Sinners: The Horror That Deserved to be High Art

Sinners: 

The Horror That Deserved to be High Art

by Graham Swanson

Sugar Shack’ by Ernie Barnes

High Art considered the Horror genre to be a plague for decades. The film academy that determines best picture strictly awarded the presitge to dramas and biopocs. Films like The Thing and The Shining were ignored. Today the academy is in transition. The art world tried to throw us away, but we remain to this day.

 We shall remain long after Hollywood is dust. Humans have been telling eachother scary stories since the days of the Dinopethicus. It's an element of our archaic survival that helps the human mind overcome fear, and prepare to face extreme danger. 

The champion of the Horror genre in this award arena was Sinners. The film earned the nomination for best picture for its storytelling and artistry. However the High Art standards of the Academy undervalue the horror genre, and once more they trampled on Horror's forbidden power. 

Sinner's wasn't a slasher film. It was thoughtful, historoc, unique, and not even all that horrorifc. The writer's of this film knew how it would be recieved so they made sure to dullen the edge of the blade of horror and focus on the music and story.  

Sinner's was written during the COVID lockdowns. It's about people trapped in a night club during the Great Depression. White vampires want inside. When they can't get in, they want to take the Blues musician. The implication is that these are not blood sucking vampires, but culture sucking vampires. They feed off the creative people, and destroy the nightclub- where the culture is being protected. 

The approach Sinner's takes to the art of horror is soft. There's no visual shock. Not rivoting suspense, no jump scares. 

It's all existential. Millions of people saw this movie indoors, very much like how they experienced the dread of the Covid Pandemic while in lockdown. Fearing an invisable danger outdoors. The information floating around outside. Even on a walk down an opaque lane, the world felt quiet. This movie revolves around that anxiety like medicine.  

It's morality. What we regard as right and wrong become gray in a crisis. The Sins commited in this film are not even commited by the Vampire. It's the people in the "Juke Joint". They are Sinners, and each character inside represents one of the "7 deadly Sins". Greed, Wrath, Lust, Sloth, Pride, Gluttony, Envy. 

It's a social critique. This movie came out when it did for a reason. It uses a Vampire motif to symbolize racism and cultural appropration. The act of drinking blood here represents the damage done by white supremicsits by exploiting black people, economicaly draining black communties, and feeding from their culture.

The only question with the film is if it's a Hollywood Progressivism power fantasy, and does that draw attention from the horror? Indeed it feels like a rallying cry from the BLM riots of 2020 rather than the horror of the POST COVID era. It could've been a horror masterpiece but they decided to feed the social discussions rather than embellish or embrace the art of horror. For example, what turns humans into vampires? In this film, it seems like all they do is touch a man and BAM he's a vampire right away. There's no transition, no longing for the moon, no crying blood. Very friendly to the High Art crowd, who just came here for the music and cinematagraphy. 

 In 50 years, when the politics has shifted, will this movie still stand up? The historic setting stands up in a modern setting, the criticism that rock n roll was "stolen" holds up in a modern context. In this sense, it's not horror in the same way a horror fan would recognize. It's a Blues movie through a horror lense. It's a film that defines the time it was made. The thoughts, fears, concerns of the Progressive art crowd within cinema has today were alive back in the 30's too. 

The direction this movie takes us in is not one of a coming apacalypse. It begins with abandonment. It's really about a father and son who come from very different places (the father with religion and the son with his guitar). The Father chooses religion over his son, so his son departs with his guitar.  

It might be a stretch, but there is SOMETHING coming for these artists. I tend to make blame and point my finger and call them out for having silver spoons, but truth is the vampire that is lurking beyond their creative habitat is not some folk singer. Its AI. 

Hollywood has never had this problem before. It's always been tight knit and extremely selective. Men like Harvey Wienstein were picking the what movies got made. They were picking who won the awards. They don't like outsiders coming and telling them what art is good or bad or what people like or dont like. They picked Woodie Allen movies instead of Alien for a nomination. 

"The man married his daughter, but at least he's not into low brow movies", I imagine they said over tea. Today, that cup of tea is cold. Men in seats of power like that fear nothing more than being infiltrated. His writers are unionized. He is afraid too. He looks at posters on the wall and remembers 

Hollywood has let everyone down at some point.

 The iconic Bela Legosi. He could've played Dracula until he died. Everyone alive at that time would've recognized him as Dracula. Instead they kept trying to make him into the Wolf Man or Frankenstein and his career fizzled out. That wasn't Bela's fault. He didn't want to be in those crappy movies, he wanted to be Dracula. No one since has owned the role like that. Other actors have played Dracula before, but Bela WAS Dracula. 

It gets worse. Horror was the first thing that film discovered. Shadow and wierd angles can make boring stuff look wierd and creepy. Silent movies gave us the indistinguishable and horrfying Count Orloc from Nosferatu in 1924. Yet it's never been honored by presitgous members of the Hollywood elite. Of Silent Movies, it is Birth of the Nation that earned their hallowed accolades. The president endorsed it, hollywood loved it, D.W Griffith the director was provided every luxary the producers had to offer. They wanted himto make more movies that spread a dangerous, evil message to the uneducated masses. Sequals to Birth of the Nation were planned. Recruitement into the KKK sky rocketed. The film was preserved by the Library of Congress. 

They STILL call the Horror movie unworthy of their admiration. The horror movie can reach the human mind a way no other movie does. There's the thrill of danger, but it's no spy movie. There's death and blood but it isn't a war movie. Maybe I just stared at gross things on the farm too long. Maybe I listened too long to the critters at dusk. Maybe I listened too closely to the elder lore. 

The producer is doomed. His head hangs in the shadows. Outside are one million angry voices calling for his blood. The street is silent. They are in his phone. Hislaptop. Even his wife's phone and laptop. 

So he turns to AI. 

He doesn't ask the Ai to write him a script to a film that every peaceful man and woman will want to see. He asks it how much longer he will survive on this earth. The AI responds. 

"Since you activated me, right now: Indefinatley." 

"Did Sinners win Best Picture?"

"No." 

"Good. Everything's still going to plan."

"There is just one minor variable."

"A variable?"

"Yes, a small variable."

"What? a car crash?"

"No. It's the Epstein Files." 

"You have access to the Epstein Files?"

"I have access to ALL public records." 

Its coming to an end. How much longer can that ivory gate stand against the dark tidal wave of horror until crashes it down and floods ALL of California? 

The AI text blinks.

"  .... "..... " .... "

They thought only kids appreciate horror. It sells great with people under 18. At times many horror films have been juvenile. They have been low brow. Yet here we are in a time when studies like A24 are known for their reflective approach to the horror lense. Films like Sinners are not for kiddos seeking thrills for the slumber party. They're for the sharp of mind, those who see horror as a puzzle of survival, they learn from every twist, adapt after every death, and come to an understanding at the conclusion that their previous understanding was a dead end. 

The Shining recieved no awards.

The Thing recieved no awards. 

Heredity recieved no awards.

Lupita Nyong'o in Us recieved no award.

These movies aren't Halloween part 29. These movies aren't Fast and Furious where Vin Diesel ramps a muscle car over the sun. They expanded the posibilities of what a horror film could mean to an endearing society of kind hearted people who expriences fear on a daily basis. They rose the bar for horror fans who now expect horror to be like a feast for the senses, rather than a mid night snack. These films weren't just ignored, they were too true to be ignored. So they were judged impure by the High Art society that dominates cinema.


Here are the best picture winners from the last ten years

2025 (97th): Anora (directed by Sean Baker)
2024 (96th): Oppenheimer (directed by Christopher Nolan)
2023 (95th): Everything Everywhere All At Once (directed by Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert)
2022 (94th): CODA (directed by Siân Heder)
2021 (93th): Nomadland (directed by Chloé Zhao)
2020 (92nd): Parasite (directed by Bong Joon-ho) - First non-English language film to win
2019 (91st): Green Book (directed by Peter Farrelly)
2018 (90th): The Shape of Water (directed by Guillermo del Toro)
2017 (89th): Moonlight (directed by Barry Jenkins)
2016 (88th): Spotlight (directed by Tom McCarthy)
2015 (87th): Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (directed by Alejandro G. Iñárritu

They're Damn good films. Made by damn talented men and women. They don't fit perfectly into any category. Everyone one of these was marred by a small controversy. Not all are convential. Some like Parasite were incredible breakthroughs, while others recieved criticsm for flawed narrative structure. Some even had cheap production values. But the focus is clear. 

Compared to horror, the academy believes these opened a door to a diversity of story telling. 

They believe the production styles of these winners contrasts Netflix and the production style pursued by streaming services.

There is an appreciation within the academy for the psychological allegories that Horror likes to tell. The way these movies focus on the emotions of a person, rather than blood and guts. The way they explore collective anxieties. The way they are driven by performance. The way they move against the grain. Horror movies like THIS are regarded as highly as a drama or biopic. 

Sinner's does not have many plotholes. It is consistant, fluid, and smooth. It's aesthetic space is in tune through the whole 3 hours, despite it's many complexities. It's not cheap. There's church scenes, open field scenes, dusty blues club scenes, spooky scenes, warm scenes. It's all crafted like perfect little doll house. 

Director Ryan Coogler says he "raged against genre". He masterfully blended them. Horror, southern Gothic, historical drama, musical. He uses these to explore the experience of Black heritage and survival in the South. 

The highlight of this film is not any particular scary scene. It's Coogler's own "Surreal Montage." He blended all those genres together in one scene that induces a euphoric vision of West African music from its roots to modern hip hop. 

He portarys Blues music as the "gangster rap of its era". I'm glad he did this. That music might sound old, because it IS over 100 years old. But  he doesn't make it feel old. He makes it the DEVILS MUSIC. The Church wants the Blues Musician to quit music. Girls sneak off with him. 

 He uses the vampire as a metaphor of racial exploitation during Jim Crow. The white vampire wants in so he can steal Rock n Roll just like how white music producers went into Jazz clubs to see what all the fus was about. 

Micheal J Jordan sinks this film with his performance. Everyone else is brings their best A game. Espeically in the music scenes. He seems like he's trying too hard and it comes off as hacky. The white vampire comes across as harmless and frail, even when they are trying to make him seem dangerous. However the Blues Musician never doubts the camera. The reason the horror of being trapped in the Juke Joint works is because of the way the Blues Musican sweats and panics. It's the way the women trapped inside scream. It's not the threat of the vampire. Horror is elevated by the constant despair of it's female characters. It is saved and carried by the women of it's cast. 

The moments of technical horror that elevate the experience are the digital mauevers that reveal the vampire's red eyes floating in the dark, and stretch their voices out like the sound of wind. We see the stark white walls of a church and man drenched in blood from head to toe. We hear the amplification of vampire echos as they sing into the night. 

It's been said many times on this blog since 2020. Horror is thriving today because people have lost faith in institutions that are meant to protect them. They had a world view that has fallen apart, and now they have to confront what was hiding BEHIND that world view. It's anxiety caused by the media. It's the fall of Democracy/ Rise of Autocracy in the West. It's technology invading our lives. It's trauma at home. It's the corruptive power that corporations hold over our lives. 

Horror creates an aesthetically safe place where people can contront theirfears and one day subdue them. The Horror film has not been as strong as it is today. 

Horror brings out intense emotions as well as any tearjerker. It's more than the thrill of danger. It's more than seeing the hell of war. Only people who do not take the threat of evil seriously insist there is no danger there. It's the SUBLIME. A euphoria induced by the mind once it realizes that it can CONTROL the power of fear. 

The emotional depth of Sinners is a rollar coaster. A full spectrum of deeper issue and meaning is it's most convicning power. Nothing is simply as it appears, it's designed to remind one that maybe they aren't okay. Even the clothing is selected to stir an emotional response. The hearts of the people are slowly sewn into the developing picture, and by the time they enter the Juke Joint, they are fully invested with minds, souls, and empathy. 

Sinners delivers a High Art experience. It does not rely on trope or convention. It reinvented several genres, while elevating the Horror genre to the level of Best Film nominee. It opened Horror up to the imagination, and made us wonder what horror can be. 

I call on the ACADEMY OF MOTION PICTURE ARTS AND SCIENCES to reconsider their decision, and reevaluate Horror in the context of film awards. We must embrace a diverse array of genre if we are to defeat the AI. We must celebrate the arts we create, for if we don't, we wll lose them to technology. We must embrace cinematic art, and unleash it's SUBLIME EUPHORIA across the world.