one thing i noticed abt sinners that really stood out to me was that none of the juke joint group thought of sacrificing sammie. like it didn’t even enter their heads.
even when sammie tried to sacrifice himself after remmick promises to leave once he has him, smoke (fresh after his second encounter with the newly turned stack, his twin brother who he did everything for for their entire lives, telling him to join them) pulls him back inside. pearline grabs onto him. slim mouths off to stack.
now, i know what you’ll say- “oh, smoke’s sammie’s big cousin. annie wouldn’t have give any of them up, especially sammie. pearline was in love with sammie. of course, they wouldn’t give him up”. that, i get.
but what about grace and slim?
grace and slim, in the film’s context, had no reason to not give him up. grace was deeply worried and terrified over what would happen to lisa, still alone in the town while she was stuck in the juke joint till sunrise, and by all means, slim had no obligation to protect sammie, or protect anyone in the joint, really. he could’ve offered, even half-jokingly, half-fearfully, to give sammie to them, or tried to get sammie to give himself up, again. grace could’ve, as well.
but what happened, instead?
grace doesn’t breathe a word about sammie, doesn’t even suggest they take the offer, even when remmick basically says that if they give him sammie, they’ll all leave (she doesn’t know if that’s true, but she doesn’t know it’s not). she screams, she cries in her grief and rage, but she only dooms the juke once her desperation reaches a fever pitch, once it enters her mind that her- their- only option is to fight, and take all of the undead down with them. she’s consumed and burning, but she doesn’t turn it into sammie, even if it would’ve made sense for her to do so.
and slim? slim goes out of his way to protect sammie, to take him under his wing. he tells sammie that he doesn’t have to worry, that the devil (remmick, in this case) will “have to go through his old friend, delta slim”. slim chooses to stay behind to buy sammie- to buy all of them-, a chance to escape, knowing he wasn’t going to make it to sunrise. but he did it anyway.
and that? that’s community. that’s solidarity. that, even, is family.
titsay
germansingergirl
romaincrisis
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
vaporwave
andulkaphoto
theartofmadeline
prguitarman
