Ryan Coogler’s Sinners holds up a haunting mirror to America’s unfinished history.
America’s deepest scars are once again in full view, and Coogler’s vampire horror film Sinners refuses to let us look away. Set in 1932 Mississippi during Jim Crow, this isn’t just another horror flick – it’s a mirror forcing us to stare at the monsters we’ve created and continue to ignore. The film follows twin brothers (both played by Michael B. Jordan) who return to their hometown after working for Al Capone in Chicago, only to find that the true horror runs deeper than any supernatural force — rooted in the poisoned soil of American racism.
With Sinners, Ryan Coogler—the architect of Marvel’s Black Panther—abandons superhero sheen for mud-soaked 1932 Mississippi, serving a genre stew of racial terror, Delta blues, and blood-sucking immortals. Here are 7 Razor-Sharp Flashpoints in Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners” That America Can’t Afford to Ignore.
1. Hollywood’s Racial Reckoning Is Long Overdue
Let’s be brutally honest: the film industry has spent decades whitewashing America’s history. Coogler, the highest-grossing Black director in history, is forcing a confrontation that many would rather avoid. When Black Panther dominated the box office in 2018, industry publications labeled it “the highest-grossing film ever made by a Black person” rather than simply acknowledging it was the highest-grossing domestic film that year, period.
“Yes, it was the highest grossing film ever made by a Black person. It was also the highest grossing film domestically that year made by anybody. And for some reason that was never talked about.” – Coogler
This erasure reflects a painful truth: America remains desperately uncomfortable with Black excellence. Ask yourself: why does the industry still insist on qualifying Black achievements with racial identifiers? The answer reveals more about our society than most can stomach.
2. America’s Most Important Cultural Export Was Born in Oppression
While you’re streaming your favorite pop hits, remember this: the Delta Blues- arguably America’s most significant contribution to global culture-was created by people living under “a backbreaking form of American apartheid,” as Coogler puts it. These artists, denied humanity daily, created something so profound it transformed global music forever.
Yet how many Americans know this history? How many realize that the music industry deliberately segregated artists by race, creating artificial “genres” to maintain white supremacy? When a Black artist and white artist performed identical songs, one was labeled “race records” while the other became “bluegrass,” “country,” or “rock and roll.” This deliberate cultural apartheid continues to shape our understanding of American music today.
3. Vampires as the Ultimate Metaphor for America’s Exploitation
Coogler’s choice of vampires isn’t accidental-it’s devastatingly precise. What better metaphor for a system built on extracting life, labor, and culture from Black bodies than creatures who drain blood for immortality? The vampire (led by Irish-immigrant Remmick), with its associations of “seduction and lust and material gain,” reflects capitalism’s parasitic relationship with Black creativity.
When Cornbread can’t enter without an invitation in that chilling scene, the metaphor becomes unmistakable: America has always needed Black culture and labor while simultaneously rejecting Black humanity. The vampire myth resonates precisely because it mirrors this exploitative relationship that continues today in music, sports, fashion, and beyond.
4. The Mississippi Delta’s Blood-Soaked Soil Remains Unacknowledged
Coogler’s research took him to Dockery Plantation, considered the birthplace of Delta Blues. What he found was disturbing: “they were making this music in slave quarters” surrounded by “immense wealth” from stolen labor. America’s musical heartland sits atop generations of exploitation that remains unreconciled. Dockery Plantation is widely regarded as the birthplace of Delta Blues, with legendary musicians like Charley Patton and Robert Johnson having lived and played there
How many of us have visited historical sites built by enslaved people without acknowledging the blood in the soil? When was the last time you considered that your favorite music genre might have roots in communities fighting for their very humanity? This willful blindness to history’s horrors allows the wounds to fester.
5. Genre as a Weapon of White Supremacy
Perhaps the most incendiary aspect of “Sinners” is how it exposes genre classification as a tool of racism. As Coogler explains, the film deliberately “rages against the concept of genre,” forcing audiences to question these artificial divisions. This isn’t academic-it’s about how power structures maintain control through categorization.
Every time you see “urban” music categories or hear discussions of “crossover appeal,” you’re witnessing the legacy of this segregation. The music industry still ghetto-izes Black artists while allowing white artists to move freely between genres. The consequences? Black artists receive less recognition, fewer resources, and limited commercial opportunities despite their foundational contributions.
6. The Horror of American History Remains Deliberately Buried
“We don’t look at that time enough,” Coogler states about the Jim Crow era, and he’s right. America’s educational system consistently sanitizes this period, preferring comfortable myths to uncomfortable truths. “Sinners” forces a confrontation with the everyday terror that defined Black existence in 1932-a terror with direct lines to today’s systemic inequalities.
How many Americans understand that vampires are less frightening than the real monsters who lynched, raped, and terrorized Black communities with impunity? How many realize that these systems weren’t dismantled but merely redesigned? The horror isn’t that vampires might exist-it’s that we continue to look away from the real bloodsuckers in our midst.
7. Ownership and Control Remain Revolutionary Acts
Perhaps most controversial is the film’s production deal itself. Warner Brothers agreed to relinquish ownership of “Sinners” to Coogler after 25 years-a move that reportedly “horrified” rival film companies. This reaction speaks volumes about an industry built on extracting value from creative labor while maintaining permanent control. Coogler’s contract with Warner Bros. for “Sinners” is highly unusual: he will receive ownership of the film after 25 years, along with first-dollar gross and final cut
When Black creators demand ownership of their work, they’re challenging centuries of exploitation. Every time you stream content on platforms that underpay creators or buy from companies that appropriate cultural expressions without compensation, you’re perpetuating this vampire-like relationship. The real question is: whose blood are you drinking?
America stands at a crossroads, and “Sinners” demands we choose a path forward. Will we continue ignoring the vampires in our midst, or will we finally drive a stake through the heart of systems designed to extract without consent? The choice is yours, but silence is no longer an option. The monsters are already inside the house.
