Temptation: A ‘Sinners’ Analysis

When Sammie Moore read 1 Corinthians 10:13, I knew exactly where this movie was going. Sort of.

If ‘Sinners’ wasn’t the final name of the movie, another name they could’ve went with was ‘Temptation.’ A little too on the nose and not as intriguing which is probably why they went with the aforementioned title. 

I’m sure I’m the millionth person to do an analysis on this movie but here goes. 

The Smokestack brothers sinned to get their fortune & as they said in the film, “better to deal with the devil they know” which was one of their intentions to move back to Mississippi to set up their club. 

Momentum starts in the film when Remmick a Caucasian vampire enters the film and the theme of temptation begins. 

He arrives at Joan & Bert’s house who are both white KKK members and their initial response was correct, we should be skeptical of this man who is in the middle of nowhere & wants to harbor in our home, no matter what he looks like. 

Native American men also arrive to the house looking for Remmick to get rid of him but Remmick offers gold & the couple fall for it. Temptation 1, Common Sense 0. 

Remmick was also white so he must’ve been alright. Right?

Enter the second theme of the movie, racism. 

If Joan & Bert had trusted the Native American man who came to their house in search of Remmick, the movie would’ve been over. But they favored greed & familiarity over doing the right thing. 

Next Remmick + Joan & Bert (who are both vampires now thanks to Remmick) show up to ‘Club Juke’ with a sign painted in red (by no coincidence I’m sure because of what’s about to take place there). 

The Smokestack brothers also convinced many of the townspeople to work for them with their blood money. This seems too good to be true but they all fall for it. Greed is the temptation they fall for & the score is now Temptation 2, Common Sense 0. 

Stack one of the Smokestack brothers who is reigniting his relationship with Mary lets her know that since opening the club they are already in the hole. Mary says that due to her being ‘white-passing’ despite her African American heritage (Hailee Steinfield actually has some in real life, which shocked me) she could find a way to get money from the evil trio & she falls for the exact same temptation as Joan & Bert did, greed and familiarity. Temptation 3, Common Sense 0. 

Mary returns to the party as a vampire & seduces Stack. She’s married to another man but this doesn’t stop Stack from having sex with her. He falls to a different temptation, sex. I would still say he fell to familiarity as well as he sees her as the ‘girl who got away.’ Temptation 4-0 against Common Sense. 

Everything goes super downhill from there, Grace Chow’s husband Bo (they are both Chinese townspeople who were hired for the gig) leaves the club to get the car (apparently this has become a meme haha), Cornbread the bouncer gets bit while taking a piss, & the main character Sammie & the other twin Smoke walk in on Mary killing & infecting Stack to become a vampire too. 

Mary & Stack get forced outside but then Grace discovers that Bo her husband became a vampire & he’s threatening to infect their daughter Lisa as well who is back in town. 

This provocation is a temptation for Grace & she values Lisa’s life more than all of the other survivors who are left in the club & invites the vampires in. Temptation 5, Common Sense 0. Some would agree with Grace, but I think they could’ve figured out a better solution. 

Annie who is Smoke’s ex wife ends up getting bit & he has to choose between living a lie with her on earth as a vampire or living a truth with her in the afterlife as real people. He stabs her in the heart with a wooden stake which symbolizes death to a fleeting life on earth & life to the real thing in the afterlife. Temptation 5, Common Sense 1. 

Smoke does face off against his now vampire brother Stack & is unable to kill him, instead he made a deal with Stack to leave Sammie alone for the rest of his life. I would give this point to common sense but like with Grace’s response it’s a bit of a gray area. 

Remmick attacks Sammie but Smoke saves him by putting a stake through his heart. The sun also comes up & incinerates all of the vampires (besides Mary & Stack). The sun may be an allegory to the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ & when He returns all evil will pass away, but maybe I’m reaching. 

Sammie returns to his church where his dad is a pastor & he decides to leave them behind & drives off with his guitar in a car. His dad thought that salvation for Sammie was to give up on music when making music was actually what ended up saving him. Temptation 5, Common Sense 3. 

Smoke also dies killing the Ku Klux Klan member who sold him the club, while getting killed in the process. He is reunited with Annie & his child who died while it was still a baby in the afterlife. Temptation 5, Common Sense 4. 

The film ends with Stack & Mary reuniting with Sammie who is now an old man. They are both still young because they are vampires & they offer him eternal life on earth, & instead he chooses eternal life in the afterlife instead. Common Sense & Temptation are tied at 5-5. 

Some other themes emerge throughout the film like how when the people become vampires they begin to sing folk music instead of blues music. 

The black people lose their identity & culture when they fully give in to their temptation. 

Remmick also wants Sammie to be a vampire because his music connects the past & the future together. 

I watched the honest trailer & they made a funny yet spot on joke that the vampires are actually record executives. 

We all know for example that Elvis Presley covered many songs that were first sang by black artists. The film ‘Dreamgirls’ did a great job of portraying this when Eddie Murphy’s character creates a hit song, & it gets ripped off when another artist creates the ‘white version’ of it. 

Something that was also interesting was when Sammie drove off towards the end of the movie, it felt more like he was leaving the rigidity & ‘construct’ of religion & not leaving his soul behind which is a relationship with God. 

It also felt like a bit of an oxymoron for Smoke to get into heaven after killing around twenty people. I then thought about it from a Biblical perspective as Smoke was killing evil people (literal KKK members) who intended to kill him & his brother first & how someone like king David fought in many battles against evil people yet he’s still regarded as a man after God’s own heart. 

Actually let me update the score one more time, the KKK member who sold the club to Smoke offers him money to let him live & Smoke turns it down & instead kills him instead. So Common Sense actually wins 6-5 against temptation. 👏

The biggest juxtaposition of the film was that Stack & Mary chose life on earth even if it meant death to their souls while Annie & Smoke chose life for their souls even if it meant death on earth. 

“For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world & forfeits his soul?” I think that verse lets you know which twin I thought made the right choice. 

In the end, “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man, but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.”

A thing that stuck with me throughout the movie was that the vampires HAD to be invited into the club, or else they had no authority being there. Temptation only has the power that we give to it in the first place. 

If Joan & Bert would’ve did the right thing by turning over Remmick to the Native Americans despite their shared ethnicity with him, innocent people would’ve been saved. If Mary & Stack chose to make money the right way by sticking with the poor townsfolk’s credits instead of taking ‘the devil’s money’ innocent people would’ve been saved. 

& lastly perhaps the biggest temptation of all, if Smoke & Stack chose to be honest businessmen instead of using blood money to build a club, they ALL would’ve been saved. 

In the end no temptation is too big to overcome it, even though we’re all sinners we all still have the opportunity to experience salvation, only IF we make the decision to choose it over gratification. 

Peace. ✌️