"Sinners" is lauded as an intelligent horror film that masterfully intertwines deep character development, rich thematic exploration of cultural assimilation versus preservation, and a compelling plot, rather than relying solely on jump scares.
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Sinners is a masterclass in how to write
intelligent horror. And I'll tell you
what, there was a moment I became sold
on Sinners and knew I was in for
something special. I was half brace for
Mary to die because she wants to get it
on with Stack, as is the case in a lot
of horror where the first character dies
pretty much just because they're
promiscuous. And it's always a girl,
too, for some reason. But we didn't get
that. Instead, she goes out to the
vampires claiming she wants to see if
they have money to spend. Only Remick
sees right through her, saying she came
for a different reason entirely.
>> Cuz you're in some deep, deep pain that
money can't fix. You came over here for
fellowship and love.
>> Fellowship and love.
>> She feels the lack of a people that she
can identify with, so goes out to the
vampires in the naive hope that she
might find them there. It's such an
interesting mistake to lead to a
character's death. It underlines the
story's entire theme. And my god, wow.
Like what a way to do it. I am in awe.
And to see it from another angle, take a
moment that conventionally might be
called bad due to it being an out of
nowhere jump scare. Only it works really well.
well.
>> My son has felt the call of sin.
>> It works because this prologue is from
after the climax and his father is
reminding him of Remick the baddie. When
he looks at his dad, he is seeing the
big bad vampire because they both want
the same thing from him to cast away his
cultural roots. And this flash of a
scare primes the audience for Sammy's
internal struggle as well as the theme.
It's the opposite of cheap, and it's so
refreshing to see a horror that's
actually thoughtful with how it scares
the audience. This is really the core of
the film, the main reason why I'd call
this an intelligent horror. Because
while you'd think the Smoke Stack Twins
are the protagonists, it's really Sammy.
Every other character moves around him
as their own unique cog in this
sublimely written machine. He's why the
vampires came.
>> You're the one I came for. I sensed you.
I want to see my people again. I'm
trapped here. But your gifts can bring
them to me.
>> Sammi's struggle underpins everything
the movie is out to say. His gift with
music means he can help his people
connect with their culture. Meanwhile, a
whole bunch of characters are pushing
him to give all of that up. This comes
from Remick, but also his allies.
>> Well, you better enjoy the rest of the
night, cuz this your last juke. Drop the
guitar signal. Put it down in the name
of God.
>> His father is a preacher, a Christian,
and Christianity isn't a part of his
heritage. It's something that was forced
upon his people after their culture was
assimilated by the West. His father
didn't just choose assimilation. He
chose to leap in head first and convert
his community into believing the same
thing he does. Only Sammy's conflicted
because preaching doesn't really move
him. In fact, the only time he's ever
touched the divine is when he's playing
the blues. And why is that?
>> Blues wasn't forced on us like that
religion. No, sir. We brought this with
us home.
>> In fact, every major character has a
stance here. They land on either side of
choosing to preserve one's culture or
assimilate into the more dominant one
invading their lives. Sammy is stuck
right in the middle of this. The story's
big question when you strip all else
away is which side of the theme will
Sammy end up on. Everything I've laid
out is already really clever. It's hard
to find a horror film thinking about
things with this level of depth. But the
more we peel back the layers here, the
more you see how this permeates through
the minutiae of the story, you'll see
just how genius this writing is. Take
Annie. Out of everyone in the
production, she's the most in tune with
her heritage. No one is a bigger
believer in sticking with one's culture
than her. It is no coincidence that
she's the first to realize what their
weaknesses are by throwing the pickled
garlic. It's her who recognizes the true
nature of the threat.
>> These ain't hate,
they're vampires. The more in tune with
your rooms you are, the better you are
at noticing when they're under attack.
It makes intuitive sense. And take the
climax, she gets bitten and asks Smoke
to put a stake in her heart. She is the
only character to normally die during
the vampire threat, choosing death over
assimilation. Her convictions on the
theme are that strong.
>> That's what I'm talking about.
>> It's brilliant writing. Then take Smoke
and Stack. They both believe the
opposite here. Stack is totally okay
with embracing culture that isn't his.
Smoke isn't. When the vampires start
their first song, Stack is bobbing his
little head and he's having a great
time. While Smoke is unimpressed and
threatens them with his gun after Smoke
scares them off, Stack says,
>> "Y'all have a nice night."
>> Stack, when he tries to tempt Slim, uses
foreign goods to do it.
>> What you got there, boy?
>> What is this?
>> It's a Irish beer.
>> Smoke's love interest, meanwhile, is
Annie, the one most in touch with their
culture. the only person who dies and
doesn't end up a vampire. Stack's love
interest is Mary, the one least in touch
with their culture and the first to
become a vampire. It was perfect. Perfect.
Perfect.
>> And of course, let's look at Mary. She's
got black heritage, but she's mostly
white. And while most of the characters
are accommodating to her, there's this
undercurrent that she doesn't really fit
in. She lacks the same roots as
everybody else. She hasn't integrated
with any culture, not black or white,
making her especially easy prey to the
vampires. Like even the chalk tour,
they're only on screen for a bit. But
them being competent vampire hunters who
have Remik on the run when we first see
him isn't coincidental. These guys have
recognized Remic as the monster he is
and have totally rejected him, letting
us guess at their starts on the theme
one of total non-integration.
>> He's not what he seems.
God forbid you let him into your home.
This clicks well with the setting
because this was in the middle of the
residential school era when native
resistance saw a massive resurgence due
to how children were being taken away by
the government. But before I break it
down further, I reckon there is a
fundamental reason why Sinners is so
good. While a lot of horror out there
isn't. The core of it is because 80% of
what makes for a great horror story is
just what makes any great story. Deep
characters, rich themes, an exciting
plot. That remaining 20%, well, that's
whether or not it scares the audience
properly. And I say 80%, it's that high
because often a horror story is labeled
as one, but it isn't really that scary.
However, because it's still a welltold
story, people will love it. As a great
example, Sinners. It's definitely a
horror, but there aren't that many
moments in it that shake you to your
core with fright. Then you've got
Aliens, another great one. It was
nowhere near as scary as that first
film, but because the characters are so
good, the action is so fun, the plot's
so tight, few cared about the relative
lack of scares. For many people, they
prefer it to the original film. Now, I'm
not saying horror shouldn't be scary.
Obviously, being scary is a virtue here,
but writers have gotten so focused on
that 20%, asking, "How do we scare the
audience?" that they neglect every other
aspect of the story. If you ask me, this
is the real root of the rot in recent
horror. A great example is The Nun 2. If
you've never heard of it, that's fair.
It came out two years ago, and like most
horror films, is immediately forgotten
about because there's little special
about it. But in the film, they have
some good scares there, to be fair.
There's one where magazines are turning
in the wind, and the figure of an evil
nun gradually forms before grabbing her.
It's top stuff, very creative. But the
fact these little moments are the only
parts of this film anyone can remember
betrays the reason for its mediocrity.
These scares are where all of the focus
went into. So they're the only things
good about the film. But then take
Sinners. We got a good few scares in
This scare does a ton for the story. So
Cornbread walked off to use the toilet
ages ago. Everything went to hell and
he's finally come back a suspiciously
long time later.
>> Where the hell you been at now?
>> Then he asks to come in.
>> All right. Well, let me in so I can help.
help.
>> But they don't say yes, so he asks a
second time.
>> Just step aside and let me on in now.
>> And that gets them very suspicious. Why
does he need to be invited in? Then the
tensions ratchet up until he's told to
sod off. He demands they at least pay
him for the night's work. They do, and
that's when we get our scare. This isn't
some solitary fright. It's actually
integral to the story structure. It
comes at a point usually called fun and
games where they test out the rules of
the world and learn the true nature of
what they're facing. This whole scene
tells the characters that the vampires
can convincingly act as the people they
once were. And also the important rule
that vampires have to be invited in. But
most of all, it's the kick in the ass
the characters need telling them it's
time to prepare for a big fight. It
marks a key progression point in the
film. what the nun too and others of his
ilk did. It's a writing mistake I like
to call the flaw of moment to moment.
It's a common writing mistake in
general, but it has utterly plagued
recent horror. I've fallen for it
before, so has my fellow creator Nerd
Writer. In fact, in a video of his, he
put it quite beautifully. Most of the
student films I directed revolved around
a few moments that I thought were going
to blow people away. If I could just
navigate the story there, that would be
enough. The moment would do all the
work. then I'd just navigate to the next
one. For this reason, my student films
weren't that good.
>> But there's a great question people have
been asking. Why is Remik Irish? It's a
really interesting choice and even more
interesting. Why does he speak with an
American accent?
>> Can't Can't we just for one night
just all be family?
>> Only to reveal his Irishness alongside
It's because the Irish at the time were
looked down upon as the dregs of
society, secondclass citizens. There's a
reason Rick has an American accent even
deep into the climax when there's no
point putting up a front anymore because
he's assimilated into the American
culture and has lost touch with his own
roots. The Irish at the time evaded
their persecution in the US by in a
sense doing exactly what Remick did and
advocates for. Erase your identity and
assimilate. Vampirism is an allegory for
assimilating culture. It reflects the
cold truth how once you become a
vampire, you don't need to worry about
being hunted because you've joined the
group that's oppressing you. This is all
playing into setting, too, and why
choosing the right one is so often
underrated. Many writers get lazy with
it here. The cabin in the woods or
haunted house tropes are perfect
examples. I've yet to see a story where
it's a cabin in the woods and that
setting is anything other than a
justification for plot to happen because
it's isolated and they can't reach the
police. The setting should be bolstering
every aspect of the story, not just
plot. Remick being Irish, that aspect of
history at the time clicks so well with
the theme, as does the general setting,
the Jim Crow South, that core thematic
divide. It's not just permeating the
plot and the characters, but the setting
too. That of a segregated town still
living under the shadow of slavery
through sharecropping. These are a
displaced people, one struggling to put
down cultural roots without having those
roots be tainted by the loom of western
culture such as Christianity. It's the
perfect setting for this story. And a
moment that's just so good is the very
climax. A power tip. The way your hero
defeats the villain should underpin the
theme. Remix coming after Sammy and
Sammy starts praying. Christianity is
great at protecting from monsters. It
helps with exorcisms and usually stops
vampires in their tracks. But in this
story, it makes him happy. He joins in
with the prayer.
>> Give us this day our daily bread and
forgive us our
>> long ago the men who stole my father's
land forced these words upon earth. I
hated those men, but the words still
bring me comfort. This is all subverting
the normal vampire formula, but it works
because Christianity is something that
he assimilated himself. It's the main
religion of the dominant culture that's
been seeping into this town. It's
essentially everything that Remik stands
for. Sammy saying the Lord's Prayer to
protect from Remic is a sign that he
hasn't truly completed his arc. It
didn't work. So, what does Sammy do
next? He reaches for his guitar, a
symbol of his culture, and smacks Remic
with it. And it burns him terribly,
buying him the time he needs for smoke
to come save the day because it's got
silver in it. Now, that is some damn
fine symbolism. Sinners is a story
firing on all cylinders all the way
through. I've yet to see another horror
film like it, one that's so diligent
with how it handles its ideas. If there
had to be a big lesson to learn here is
that you shouldn't make the mistake of
thinking of your characters as one
thing, your themes is another, and your
setting as the other. All of these
elements in a great story, they should
be blending together. So much so, it
annoys any potential video essaist
trying to divide it all into neat
sections for their video because it's
all so seamless. So, I've been inactive
on the Closer Look for 5 months now, and
there's a reason why. I've been working
on the coolest video I have ever made
and it's called How to Write a
Psychopath. I noticed that while
everyone in their mum is making how to
write dialogue top 10 tips for character
arcs videos that more or less all blend
together, nobody is doing topic deep
dives on the really hard to write issues
that require a ton of research to get
right, like PTSD, autism, psychopathy,
largely because the effort required is
enormous. These are all topics I'm going
to tackle for you guys, and the amount
of scientific papers I had to read to
make that psychopath one made me a bit
crazy, but it's finally done. In it, I
break down why Hannibal Lectar is
actually incredibly unrealistic. Someone
like him has never existed. While Willy
Wonka is actually a textbook psychopath,
it's scary how well he fits the
diagnosis. I have never been more proud
of a video. I've never put more effort
into a video. And while it's ready for
you to watch, it's not on YouTube yet.
instead. It's out early on Nebula. I'm
doing something special with Nebula from
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there. You're going to have to wait a
while for the psychopath video to come
out because after it is another mega
video called Hollywood can't write
genius characters where I break down the
many, many ways people have screwed up
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psychopath today. But thanks for watching.
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