLE! The invite one was pushed a bit further though. Obviously, they can't enter a HOME without permission, but they were in a public space. The Juke Joint is a place to gather and drink and gamble, but its still technically speaking public...not a privately owned residence. So, they could enter without permission. At least in the Buffyverse and other similar types.

You spend the first third of the movie setting up the place. Twins "Smoke" and "Stack" (dual role by the great Michael B. Jordon) return home after fighting in the first world war and spending time learning the trade of business with a certain Chicago mobster...you know the one.

They buy an old sawmill for their place, owned by local racist and Klansman Hogwood (played friendly, but you knew otherwise). They get help with old friends for food, cooking, and even music from the local preachers son who is an amazing talent on the strings.

The relationships between all the characters are established and the party is in full swing. That, as usual, is where things go bad. Sammie's music is so good, it draws the vampires to the juke joint and they start killing and turning the clientele into vamps.

The fight of their lives begins as the remaining people try to survive the night and go to war with the vampires. Thankfully, "Smoke's" estranged ex-wife is into Hoodoo and knows a thing or two on how to fight them. There are mass casualties with only "Smoke" and musician Sammie.

Then the Klan arrives after Sammie heads to Sunday mass (as he promised his father). Because after fighting off vampires why not white Christian racists? "Smoke" dies, bleeding out, but sees the spirit of his wife and baby girl who died years before.

Sammie continues to use his talent through the years. Singing and playing the blues.

The story was interesting and the characters were great. The pacing felt a little slow to me though. You had to spend that time at the start of the movie showing the relationships of the brothers and people in town. All of it was contingent on what happened that night at opening night. Even with the intensity of the vampires getting in and the climactic fight, it felt slow then rushed to the ending.

While enjoyable I don't think this is one of those I'll put on my Halloween screenings. Might watch here and there at some point, just not going to rush to rewatch once it's streaming. The more I think about it, it was just okay. Interesting for sure, but no better or worse than other vampire movies I've seen.

3/5