N Crowd, have you seen the current trending movie at the box office? If you have not yet watched Sinners, get your tickets and head to the theaters— it is a magical experience you don’t want to miss. The film highlights themes of Black American spirituality by showcasing practices such as Hoodoo and ancestral veneration. While some religious people find the title of the movie and its horror theme to be off-putting, Sinners serves as an important critique of the church. It reminds us that the demonization of Black ancestral spiritual practices is rooted in colonialism and slavery.
Demonization of Black Spiritual Practices
Christian Supremacy is the belief that Christianity is superior to other religions and is thus considered the default religion. This belief stems from societal and religious indoctrination that starts from infancy into adulthood. Sinners is a historical reminder that religion was forced onto Black Americans via slavery by violently stripping their culture, familial ties, and spiritual practices. The forced Christian assimilation lifestyle, using religion as an oppressive tool, has been passed down from generation to generation. The demonization and ban of ancestral spiritual practices led to religious syncretism—the blending of different belief systems into one.
Before colonization—the cultural and political imposition of outsiders on native land—Africans embraced various ancestral spiritual practices without stigma. However, spiritual and psychological warfare among enslaved Black folk led to a loss of identity and internalized shame about ancestral practices. Religious syncretism allowed some Black enslaved ancestors to maintain parts of their spiritual practices by infusing them with Christian beliefs. This newly formed blending of traditions allowed Black enslaved people in the Americas to form African-influenced spiritual practices such as Voodoo, Santeria, and Hoodoo.
Hoodoo Representation
Sinners is intentional about the depiction of Hoodoo: a Black American spiritual practice that developed during the transatlantic slave trade. When we are introduced to Annie (Wunmi Mosaku), who is a hoodoo practitioner, we learn that she created a “mojo bag” that has protected Smoke (Michael B Jordan) throughout his travels. We are shown Annie performing rootwork—the incorporation of herbs and roots for intentions such as protection or healing. Sinners also highlights Hoodoo lore through the mention of evil spirits called haints. Annie’s shop is colored Haint Blue, reminding viewers of the importance of painting your porch blue to ward off such energies.
Annie is also showcased doing the Hoodoo practice of “throwing bones,” which uses spiritual charms such as bones and shells to interpret divinatory messages. Through this ancestral practice, Sinners foreshadows the death of Annie, who convinces Smoke to kill her before turning into a vampire. This is very important for Annie because she desires access to the ancestral realm—something vampires cannot access. Smoke also chooses death at the end of Sinners by taking off the protection bag Annie had updated for him after their reunion. Considering how Smoke isn’t a believer of spiritual work, Annie’s protection bag is symbolic of the power of ancestral protection. In their final shot together, Annie and Smoke are both reunited in the ancestral realm with their baby, who had passed away.
Ancestral Veneration
A big aspect of Hoodoo practice is ancestral veneration, so it is no surprise that we see a burial altar for Annie and Smoke’s child in Sinners. The first time Smoke goes to visit Annie, he first visits the burial site, which displays a bottle of milk and a stone with the baby’s fingerprints. This echoes the importance of ancestral veneration, honoring the memory of people who have passed through offerings. This is another traditional African spiritual practice that is demonized by the church due to the belief that it is ancestral worship. However, honoring our ancestors by communing with them and seeking their guidance was a common practice before colonization and slavery.
Sammie (Miles Caton) also engages in ancestral veneration by conjuring the ancestral spirits through his transformative musical performance at the juke joint. Considered one of the most spiritually transcendent scenes on screen, the infamous dance scene masterfully highlighted the power of ascending through music. This pivotal scene is a reminder that there are numerous ways to commune with the ancestors beyond building an altar. Sinners further showcases how Sammie’s power to conjure spirits through music can also attract the negative energies—Remmick (Jack O’Connell) and his vampire clan.
Sammie Chooses the Blues
Remmick is a brilliant villain because you empathize with his desire to connect with his ancestors through music. This deep desire draws him toward Sammie’s musical gifts, and he forcibly turns other people into vampires so they can join his fellowship. Sinners humanizes Remmick’s desire for connection and community, but he ultimately employs colonizer tactics by attempting to steal Sammie’s gift for his gain.
When Sammie is in the lake facing off Remmick towards the end of Sinners, he starts reciting the Lord’s prayer. To Sammie’s surprise, Remmick and his vampire clan also join in on the recital, and he proceeds to explain that Christianity was also forced onto his people in Ireland. Remmick acknowledges that the word still gives him comfort despite his hate for the colonizers who enforced Christianity. Remmick further mocks Sammie by baptizing him 3 times. This scene is a discomforting reminder that Christian religious practices were used to justify the enslavement of Black people.
Sinners further critiques the church in the final scene, where Sammie returns to his father’s church after the ordeal of surviving a vampire attack. His father convinces him to drop the guitar, but he defies him and drives out to Chicago to pursue the blues instead. This echoes back to the infamous dance scene where Delta Slim (Delroy Lindo) affirms how the blues is something Black people brought from Africa, unlike Christianity, which was forced on them.
Despite being constantly told by his preacher father that singing the blues is synonymous with sinning, Sammie chooses the power of his gift. Like Black ancestral practices, his gift has been demonized by the church, but Sammie values the power of connecting to his ancestors. The gift he was convinced was evil was the same gift Remmick valued, emphasizing the importance of decolonizing religion and embracing our spiritual gifts.
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