Sinners | spirittgarrett.net

July 7, 2025

I'm currently working on the podcast recording of this review. I'm done recording, now comes the more tedious part. Coming soon!

Sinners - 2025

Began Writing 5/18/2025

I didn't initially plan on watching this film at all while it was in theaters. As a day one MCU fan since 2008, my fanhood of Ryan Coogler was the only reason I was even planning on seeing it all

But despite all of that, as the end of April I had seen it twice in the theater

Then, nearly two weeks later, I've now seen the film a third time, confirming how much I love this fucking movie. The second time I went, I recorded a couple of my favorite scenes on my phone

But on my third viewing, I actually recorded the entire movie on my phone. Definitely NOT going to be publishing it online, so unclinch ya ass cheeks y'all. But I wanted to write about it now, and the way I see it, I already earned this by paying to see the movie three times. And again, I'm not going to publish this video at all

Cell phone cameras have come a long way even in the last decade. The video quality of my recording the movie is not bad, but the sound quality with that incredible theater system is about as identical to listening to it in the theater as you can get on a cell phone

Two days after my third viewing, I went to check the quality of my recording, and found it was a fantastic alternative. The film is still performing well in theaters, so I figure it'll be a while before it's available to purchase at home. Update: The film will be released for digital purchase June 3, 2025 The quality of my recording was so surprisingly good, I watched the entire movie for a fourth time on my cell phone

BUT! My recording didn't have subtitles, and when I tried to rewind to record the information accurately, they only had the little finger scroll, and it NEVER rewound anywhere near where I wanted it. This made it frustratingly difficult to write this review, so I waited until it came out on June 3 to finish writing this. And once I had the official movie in my possession, I deleted my little bootleg recording

SPOILER ALERT!!! I know, everybody ain't seen it four times like I did. But if you haven't seen it once, you definitely want to stop reading right the fuck now until you do

A Very Pleasant Surprise

Ya know, it's funny. Thinking back to our favorite movies, favorite songs, or favorite tv shows, and when we first maybe bought a ticket to the see the movie, or first saw it come across our music subscription and hit play, we really just have no idea how much that piece of entertainment in particular will affect us

So often, the movie you were looking forward to for months ends up disappointing you. You hyped it so much in your head before it came out, that there was no way it could live up to your own expectations. Also because of that, that movie you went into with little to no expectations (or didn't want to see at all) ends up becoming one of your favorite movies. For me, Maverick and Lean on Me come to mind in that latter category

And it also applied to this movie for me. It had been a while since I'd been to the movies, and even longer since I'd seen anything I especially enjoyed. I didn't hate Captain America: Brave New World like the majority of the rest of the planet, but I didn't particularly love it either. But at the end of April 2025, I experienced back-to-back hits in the theater, first with Thunderbolts*, which was not only the best Marvel movie I've seen in a while, but it was also one of the best movies I'd seen in a while, any genre. Initially, I was planning on seeing Sinners and Thunderbolts on the same day. I saw Thunderbolts first, and Sinners started about 20 minutes after Thunderbolts let out

But during Thunderbolts, I simply changed my mind. I enjoyed the movie but just didn't feel like sitting through back-to-back movies on that day. So I cancelled my ticket for Sinners, and rescheduled to go see it the next day

Since I wasn't originally planning on seeing it in the theater, I didn't bother watching the extended trailers released right before the movie dropped. To be honest, I really didn't know shit about the movie. I knew it was a vampire flick and that Michael B Jordan played twins, but I didn't know who else was in it or that it was a musical, or should I say that music would be a huge part of the story. In other words, I truly had no idea what to expect

I think a part of me cancelled Sinners that first day and went into it the second day because I don't think I was expecting much. Previously, never had I walked out of the theater after watching anything he was in and thought, "Michael B Jordan killed that role". So, why in the fuck would I expect it here?

But that's exactly what I got. Not only did he kill his roles, one of the best things about the movie to me is that every single actor seemed to really commit to their character. That will always make for an excellent film if you get the impression the actors really, really threw themselves into the film

And the music is incredible. It's not just great music, but the music is just as much of a star of the film as the people acting in it. I don't remember the last time I listened to a soundtrack that really starred alongside the actors in a movie. There have been great soundtracks, but very rarely is the music just as important to the story in a movie as any other aspect of a film

The film was well acted, well written, well shot, and well edited. But the one thing I couldn't help but notice - and many other reviews online I've read have said the same thing - this movie really sticks with you after you're done watching it. During the mid-credit scene, old ass Sammie played by Buddy Guy, says among other things that before the sun went down, that was the best day of his life. Toward the end of the movie as Smoke is rolling a cigarette before confronting Hogwood and the other Klan members, he's reminiscing about all of the characters we lost earlier, and I really felt it. You felt like you got an invite to the craziest party ever, met some unforgettable people, and the impact of the film lingers long after you're done watching it

I can't speak for anyone else, but nearly as soon as it was over I wanted to watch it again. It's been a very long time since I have felt like that about a movie. Maybe John Wick 4, which I also saw multiple times in the theater. As soon as I got to my car after the first viewing, I downloaded and listened to the soundtrack in its entirety. Then when I got home later that night, I did my customary research of all things about the movie I could get my hands on. Here is where I realized that I had missed some things in my first viewing. You know how that is. When you first watch a movie, you don't know what the fuck is important and what can be discarded, so you tend to miss a lot of shit. So, two days after my first viewing, I went back for a second viewing to catch the things I missed the first time

I was already surprised at how much I enjoyed this movie on the first viewing. But what really surprised me is that I loved it even more the second time I watched it

A quick note about pictures on this review. From the very beginning when I found pictures from this movie to post on here, the majority of the pics were quite blurry. I thought that was because when I first started looking, the movie was still in theaters. But even after the movie has been released at home, I still can't find very many pictures that aren't blurry. I think it's the way the movie was shot, but I don't know fer sure. So after about maybe a quarter of the way down on this review, I stopped including pictures because I couldn't find any that didn't suck ass

What's Sinners About?

The film takes place mostly on October 15, 1932, in Mississippi. The opening narration does a great job of explaining what's about to happen without giving too much away. Side note: I can't tell for sure, but I can't help but hear Annie's voice in the opening narration. I don't know if that was Wunmi Mosaku narrating, but it sounds like her to me Update 6/4/2025: I did pre-order the movie and got it yesterday. This allowed me to turn on the subtitles so I could get the opening narration accurate, and sure enough, before they flash these words on the screen they put [Annie] in brackets. It is, in fact, Annie narrating the beginning. Called that shit!

There are legends of people, born with the gift of making music so true, they can pierce the vail between life and death. Conjuring spirits from the past, and the future. In ancient island they were called Fili. In Choctaw land, they call em Firekeepers. And in West Africa, they're called Griots. This gift...can bring healing to their communities. But it also, attracts evil

Nice, so right off the bat they pique my interest. Remember, I didn't know shit about the movie other than it involved vampires. In the opening dialogue of the film, I'm told about the legend of special music makers, and that it can attract evil. A quick search within my mental rolodex revealed vampires to definitely fit in the category of evil. Ohhh, interesting to use music as an attractor of evil. I'm already on board

Now, they didn't explicitly list this stuff in the movie, so even though the "evil" doesn't appear until around the 40-minute mark, I'm okay adding it here because it was important to the story. It was one of the things I missed the first time I viewed the film. Well, actually, it was one thing I didn't know about that led me to miss important parts of several key scenes

I'm referring here to the vampire deterrence. I knew almost all their vices, but I didn't know about one. I knew about garlic, a wooden stake to the heart, silver, holy water and sunlight. But I didn't know vampires couldn't enter a building unless they were invited (is it me or is that a really fucking weird trait for vampires to have?). So, the first time I saw the movie, when Annie was grilling Cornbread about why he couldn't "walk yo big ass up in here without an invite", I didn't fully understand that scene. When I learned about that part and went back and watched it the second time, it made a world of sense after that

But, as I said, the evil would not appear until later. After the opening narration, the film makes its only misstep, in my opinion. Before taking us back to the day before, they show us a clearly battered and bruised Sammie, played by Miles Caton in his first role (he's already better than Keanu Reeves), first driving up to and then walking into his father's church, interrupting the babies singing This Little Light of Mine

I don't think that what eventually happened in that scene warranted us seeing it in the beginning. I don't like this scene because it spoils the fact that Sammie survives. Because of that, anything dangerous involving Sammie in the climax of the film doesn't pack much, ahem, bite. Without this scene in the beginning, we would genuinely wonder if Sammie was going to make it, which I think would have added to the emotional punch of Sammie eventually being the only survivor, and the reveal in the mid-credit scene

But it is in the film, so let's cover it. As soon as Sammie opens the door in the small church, his mother stands up in the front row and shouts his name. But his father, Pastah Jedidiah, played by Saul Williams, tells her he's got it as he invites his son forward. In addition to not thinking this scene needed to be in the beginning, I also found it kinda odd. Why did even his own parents not seem to notice or even acknowledge the condition he was in? There was not a single question asked about what happened. The only thing that mattered apparently was his son repenting from his sin.....

Ohhhhhh, that's why the movie is called...ok, we're cooking with grease now. But the damn scene still shouldn't have been in the beginning

Anyway, Pastah Pops basically rebukes his son in the name of the lawd, and implores him to drop the guitar (that ain't even really a guitar, just the handle... seriously though, pops ain't ask no questions? Whatever) We see Sammie continue to grip the guitar handle firmly in his hand despite his father's pleas. Before we see if he drops it, we jump back to one day prior

Sammie's Home Life

As we go back to the day prior, while 'one day earlier' still appears on screen, we hear Sammie humming 'I Lied to You'. This is important, I think, but I didn't catch it the first time, because again I didn't know I was supposed to. I understood Sammie's performance of the song at the party is what ultimately attracted Remmick to the sawmill, but my question after I watched it the first time was what attracted Remmick to Joan and Bert's house in the first place?

Not only is Sammie humming this song before we even see anything on screen, but it turns out the first image we see is him humming that song in real time while working in the fields, as he's a sharecropper. Referring to the opening dialogue of the film, I think Sammie's initial singing in the field attracted Remmick to the area where Sammie was. When he gets toward the end of his humming, if you listen carefully, you can hear a rumbling in the background (around the 4:05 mark) I think was meant to signify when Remmick heard it

Sammie is approached in the field by Beatrice, who wonders aloud if he's going to be "strumming that guitar tonight?". Sammie ignores her question but tells her good morning. She asks if he's going to tell her where he's playing or will she have to hear it through the grapevine. He again ignores her inquiry and tells her to have a good one, and he'll see her at church service in the morning

"Guess the grapevine it is", she says as he walks away

Sammie walks home where he finds his mother working in the front yard. They greet each other and exchange playful mother and son banter that occurs when the family actually loves one another. I mean, I wouldn't know about that shit, but I've heard about it

Sammie then heads inside and wakes up his younger siblings. He opens the back door of the room and stares out the door for a few seconds at the acres of land. He looks out the door like he has a feeling this is going to be a great day. I mean, he was wrong as fuck, but for a few seconds he was none the wiser

He goes back inside and feels under the bed looking for something. He doesn't feel what he's looking for. In fact, he doesn't feel anything, prompting him to put his face under the bed to see that there was nothing there. Don't worry. We'll find out what he was looking for, but that comes in just a few minutes

Because first, we meet the twins for the first time. They are waiting beside a car, and we see Smoke check his watch. Stack, meanwhile, is rolling a cigarette right beside him. Smoke continues to anxiously stare in one direction, obviously waiting on something, or someone. Smoke is pretty tense. Stack notices this and kinda shakes his head as he goes back to rolling the cig

He finishes and hands it to Smoke. Something so simple had to be so fucking difficult to film. Then, to complicate the shot more, Smoke leans over with the cigarette in his mouth, while Stack lights it. That few seconds of film time probably took weeks to shoot

Smoke takes a puff on the cig and then hands it back to his brother, who does the same. Stack takes a couple of puffs and looks over at his brother, who is still intently staring in the same direction. Stack then passes the cig again back to his brother

After Smoke takes it, the area where he was staring reveals a car approaching them. Looking at the how brothers reacted, this was clearly who they were waiting on. Stack turns around and grabs a leather bag out their car, as their visitor continues to approach in his

A rather portly white gentleman steps out of the car that just pulled up and approaches the brothers

Smoke: You Hogwood? (of course, his fucking name is Hogwood)

This portly prick doesn't say anything, but spits on the ground. Guess that was a 'yep'

Hogwood: You boys twins?

Stack: Nah we cousins (lol)

Hogwood: Well (he motions for them all to walk inside)

Hogwood: There she is. He moved a ton of timber a month back in his heyday. Workers lived upstairs

Hogwood is showing the brothers an old sawmill. He wonders what they are planning on doing with it. The brothers remain silent while Smoke takes closer notice of the floors. When Stack sees Smoke checking the floors, he already knows what that means

Stack: Y'all wash these floors?

Hogwood: Yeah

Smoke: What was on em?

Hogwood again spits on the floor, apparently not taking too kindly to the twins' line of questioning

Hogwood: I thought y'all were dead set on buying the place. The more time I spend with y'all the less sure I am you boys are serious about it

Smoke (slowly standing up): Ain't no boys here (apparently not realizing that was the second time Hogwood called them boys)

Stack: Just grown men. With grown men money

Smoke (reaching into his jacket): And grown men bullets

Hogwood, unfazed, reveals he too is carrying a weapon. Stack slowly makes his way behind Hogwood. Realizing he's now surrounded by armed twins, Hogwood suddenly has a change of heart

Hogwood: I didn't mean nothin' by it. Just the way we talk down here

Smoke: We'll take it

Stack forcefully hands Hogwood the leather bag he took out of their car. The bag contains the buy money

Smoke (cont): The mill, the equipment and the land it's standing on

Hogwood opens the bag and gives a hoot and a holler at how much money is in it

Smoke: Now, understand, it's the last dime you ever gone see from us. And if we see you or any one of your Klan buddies cross our property line, we gone kill em right where they stand

Hogwood (laughing): Shit. Klan don't exist no more

This would prove to be a very crucial scene later in the movie

We then head back to Sammie again walking into the church. His dad is standing at the pulpit for reasons unknown since ain't nobody in the church. They exchange pleasantries about work, then Sammie notices what he was looking for under the bed earlier. His guitar

His pops, noticing him notice the guitar, confesses

Jedidiah: Yeah, I brought it in here. I want you to help me give my sermon tomorrow

Sammie nods in understanding as he approaches the pulpit

Jedidiah: 1 Corinthians 10:13. Read

Sammie: No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. (He closes the Bible, no longer needing to read) But when you're tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure (picks up the guitar). Now pop, if you don't mind, I'm gone be late

Jedidiah: Late for what, boy? Where you gotta be that's more important than being in the house of god (smh, like literally, anywhere else)

Sammie: I been working all week pop (seriously!). I wanna be free from all this for a day

Jedidah: To play music for drunkards, philanderers, who shirk their responsibility to their families so they can sweat all over each other (Sweat over each-- My god, the religious don't believe in doing SHIT!! No wonder y'all need heaven to be there so fucking badly. Just a buncha tightly wound, extremely miserable motherfuckers, who want nothing more than their children to be just as fucking tightly wound and miserable as them. I didn't like the church scene being in the beginning, but I'm glad Sammie made the choice he eventually made in staying true to himself!)

Sammie: I'll back in time for service in the morning

Sammie walks away. But his ole tight ass know-it-all hypnotized ass daddy ain't done

Jedidiah: Son!

Sammie stops walking (I'da kept right the fuck on walking) and Jedidiah walks over to him to hit him with one of them old country sayings

Jedidah (cont): You keep dancing with the devil, one day he's gonna follow you home

Ahhh shit. Sammie's ass is young and impressionable. He's also known as Preacher Boy, so his pop's words take on heavier meaning for someone who hangs on to their parent's - and especially his preacher parent's - every word. When shit starts to get hectic later in the film, Sammie even recalled these words said by his dad

The only problem is that his dad's words are complete bullshit. All them old folks back then had sayings. My mom and her generation had enough of these sayings to create a damn dictionary. But most of them weren't funny and none of em were true. All his dad was trying to do was control him. And he tried to do that from the very beginning (where you got to be that's more important than being in the house of god?). Because, ya know, that's the most important thing in the world to HIM, so it should be to his son too. Sure, this is a fictional story, and Jedidiah is a fictional character. But the character represents so much of the real-life philosophies of a lot of people even today

Fortunately, we don't have to endure Jedidiah's holier than thou attitude much longer. The twins pull up in their car outside of the church hollering for Sammie. But this was another scene I found kind of odd. In just a couple of short scenes, we'll be notified that the twins left Mississippi for Chicago seven years prior

Later in the film, when Mary realizes who Sammie is, she said, "Little Sammie?". So, this tells us when the twins left Sammie had to be a young'un. First of all, how the hell did the brothers know Sammie was in the church? They asked someone else in the family? Who? They've been gone for seven years. And speaking of which, Sammie wouldn't have looked the same way he did last time they saw him. But there's no mention of any of that. There's barely an acknowledgement of Jedidiah too, who doesn't even seem surprised at his twin nephews showing up after seven years. Sammie doesn't either. He just jumps in the car like they've been coming to pick him up every day for the last six months

Sammie heads out and jumps in the car. His father follows him out and calls his son's name before he climbs in the car. This time Sammie doesn't stop

Stack: Aww, now don't you worry Uncle Jed. We gone bring him back to you in one piece (technically, he didn't lie)

Smoke, who is driving the car, takes off. After the trio get a few miles into the open road

Smoke (to Sammie): Boy how you be? Yo daddy doin' right by you?

Sammie doesn't say anything. He just kind of shake-nods his head

Smoke: He not puttin' his hands on you, is he? (Remember that question and who asked it for later)

The trio exchange more conversation in the car. Eventually Smoke stops driving and parks in the middle of the dirt road with nothing but large trees on either side of the road. Here is again another part I didn't quite understand

It's revealed that the brothers hid an armed truck in the bushes at that exact spot. First off, how did they mark this exact location with all of these massive identical trees lining both sides of the road? And second, I may sound like a broken record at this point, but such is life, it's been seven fucking years!! In seven years, no one has come across that damn truck? They didn't even hide it miles off the road. That shit was like a smooth 9 feet from the dirt. AND it wasn't even that dirty! Then, the shit ain't been started in 7 years and just miraculously fires on up. Have you ever tried to start a car for the first time in seven weeks? How 'bout seven months? Somebody lyin'

The brothers come across a snake in the back of the truck (y'all don't hear me tho...seven years, one lonely ass snake smh) and use a little brotherly teamwork to kill it. Shortly after, Smoke begins to think maybe they should set up that day, but not open till next week

Stack: Naw, fuck that. It's gotta be tonight. Grand opening, start this shit with a bang

Smoke: Or we start with a misfire

Stack talks him into maintaining the opening that night. But Smoke points out that the only chance they've got is if they split up. That was just to separate the twins to make the filming easier

Smoke: Only chance we got is if we split up. But who's gone watch the truck while I'm in there talking to the Chows?

Stack: Nigga, just let 'em see it's you

Smoke: We've been gone a long time, Stack

Stack: Seven years ain't long enough to forget about us

Smoke agrees like that was a great goddamn point. He tells Sammie to watch Stack's back. The brothers hug and part ways with Smoke taking the truck, and Sammie getting in the car they pulled up in with Stack driving

Update 6/19/2025: As stated numerous times on this review, owning the movie has afforded me an unlimited number of viewings for better accuracy, free to pick the movie apart to my heart's content. Following my umpteenth viewing to write this review as accurately as possible, there was one small, yet super important action made here that I forgot about, that led me to realize I fucked this part all way up right here

After the brothers hug and before they go their separate ways, Stack grabs a bottle of the Irish beer he later uses to entice Delta Slim. In that convo with Delta, Stack informs him that he has 500 bottles like the one Slim was holding, "ice cold"

Later in the film, Mary pieces together the brothers had been robbing both sides in Chicago and then came back to the 'Sipp to set up shop

So, this means that the brothers didn't have the truck there for seven years but instead had to have it with them in Chicago to carry all that beer. They had to have only hidden it momentarily to meet with Hogwood, which explains why they were able to find it so fast. That also explains why the truck wasn't dirty, had no problem firing up, and only had one snake

Yeah, that was my bad. Y'all know I get hiiiiiiigh

Next, we hear one of my favorite songs from the soundtrack, Wang Dang Doodle. Lmfao, I swear I can't even type the name of the song without laughing. I laughed for a good 10 minutes when I first read the name of the song. But this shit is a jam. I especially like the voice of the first lady that sings the second verse of this song. That shout she has sounds like she honed it in chuuuuch

Smoke pulls up in the truck to a Mississippi town. He enlists the services of a "little girl" after introducing himself as one of the Smokestack twins she said she's heard of. He's going to pay her to lean on the horn if someone comes looking at the truck too long and even gave her negotiation tips for her fee, where he paid her twice what he originally said he would

He then goes inside one of the stores. He notices a young Asian lady standing behind the counter. He recognizes her

Smoke: You not little Lisa, is you?

Little Lisa is completely fucking unfazed

Lisa: Guilty as charged

Smoke: Your daddy here?

Lisa: Daddy!

Bo (coming out from the back): What!

Smoke turns and sees him

Smoke: Bo Chow (played by Yao)

Bo: Look what the damn cat dragged in

He approaches Smoke with a serious look on his face, until he gets close enough to hug him. Then his serious face changes to a smile as he and Smoke hug

Bo: What can I do for you?

Smoke: We throwin' a big event tonight

Bo: What you need?

Smoke: I need catfish. For a hundred people

Bo asked if they did good in Chicago. He said he's heard about some of those casinos up there and asked if they hit it big. Smoke tells him they hit, just not the way he was thinking

Bo: What kind of way?

Smoke hears the horn of the truck

Smoke: Shit

He quickly walks outside as the honking continues and draws his gun from his inner coat pocket

Little Girl: They stealin'!

Smoke nods that he sees it: Mm-hm

Smoke walks up on two guys tryna boost his shit in the back and shoots the one closest to him in the ass. The other starts running

Smoke: Fuck you going, nigga? Bet this bullet'll beat you there

The guy stops running. Meanwhile, the guy he shot in the ass turns around

Terry: You shot me. Mother...

He sees it's Smoke and suddenly has a change in demeanor. He removes his hat

Terry: Ohh, Smoke

Smoke: Terry? Boy, how you been?

Terry: I was doin' better 'fore you shot me in the ass (lol)

Smoke: Why in the hell you trying to boost from my truck?

Terry: This your truck? I didn't know it was your truck. I swear, Smoke

Little Girl: Bullshit. I told you it was his

Terry: Wait, wait, Smoke. I thought, I thought she was lyin'. Y'all was supposed to be in Chicago workin' for Capone (ok, that's believable. Smoke thought so too)

Smoke (dropping the gun he was holding on Terry the whole time): Yeah, we back now

He looks over at the dude who tried to run away, who is still standing with his hands up in the air. He thinks for a second and shoots the guy in the kneecap

Guy (falling to the ground holding his knee): Goddamn!! What you do that for?!

Smoke: Can't have some nigga talkin' about how he almost robbed the Twins. Not without a limp to show for it

Smoke eventually tells them to scoot into the street and put some pressure on their gunshot wounds lmfao. He then goes back inside to Bo

Smoke (to Bo): Doc Teddy still live 'round here?

Bo: Yeah

Smoke: I just shot a couple niggas outside. (pulling out a wad of money) If they gon' live, they gon' need some patching up (handing Bo $20, which in 1932, had to be the equivalent of about a million dollars)

Bo (deeply exhales): Yeah, we can take care of that. Anything else?

Smoke: Yeah, we gon' need a sign too. You think Grace'd be up to making us one?

Bo: When would you need it done?

Mmkay, dumb ass question Bo. He already told you he was throwing an event tonight when he told you he needed catfish for a hundred people. You still the man though

Smoke: Tonight

Bo: Lisa! Go get your mama

You may be thinking as I was the first time I saw it, 'where the hell is her mama?'

Lisa begins walking and exits the store. She walks across the street...to the Chow's OTHER STORE!! Ohhh, excuse us!!

You may also be thinking as I was, why couldn't Bo and Smoke just walk over to the other store to speak to Grace? I didn't catch this any of the times I saw it in the theater, but if you look closely, the stores are segregated. The store Smoke walked into was obviously for the coloreds, and the store Grace was in across the street had all white patrons

Lisa tells her mama, "Daddy wants you"

Grace, played by Li Jun Li, immediately finishes up with the customer she was helping and walks across the street to the store Bo and Smoke are in. On the way, she sees the two guys Smoke shot interacting and figures out what happened to them. She walks into the store

This is one of my favorite scenes in the movie

Grace: You know, there's two men out there. Look like they've been shot

Smoke: That'll be my doin'. I done already gave Bo the money to get 'em patched up

Grace: Why you gotta come here bringin' trouble?

Bo: Trouble ain't all he bringing (handing her a list of the things Smoke wants for the party that night)

Grace: Jesus. How you payin' for this?

Smoke breaks out another wad of cash

Bo: And he wants you to make a sign for him

Grace: Rush job. Gon' cost ya

Remember, Smoke was the one who gave the "little girl" negotiation tips, so this is right up his alley. But Grace is a little firecracker herself, which is why I love this scene. Bo was smart enough to stay the hell out of this heavyweight bout

Smoke: I'm listenin'

Grace: Twenty. Fifteen for the front door sign and five for the menu

Ok, can we pause here for a second? Just a few short moments ago in the film, I noted that Smoke gave Bo $20 to give to Doc Teddy to patch up the dudes he shot outside. I'm sorry, IN WHAT WORLD would the cost of making a sign for a party cost the same amount as a doctor patching up two gunshot wounds? I don't give a damn how rushed the job was. That was some crazy shit. I know Smoke didn't take the first deal, but I think it's slightly annoying these numbers weren't changed to be more realistic. I still love the movie and this scene though

Smoke: Ten. Seven for the front door sign, three for the menu

Grace: Sixteen

Smoke: Fifteen

Grace: Done

Smoke reaches in his pocket to get the money

Bo: Oh. We only got one color, by the way

Smoke stops reaching and stares at Grace

Smoke: What color you got?

Bo: Red

I loved the look Grace gave right here. It was a very subtle look of "ahh shit" lol

Smoke: Thirteen

Grace: Fourteen Fifty

Smoke notices some flowers sitting in a jar on the counter

Smoke: Fourteen. Throw in these flowers right here...and we got a deal

Grace: Done. (Looks around) Where's Stack?

That whole scene, from the time Smoke pulled up to the town, was just a lot of fun to me

With Grace having just asked about Stack, we head back to Stack and Sammie in the car. Stack is educating his little cousin on that freaky shit

Stack: All right, listen. Every coos got a button on it, towards the top. If you wanna keep a woman, you find it...lick that. Not too hard. Not too soft, either. You ever had a scoop of that ice cream from downtown?

Sammie: Uh-huh

Stack: 'bout the same pressure you put on that. Like it tastes good, but you don't want it gone too quick, you understand?

Sammie just sits there with a goofy smile on his face before changing the subject

Sammie: Hey, how fast this thing drive?

Stack: Too damn fast. Why? You wanna drive?

Sammie: Come on, you know I wanna drive

Stack: Later. On the way back (again, he technically ain't lie, as Sammie driving this same car up to the church is the first image we see)

Earlier, when Sammie got in the car with the twins, I told you to take notice of the fact that Smoke asked him if his daddy was puttin' hands on Sammie. I told you to remember that for this scene

Sammie: You always said you would tell me what happened to your daddy when I got older. Well, I guess I'm older

Stack kinda nods in agreement

Sammie: Y'all really kill him?

Stack doesn't answer right away. But eventually...

Stack: Nah, we ain't kill him

Sammie nods

Stack (cont): Smoke did. Our daddy knocked me unconscious. By the time I came to, Smoke was halfway done buryin' him

Sammie: He used to beat y'all?

Stack: Me mostly. But he ain't mean it

Sammie starts to look a little upset. So Stack changes the subject

Stack: See you been takin' good care of that thing (the guitar Sammie's holding)

Sammie: Hey, I can't thank y'all enough for this. Plays so right. Where y'all get this from anyway?

Stack: Yeah, that's uh, Charley Patton's guitar. Me and my brother won it off him in a card game

Sammie: Hold on, Stack. You mean to tell me I had Charley Patton's guitar this whole time?

Stack: Swear 'fore god, in yo hands

Sammie: Nah

Stack: Now let's see if you can play like him

Sammie: Right here?

Stack: Yeah, right now. Come on

Sammie: All right. Come on. Watch this

Next, we're treated to a song we get on the soundtrack not once, but twice! Travelin'. This version sang by Miles Caton as Sammie, and then later by Buddy Guy as old ass Sammie

Stack knew Sammie played the guitar but didn't know he sang too until this scene, causing him to erupt in cheers after initially looking shocked as hell

Another great scene

Next, Sammie and Stack head to the Clarksdale Train Station. As stated, since I wasn't planning on watching this movie in the theater, I didn't bother watching the many trailers for the film released right before it dropped. Because of this, I didn't know one of my favorites in Delroy Lindo was in the movie until this scene, his first in the flick. I didn't even initially recognize him playing the harmonica. It wasn't until the camera panned out and he looked up at Stack that I got a really good look at him

I'm a fan of Delroy's for several reasons. First and foremost, look back at all the roles he's taken over the years, and Delroy don't take no bullshit. Even if the movie sucks (it rarely does if he's in it), he's always usually really good in it. He's earned my trust over the years, where when I see he's in something, I know it's usually pretty good. Going back to the first thing I remember ever seeing him in; as West Indian Archie in Malcolm X. Had I known he was in this movie, I would have seen it sooner

Another reason I'm a fan is a bit more personal. I attended high school in Burbank, California and graduated in 1997. Shiiiit I'm old! In two years, I will have graduated high school 30 years ag-- I HATE EVERYBODY!!! I went to John Burroughs High School from '94 - '97, and every year I attended I was on the basketball team. Every day after school during the early part of the school year before we were officially allowed by the CIF to start practicing, I would go to the gym to play basketball at nearby Olive Rec Center from 2:30 pm to around 7:00 pm, when it was time to head home, eat dinner and finish my homework

If I remember correctly, Delroy has a son that was only slightly older than me and his son played basketball too

One day, I was exiting Olive with a few of my teammates after hours of playing pickup ball. Delroy was walking into the rec center as I was exiting, so I noticed him walk past me just a few feet away and recognized him immediately. I turned to my teammates, who were walking several feet in front of me, and said loud enough for him to hear:

"Hey guys, (pointing at Delroy, with my voice in an enthusiastic, revelatory tone) that's the guy from Clockers". Another Spike Lee movie he starred in back in 1995. I have been a movie buff for a very long time, especially back then when my student ID got me into the nearby AMC Theaters for as low as $3.25 at one point. It would only increase to $4.75 by the time I graduated. I think this is the point in my life when my love of movies really blossomed. I always looked older back then (I started at Burroughs about a month or so into the school year, so I was the new kid. All the students thought I was a substitute teacher despite me only being in the 10th grade. True story), so I never had a problem getting into R rated movies. The people who worked there didn't care. Just give them their goddamn money. It was a simpler time. Plus, I was a loner even then. Why? Because I had previously gone to the movies with my teammates - early on when I first got there to not be antisocial - and we damn near got kicked out of the movie due to their fucking around (I don't remember exactly what they were doing, but I remember the manager coming over to us a couple of times, and threatening to kick us out if he had to come back once more). I decided never again would I allow anyone to fuck up my movie going experience, and to this day, 98% of the movies I see in the theater I've seen alone

"Nah, that's not him", my teammates shot back damn near in unison. Did y'all even see the goddamn mov--

I glanced back at Delroy as he was just about to walk into the rec center. But before he reached for the door to open it, he turned slightly toward me, smiled without ever opening his mouth, and hit me with that civilian salute using only the first two fingers on his right hand

"That IS him", I fired back to my teammates after seeing his salute, before turning back around and giving him the wave while smiling back

Such a brief moment he undoubtedly doesn't remember, but I don't think I'll ever forget

Stack, Sammie, and the Audience Meet Delta Slim

We see Sammie and Stack walking dutifully along the train platform. Well, Stack is walking dutifully, Sammie is just cluelessly following his big cousin

A great thing about writing this review after owning the official movie, is the subtitles reveal more than I heard in the theater, even with its excellent sound system. Earlier, when Lisa Chow made her way over to get her mama from their other store across the street, I didn't notice the racist background chatter of the people standing on the streets outside of the stores until I turned on the subtitles

Similarly, here when Stack drops some change in the can of the guitar player on their way to greeting Delta Slim, I heard the guitarist say thanks, but I didn't hear him say, "thanks twin", again until I turned on the subtitles. I guess Stack was right. "Seven years ain't long enough to forget about us"

Eventually, Stack and Sammie make it Delta Slim, where Sammie recognizes him in much the same way I recognized the same man some 30 years ago outside of Olive Rec Center

Sammie: Oh. (Pointing at Slim, again exactly as I did) Is that Delta Slim?

Not only did I light up when I saw who Delta Slim was being played by, I also happened to love this scene. Noticing a fucking pattern here?

Rather than the change like he gave the guitarist, Stack places a bill in Delta's hat, neatly placed near his feet, sitting on newspaper to avoid it getting dirty on the dirt road beneath it

Slim finishes his harmonica solo, and the guys give him an ovation. Well, actually, they technically gave him a standing ovation. Delta responds, and at this point I don't recognize he's Mr Lindo

Delta Slim (with a heavy southern accent and his eyes closed, so he initially doesn't notice who is clapping for him): Yeah, I thank ya for your generosity

Delta glances up and notices Stack. After cutting to a quick shot of Stack smiling and taking his toothpick out his mouth, we cut back to Slim, this time with the camera behind Stack so we get a clear look at him. This moment is when I said to myself in the theater, "oh shit, I know that ain't Delroy Lindo. I've enjoyed the movie so far, but this shit bout to really get good as fuck!"

Delta Slim (upon recognizing Stack): I guess that Chicago wind blew your Black asses back down here, huh?

Stack just chuckles

Delta: Who the boy?

Stack: This my little cousin. Preacher boy Sammie. Happens to be the finest blues player in all the Delta (remember, he only heard Sammie sing and play for the first time just moments ago)

Sammie shoots him a look like, "that's what the fuck I'm talkin' bout"

Delta Slim: I got socks older than this here boy. What the hell he know about the blues?

Lol, then he did something that I totally loved that I think the character back then would definitely have done. He laughed hard to himself, and in doing so, he started shaking his legs. I had a great uncle AJ, may he rest in peace, who was my point of reference for all things country as fuck. While my uncle had a much more boisterous laugh than Delta Slim's, they both had that leg shaking thing going when they found something hilarious as fuck. I not only loved the scene, because as it turns out, Delta Slim is my favorite character in the movie (with Grace Chow running a close second), but I was also grateful for Mr Lindo's performance bringing back a very fond memory of my dearly departed uncle. For a while after I watch this scene, I hear my uncle's hilarious, room stealing laugh all over again

Sammie: I can show you better than I can tell you (as he holds his guitar up to start playing)

Slim: Whoa, hold up now. Put that motherfucker away

Stack: Put it away

Slim: Get, get. Now, this here my patch right here. Now, you wasn't his cousin and a young pup to boot, I'd cut your ass too thin to fry (Lmfao!!!!! That's what I really miss from my uncle in addition to his laugh. Those MFs back then came up with some hilarious ass sayings. My uncle's generation. Not to be confused with my mother's generation that came after it...the generation that tried so hard but failed miserably to duplicate my uncle's generation)

Delta takes a swig from his flask, something he would do frequently in the movie, including at one hilarious, inopportune time. More on that when we get to that scene

Stack: And you threaten him again I'ma make your drunk ass swallow that harmonica

Slim hilariously, and also like I believe they would do back then, mimics fighting against Stack while mumbling some shit. I mean, this is like 30 seconds into dude's first scene, and I've already got like four favorite moments from it. Was DEFINITELY not expecting to get all of this shit when I went to see this movie

Stack: You still nice with them keys?

Allow me to translate for my white friends. Stack said, "Hey, Delta Slim, can you still play the piano well?"

Delta: Depend on who you ask (lmfao, I loved this character)

Stack: I'll give you $20 to come play at our juke tonight Is this the only amount of money this movie knows?

Delta thinks about it briefly

Delta Slim: Yeah, I wish I could. I'ma be at Messenger's tonight, same as I am every Saturday night

Stack: What they pay you?

Delta: For a gangster, you sure ask a lot of questions

Stack: They ain't paying you $20 a night, I know that

Delta doesn't fall for it

Delta: You ain't paying no $20 a night. You payin $20, maybe, tonight

Very smart, also like I think those guys were back then. Stack did say, "I'll give you $20 to play at our juke tonight". He never said anything about every night

Side Note: My great uncle was taught the game of dominoes by his wife, my great aunt Mae (my maternal grandfather's sister). In telling me that one day, even my aunt had to add "but he got pretty good at them things". My great uncle AJ was my main teacher of the game of dominoes, and he was ALWAYS willing to play. To this day, I still credit mainly him for why I am as good at the game as I am now. Our ancestors were really smart, man. And I think that's one of the reasons the white man insisted on stepping on their necks so much...out of fear

Delta (cont): I ain't never heard of your juke

The camera cuts to Stack giving a similar "aww shit" look that Grace gave when Bo revealed to Smoke they only had one color. It looked like the bright-eyed dreamer Stack hadn't thought of that

Delta (cont): Maybe it's here tonight, is it here tomorrow night? (Shit, this would be a bit prophetic) The week after that? Nah. I been at Messenger's every Saturday night for the last 10 years. Messenger's gon' be there another 10 years after that, at least. Shit. That's probably more time than I got left on this earth, Stack. (Again, this man is a MF prophet!) I play, and I get as much corn liquor as I can drink. A sinner like me, I can't ask for more than that

Sammie looks like he kinda feels where Delta is coming from. Stack initially pretends he does as well

Stack: Know what, Slim? I'll drink to that

He motions for Sammie to hand him the bottle Stack handed him right before they got to Delta. Sammie obliges. Stack rolls the cloth down revealing the bottle is an unlabeled beer bottle. Delta Slim is basically a proud alcoholic. Do the math

Stack removes the bottle from the cloth covering completely, revealing it to clearly be a bottle of booze. Slim is intrigued

Then Stack opens the bottle of beer, generating a reaction from Delta

Delta Slim: Ooh. What you got there boy?

Stack: Oh, this? It's Irish beer. Straight from the north side of Chicago

He pretends he's about to take a sip

Delta Slim: Uhp! You sayin' that's beer?

Stack: Wind didn't bring us down here empty-handed

He turns it around and hands Slim the bottle

Delta (chuckles): Give me that

He licks his lips and looks at the bottle like it's a cooz Stack was telling Sammie about, and he's about to find that goddamn button. He takes a swig

Delta Slim: My goodness

Let's pause here for a second. This was another thing I missed the first time I saw the movie, because I wasn't sure I heard it (later in the movie) correctly. But on my second viewing, I verified he did say what I thought he said

By all indications when you watch this scene, the implication is that Delta, the man who loved his liquor, loved this particular brand of Irish beer. Stack believed that too, as after seeing Delta's reaction to taking the swig, Stack upped the ante in trying to lure Delta Slim to play at their juke

Buuuut (and you should have seen the movie by the time you're reading up to this point), later on just before Slim bucks the kicket, he takes one last swig of the beer and says, "it's still nasty"

When I saw this movie the second time and verified both this scene, and the last thing Slim said before he cut his own wrist, I loved the character even more. Slim never let on that he thought the shit was nasty. So, in effect, Stack didn't lure him to play at the juke with that nasty ass beer like Delta led him to believe he did. He did it because he loved the boys and was probably honestly planning on always helping the brothers out all along. He did drink the beer all night, and even near the end when Grace told him to shut his drunk ass up, he said "I ain't drunk right now". But he had still been drinking the beer all night, to the point where he thinks it fucked up his nerves during the garlic test. I think that beer was on some bullshit

Stack: I got 500 more bottles just like that. Ice cold

He definitely got the impression Slim liked that shit. Before I put two and two together about the truck on the 6/19 update, admittedly, I did wonder how the hell the brothers would have kept 500 bottles of beer in that little bitty ass car. But I also know that Stack tends to lie

Stack (cont): Say we pay you $40 a night. And all the beer that you can drink. After that, no strings (I think he meant "say we pay you $40 tonight", as $40 per night would definitely be strings) You act now, I'll even let you finish that bottle in your hand

Slim looks at the bottle and then looks at Stack for a second. Then...

We Hear the Next Song from the Soundtrack

Juke, by Bobby Rush and Miles Caton

Those of you who bought the movie, I don't know if you've had a chance to check out the bonus features as I did on day fucking one, thank you very much. But if you didn't, one part talking about the music revealed that in this scene, since Delroy Lindo can't play harmonica for real, seated on a chair amid the standing crowd was blues legend Bobby Rush actually playing the harmonica here. The guitar playing was really done by Miles Caton. But when he signed on to do the flick, he didn't know how to play guitar

After being told Bobby Rush is playing harmonica here, I can't see Delta playing the harmonica the same anymore. He doesn't even look like he's playing it when I look at it now. And Bobby Rush made me lol for the same reason looking at Al Green, Charlie Wilson, and CBS NFL pre-show host James Brown makes me crack the fuck up. These gentlemen are all clearly at least in their 70's (oh my bad, Bobby Rush is 91!!!), yet they all got a head full of jet-black hair

NIGGA STOP IT!!!!

Actually, the pic above reminds me of another misstep I thought the film made. They needed to make Sammie's teefus' A LOT less white, as them sharecroppers back then would not have had no fucking teeth that looked like Miles Caton's

Anyway, Slim is on board for the party, and Stack has him and Sammie put on an impromptu performance advertising the party that night

Stack: These two gon' be playin' down at the old sawmill. It's the grand openin' of our new joint. Club Juke. We gon' have us a battle of the blues. It's gon' be a real ring-a-ding-ding. Just for us

Around this time, the camera cuts to a very attractive, dark skinned, young lady in the audience clapping along to the music, who most definitely has her eyes on Sammie

Delta and Sammie end their song to a roaring ovation

Stack: Y'all ready to eat?

Crowd: Yeah!

Stack: Y'all ready to drank?

Crowd: Yeah!

Sammie, also attracted to the young lady, waves at her. She doesn't wave back, but she does give him a thirsty look

Stack: Y'all ready to sweat till ya'll stank?

Crowd: Yeah

Stack (laughing): All right. We gon' get funky like a Mississippi donkey, y'all

Ironically, Stack never says the word 'tonight', yet everyone seemed to already know. In the meantime, we cut to another new character for the first time; Mary, played by Hailee Steinfeld

Ok, again, I struggled with this scene. We'll get to know who Mary is and her history with Stack shortly, but she just fucking happened to be at the train station where Stack was, while he was there, for the first time in seven years? (insert eye roll here)

Stack: Get a drink on the Twins when you get there

Delta Slim (cracking up extra hard): I like it. Where you get that one from? (about the Mississippi donkey)

Meanwhile, pimp daddy Sammie approaches the young lady

Sammie: I've seen you somewhere before

Young Lady: Maybe

Sammie: You sing, don't you?

Young Lady: Time to time

Sammie: Mm-hmm. I'm Preacherboy (he extends his hand)

She looks down at his hand for a second before relenting

Young Lady: Pearline (played by Jayme Lawson)

Sammie (nodding): Pearline. Mm

Pearline: I'm married, by the way

Sammie: Happily? (Aye, even at a young age, Sammie knew that was an important follow-up question to ask lmao. I wonder if he learned that from his cousins too)

Pearline: Careful, boy. You gon' bite off more than you can chew (as she gives him a sexy look while walking away...I mean, I'da fucked her. You see all that ass as she was walking awa--)

Sammie: Maybe I'll see you tonight

She just turns around and looks him up and down. Yeah, I definitely would have fu--

Just beyond Pearline is Mary, who is now full-on staring at Stack. Sammie notices her and walks over to Stack to pull his coattail

Sammie (to Stack): Hey, hey, hey. There's a white woman staring at you

Stack: Shit. Uh, you-- you sure she's white?

Sammie nods

Sammie: She walkin' over here right now

Stack: All right, now here's what we're gonna do...

Mary: Excuse me, boy. Is this here Smoke? Or is this Stack?

Stack: Don't, don't look at her. Just go over there and keep playing. Yeah, it's okay

Mary: You know I waited for you

Stack: Yeah, well, I don't know why in the hell you'd go and do that

Mary: Because you told me you loved me

Stack: Yeah, well, I told you to stay the fuck away from me, too, but I guess you didn't hear that part

Mary: I heard you. I heard you loud and clear, but then you stuck your tongue in my cooz and fucked me so hard, I figured you changed your mind

Stack: Keep your voice down, now. It's not exactly how I remember it

Mary: Oh, it ain't? Remember falling asleep with your head on my chest? Leaving in the middle of the night without a fucking word?

Stack: What the hell are you doing back here, Mary?

Mary: I buried my mama yesterday, Stack

Stack shoots her a concerned look. He obviously didn't know

Mary (cont): Figured I might see you and Smoke there, as much as she looked after you both. But I guess y'all love lasted as long as y'all could get something out of her

Stack: You right. That's all she was. Food, a warm bed

Mary: Rot in hell, Stack

She walks away

Stack: Shit, I will. Save your triflin' ass a room. Shit, right next to me. Shit

Sammie: Hey, Stack

Stack: Hm?

Sammie: Maybe she ain't white (lol)

Stack: Boy, let's get to gettin'. Come on, Slim. Still got one more stop to make

This would lead us to yet another favorite scene of mine

But first, you HAVE to hear what Delroy said about this scene

Next, we pick up with Stack, Sammie and Slim riding in the car Stack is driving. They come across a group of prisoners swinging pickaxes into the dirt like they did in Eddie Murphy's Life

Delta Slim: Hold up. Slow down, Stack. Slow down

Stack slows down. Delta Slim stands up in the car

Delta: Y'all hold your heads now, you hear me? Hold your heads!!

One of the prisoners takes his hat off

Prisoner: Slim!

A single shotgun gunshot rings out loud. The guys drive on

Sammie: Hey, you knew some of them?

Delta Slim takes a swig from his flask

Delta Slim: All of 'em

Sammie: What happened?

Slim turns around and shoots Sammie a look before he begins explaining

Delta Slim: Me and my buddy Rice...we was hustlin' back and forth up the Delta. We get busted for Vagrancy. Them white sheriffs take us down to the jailhouse and it's empty. Thought for sure they gon' kill us that night. They give us our instruments back; they tell us to play. Stack, we played, Preacherboy, we played, you hear me? Music was comin' out the windows (laughing). Peoples on the street were stoppin' to come on in. (He laughs again) Next day, one of them sheriffs, they get the bright idea they gon' take us on the road now. They cover us, throw us in the paddy wagon. They took us to this big house. I mean, it's full of white folks. Pass around their hat and have us to play. See, these white folks we were playing for, they had real money

Sammie: Had y'all playing them old ragtime songs?

Delta Slim: I sure was. We play a fair amount of blues, too. See, white folks, they like the blues just fine. They just don't like the people who make it (one of my favorite lines in the movie). Them peckerwoods was noddin' their heads, stompin' their feet. Some of 'em was almost on the rhythm, Stack (lol). And then Rice and me, we changed it up, confuse 'em (laughing hard)

Sammie: What did y'all do with the money?

Delta, who after his last line took another swig from his flask, takes it away from his mouth and taps it a few times

Delta Slim: I drank it. Rice said he was gonna take that money...go on out to Little Rock, start him a little church

Sammie: Did he?

Delta (shaking his head): The damn fool. He took out all his money to pay for the $2 train ticket. Train conductor saw him, Klan got ahold to him. Searched his pockets, found all that money. Made up a story about him killin' some white man for it and rapin' that white man's wife. And they lynched him right there in the railroad station. And you know they cut off his manhood

Sammie leans back in his seat, clearly distraught from that story. Delta starts humming and begins a beat stomping his feet into the car floor rhythmically. Stack reminds Sammie he's got that guitar in his hands signaling for him to join in

The scene is already great, but doesn't the knowledge that the song was an improv make it even more fucking dope? And how Michael B Jordan just kinda went with Delroy in the ad-lib by reminding Sammie about his guitar

So fucking cool!

Next, we get introduced to another new character...Cornbread, Played by Omar Miller

By the way, Eminem fans, did you recognize Cornbread from 8 Mile?

Eminem: Hey Sol, do you ever wonder at what point you just got to say fuck it man? Like when you gotta stop living up here, and start living down here?

Omar Miller: It's 7:30 in the morning dawg

The "one more stop" the guys had to make turned out to be to Cornbread. He's also a sharecropper, and as the guys pull up, Cornbread and his pregnant wife are working in the field

Stack: Hey, Cornbread!

Cornbread looks up from his work and recognizes Stack immediately

Cornbread: Ooh. Stack? Boy, long time no see

Stack climbs out of the car, while Delta and Sammie stay in the car minding their business

Cornbread: This here my wife, Therise

Stack (taking off his hat to greet Therise): Nice to meet you, Therise

Therise: Likewise

Stack (to Therise): Need you to give us a moment. Men got business to discuss

Cornbread: No, uh-uh. I ain't got time for your schemin' Stack. Behind on my quota

Stack: Man, fuck your quota

Cornbread (annoyed): This my wife right here, now. I'ma need you to show some respect

Stack: Yeah, well, fuck your wife, too

Cornbread abruptly looks up this time

Cornbread: What's that?

Stack (clearly being facetious): I said she really gonna let you fuck her when she find out how much money you about to get from this job I'm offering. And none of that nice-and-slow shit she probably giving you now

Around this time, we cut to Cornbread who is slowly nodding as if to say, "you's a dead muthafucka now"

Stack (cont): Shit, she might even let you put your pecker in her mouth

Delta Slim and Sammie snicker from the car. Therise glances at her husband, as you have to figure she knows this will set him off. It did

Cornbread (removing his satchel from around his body and tossing it on the ground): Boy, you shoulda stayed gone, 'cause I'm about to beat the black off of you

Therise: Come on now!

Stack (throwing his hands up): I don't want no trouble. Hey!

Therise: Well, how much money you talkin' about payin' him?

This prompts Cornbread to shoot her a hilarious "what the fuck" look

Stack (taking a wad out his suit jacket pocket): Oh, that's a good woman. Come on. We be back

Next, We Meet Annie played by Wunmi Mosaku

Uhh, first of all, heeey Wunmi! See, I am forever...let me stop. I remember Wunmi from the first thing I ever saw her in; as Hunter B-15 in the Marvel Disney+ Series Loki

We then return to what Smoke is up to. We see this tiny shack, seemingly in the middle of nowhere, as Smoke pulls up in the truck near that same shack. For those of us who were curious, this scene also provides the answer to why he negotiated those flowers from Grace

But again, good thing Annie happened to still live in the same place seven years later, right? Oh yeah, I'ma keep harping on it because the shit needs to be said!!

Smoke slowly emerges from the truck holding those flowers in his hand. He kinda slowly walks over to a patch in the ground, removes his hat and kneels, before placing the flowers on the site, and saying two words that explained everything we needed to know about what he's doing

"Papa's Here"

Around this time, we see a woman walk outside from inside the shack to see what this commotion was that she heard. It's Annie, but at this point we don't even know her name yet

As she takes a step outside of the shack, Smoke hears her coming up behind him while he's still kneeled at the grave. He turns his head slightly toward her

Smoke: How you be?

Annie: No miseries worth complaining about

Smoke stands up from his previous kneeling position and looks at Annie, who takes several slow steps toward him before stopping

Annie: You come alone?

Smoke: Yeah. Stack on the other side of town

Annie: What you come back for?

Smoke: We bought that old sawmill. Yeah, we gon' patch it up, make it into a juke joint

Annie: A juke joint. This one of Stack's ideas?

Smoke: Yeah, he figure tonight gonna be a grand opening

Annie: I thought y'all was done with the Delta. Last I heard, y'all were northern men

Smoke: Nah, we through with Chicago

Annie: Chicago through with y'all?

Smoke: What you asking?

Annie: Who you and Stack robbed to get enough money for them crackers to sell you a whole mill?

He doesn't respond. He just looks away and sucks his teeth. While she doesn't say anything, her look seemed to be more like, "yeah, that's what I thought" before turning and heading into the shack

Young Girl: Just this, Miss Annie (holding a jar of something unidentified)

That, and an interior shot of the shack after she entered it revealed this was a store, and it was a store that Annie owned. The girl pays for her items with what we would later find out is money made up in the Delta since people couldn't afford much. It's similar to Disney Dollars in that it's no good outside of that environment. Smoke hated this type of money throughout the entire movie

Smoke: I can't believe you taking this make-believe shit

Annie pulls out a blade

Annie: Smoke, give me my money 'fore I cut your Black ass

Smoke: You can put that blade up woman (he reaches in his pocket and pulls out a wad of cash)

Smoke (cont): I'll trade ya

Annie: I don't want your money

Smoke: Don't be stupid, now

Annie: I ain't stupid. Your money come with blood

Smoke: All money come with blood, baby

Annie: Not like yours

Smoke: This shit won't even spend nowhere else. Look at it

Annie: I ain't goin' nowhere else. I don't need that cursed money you got

He hands her back her Monopoly money. But that ain't the end of it

Smoke: You know, woman, I been all over this world. In cars. Ships. Trains. I seen men die ways I didn't even know was possible. I ain't never saw no roots, no demons, no ghosts, no magic. Just power. And only money can get you that

Annie (shaking her head): You fool. All that war. Or whatever the hell else you been doin' in Chicago. And you back here in front of me. Two arms, two legs, two eyes, and a brain that work. How you know I ain't pray...and work every root my grandmama taught me to keep you and that crazy brother of yours safe every day since you been gone?

Smoke: So why those roots ain't work on our baby, then?

Annie: I don't know. But they work for you

I can tell you why the roots ain't work. But you know what, let me be respectful. Ok, so we know that Smoke's infant baby died, and we now know who the baby's mama was. We also know that Annie is the hoodoo root lady in this story. Annie puts her hand on Smoke's chest, and he places his hand on top of hers

Annie: You still go that mojo bag

Smoke unbuttons his vest and reveals the bag hanging around his neck. So, Smoke at least in part, believed in her magic. The fact that he kept it around his neck seemed to mean the world to Annie. He snatches it from around his neck and hands it to her

She takes it and walks over to the other side of the room. Smoke sits down and lights a pipe. Annie works up her magic on a nearby table. It only takes seconds, then Annie gets down to the nitty gritty

Annie: Why you here, Smoke? What you want with me?

Smoke: We was hopin' to serve food at the juke tonight. We want you to cook for us

She just stares at him for a second

Annie: Elijah (Where we first here his gubment name, as we knew damn well his mama ain't name him no Smoke. Stack's real name is Elias)

Smoke: You gonna make me say it?

She just looks at him and doesn't say anything

Smoke (cont): It still hurts coming back here. But I love ya. And I miss ya

That was all she needed to hear. She walks over to him, wraps her arms around his neck and brings him into her massive chi chi's (lucky motherfucker), before kissing his neck and grabbing his dick

This lucky son of a bitch gets laid 20 minutes after returning home for the first time in seven years smh. This that bullshit

We next see a couple of brief shots, including one that I think is huge! First, we trail the truck Smoke was driving that has now returned to the dirt road after he nutted in Annie. Then cut to Stack's car that is now full with Delta Slim, Sammie, and Cornbread, as Delta passes his flask to Sammie in the backseat to take a swig, with Cornbread looking on annoyed at them letting this young'un drank. Sammie doesn't like the taste, but he continued drinking as evidenced by Buddy Guy's mid-credit scene

Then we get to the scene I think is huge. We see Bo, smoking a cigarette as he loads the back of their truck. He notices his wife coming out of the store and goes to open her door. They were such an adorable couple to me. Grace sits in the front passenger seat and lights her own cigarette as Bo heads over to the driver side and enters. After Grace lights her cig, she looks up at Lisa standing in the door of the store, smiles and excitedly waves at her. I think this is big because, though nobody knew it at that time, it would be the last time Lisa ever saw her parents. Her mother smiling and waving at her is the last image she'll have of her parents

Next, we get introduced to the evil that Sammie attracted

But first, I encourage those of you who bought the movie to watch the deleted scenes if you haven't already. Once you do, you'll discover the character Joan, played by Lola Kirke, was changed a bit. There's two deleted scenes that shows she had a kind of twisted sense of humor; one was a conversation between Joan and her husband Bert, played by Peter Dreimanis, before the evil knocked on their door. And the other changed a character's death in the movie to make her more of the focal point of that death, when someone else in the movie actually killed that character

Ok, so real quick, do y'all know the official limit of how much sunlight vampires can endure? I thought it was zip. Zero. Zilch. Nada. But when we see the 'evil' first literally land on screen, it's still more sunlight shining than I thought they could handle

But we see a shot of a house with a cow (or it might be a horse, I don't know) and a car next to it, and we see the feet of a guy land on the ground in front of the camera (more on what I thought he was doing here later), and quickly stumble to the front door of the house

The man is inexplicably fucking steaming...like literally. Once he knocks on the door, we get closer to him to see his body is all burned up in the back. To be perfectly honest, this is some really weird shit going on with this dude. He bangs on the door hard yelling for help

He turns around and one of his eyes is all fucked up, appearing to be sealed shut. He begins knocking harder

Man: HELP!!!!

The door flies open and the married couple who live there are both armed and pointing their guns at the man

Bert: Back up!

Remmick: Y'all gotta help. I thought I could trust them, but they tried to kill me

Bert: Slow down

Joan: Who's tryin' to kill you?

Remmick: Choctaw

Bert: Sure it wasn't just some fair-skinned niggers? Ain't no Injuns around here for miles

Remmick, taking his performance up a notch: Oh, god (he falls to his knees). They took my wife. Oh, god. I'm a coward, ain't I?

He looks up and sees Bert's little KKK halloween costume in the background

Remmick: I got gold. (he takes it out of his pocket and holds it up to them) Them dirty Injuns meant to rob me. They ain't get all of it. Y'all can have it. Just don't let 'em hurt me no more

Bert and Joan look at each other like they want that fucking gold

We then head back outside of the house, this time with a couple of cars and a couple of horses each carrying one person quickly approaching the house. You can tell immediately that they're "Injuns"

This dude gets out of one of the cars that I swear looks like he belonged in a circus. He looked like a cross between Tonto, John Goodman, and like George Lopez. It turns out this guy was the leader of this group of Choctaw hunters. The leader walks up to the door, Joan opens the door and greets him with a shotgun to his face. One of the guys on the back of one of the cars pulls his shotgun and points it at Joan

The leader notices the gun and slowly raises his hands

Tonto Goodman Lopez: Evening, ma'am. We're in pursuit of someone very dangerous. He might've come onto your property. Have you seen anyone recently?

Joan: No

Tonto Goodman attempts to look inside the house

Joan: Bert!

Tonto: Is he in there with you, ma'am?

Joan grips the gun harder. He notices

Tonto: He's not what he seems. God forbid you let him into your home. And if so, we need to act now

Man in Choctaw: Let's go. (He looks at the setting sun) Hurry up. Let's get home before it's too late!

Tonto (in Choctaw to Joan): May god watch over you and be with you

He turns around and motions for them to take off as he walks back to the car. Once he enters the car, they all take off and head back the way they came

I honestly still don't know if I fully understand this scene. Because the nigga was steamin' n shit, it didn't really take a rocket scientist to figure out the man knocking on the door was a vampire. It was also clear that the man was right about Choctaw trying to kill him, and these are in fact those Choctaw

I already pointed out that I thought the beginning of this scene had way more sunlight than I thought vampires could handle. But with the Choctaw man saying, "let's get home before it's too late" in looking at the sun, does that mean that these vampire hunters were vampires too? Or were they trying to get home before the dude they were just chasing goes full vampire? He was steaming, burned, and his eye was all fucked up. So you figure these hunters had shit for vampires, right? Why would they have to leave before it's too late for him to turn, when they had already partially destroyed him and wanted to finish the job? He even said if she let him in her home, they'd have to act now. How did that go to, "uhp, sorry, gotta go" just seconds later? I thought this was weird, but again, I may not know the whole story here

The first few times I saw this movie, I didn't notice there were some black birds circling the house when the Choctaw pulled up, and those same birds were resting on the roof of the house when they were leaving. That can't all be a coincidence with what we're about to find out happened in the house while Joan was talking to Tonto

Once the hunters are in the distance, only then does Joan put her gun down and close the door. She stands behind the door for a second like she was just scared shitless at this interaction she had

Joan: Bert. Injuns came and went

She begins walking further into the house. After she takes a couple of steps, she sits her gun against the wall on the floor in the hallway

Joan: Bert?

She wipes her face with her dress as she walks down the hallway in her home

Joan: Bert?

She turns a dark corner and opens the door

Joan: Bert?

The man she and her husband just let into their home sits in a chair in the basement with blood all around his mouth and down his neck. Bert is passed out on the floor face down

Remmick: Oh, he's just resting

She looks over at her husband who then begins to resurrect. He stands up, stretches, and smiles to show his new vampire teeth

Bert: Hey baby

Remmick: See, he's all better now

Joan let's out a scream that would have made the horror directors of the 30's and 40's very proud

Remmick (shushing her): Don't cry

Well, that was fucking terrifying

With nightfall upon us following the events of the last scene, it's time for the party

The sawmill is the setting as darkness falls on the surrounding area. We see cars arriving as partygoers make their way to the impromptu event. Still not sure if it's relevant, especially since there are no vampires in the mill at this point, but there are two or three more black birds hovering over the sawmill too

We see likely due to his size...Cornbread is placed as the bouncer at the front door of this here club. He's still wearing the same overalls and straw hat he was wearing when Stack took him out of the field earlier that day. He ain't think to go home and shower or nothin', huh? Aight then

Cornbread: Right this way. Ladies

Sammie is already inside, and he's looking around like that sawmill is Carnegie Hall

Stack: Come on in! Welcome to Club Juke. We 'bout to get it poppin' like fish grease, boy

Not coincidentally, Smoke glances over at their literal fish grease poppin'

Delta is playing the piano with a really goofy look on his face, very indicative of the times, especially while they were listening to (or creating) music. The dance floor is already crowded with people starting to let loose

We then head to Annie tending bar

Annie: We got whiskey, Irish beer, Italian wine

Customer: Y'all some classy niggas, ain't you? Lol Too fancy for me. Ma'am I don't need no ice nothin'. Corn liquor'll do

Annie: That'll be 50 cent

Customer: God damn, I just got 30. But these is good down at the Maybell general store

Remember Annie having to threaten Smoke earlier after he took her Monopoly money? We already know how he feels about that kinda shit. So you know Stack REALLY knows about this. Stack glances over at Smoke who he can tell is already pissed about this whole exchange. Smoke takes a step or two, but before he could react

Stack (to the customer): You like that cold, right?

Customer: I certainly do

Stack: Comin' right up

Stack places the bottle on the counter in front of the man

Customer: Thank you kindly

Smoke: Let me holla at y'all right quick

We then see Pearline arrive to the party wearing that spla-clickity-clow! Gaaawwdddamn ma'am

She and Cornbread exchange pleasantries. Sammie turns and notices her coming in

Sammie: You made it

She shoots him a look that I honestly couldn't read. It's been a very long time since anyone looked at me the same way she looked at him

Then we go back to Smoke tryna check Stack and Annie

Smoke: This ain't no house party. And it damn sure ain't no charity. We takin' cash, U.S. motherfuckin' dollars

Annie: This ain't Chicago, Smoke

Smoke: The fuck that mean?

Stack: That old nigga worked his ass off for them wooden nickels

We cut to partygoers enjoying themselves dancing on the floor

Stack (voiceover): See, these niggas been workin' in the field all day. When they show up here, let them enjoy themselves

Annie (voiceover): They gotta feel wanted if you want this here to work

Stack (voiceover): This place supposed to feel like it's for them

For the record, I 100% agree with Annie and Stack here. We then head back to the front door and Cornbread letting more people in

Cornbread: Right this way

He sees Mary, his smile fades and he removes his hat

Cornbread: Uh, excuse me, ma'am. You sure you at the right place?

Mary: That's a damn good question, Cornbread

Cornbread looks shocked

Cornbread: Little Mary?

Mary: Not so little no more, huh?

Cornbread: Little Mary. Aw

They hug as she chuckles

Then we head back to Sammie and Pearline

Pearline: When they turn this place into a juke?

Sammie: We did it today. My cousins own it. You know the Twins

Pearline: Heard of em, of course. They your cousins?

Sammie nods

Pearline: Y'all must be play cousins

Sammie: They daddy was my daddy big brother

Pearline: So y'all cousins through blood?

Sammie again nods

Pearline: But you seem like such a nice young man

Sammie: I ain't always nice. Ain't that young either

She hits him with another one of those looks I ain't seen thrown my way in a very long time

Then we head back to Cornbread and Mary

Cornbread: My condolences about your mother. We'd have made the repast...but me and Therise had to work

Mary: It's all right

Cornbread nods

Mary: Now let me get on in here and get a drink before I start tearing up

Cornbread: Go on. Enjoy yourself

Then we head back to Smoke, Stack and Annie

Smoke (to Stack): When you was sellin' ass out in Little Rock, you ever let a john pay with a goddamn promissory note?

Stack: Hell nah

Annie looks at him like, "dude, not helping". Smoke looks at him like, "that's what I thought"

Stack: But, see, I wasn't sellin' ass in the Delta

Then back to Sammie and Pearline

Pearline: You gon' play?

Sammie: You gon' sing?

Pearline: We'll see where the night takes us

Sammie: Your husband coming?

She silently shakes her head as he nods. He then glances over and notices Mary

Sammie: Shit. (to Pearline) Hold on

Sammie walks over toward Mary and removes his hat. He ain't remove his hat for the girl he tryna fuck, but he....

Sammie (to Mary): Excuse me, ma'am. I don't think you should be here. You see, I'm with the Twins...

Mary: With the Twins? Boy, if you don't get the fuck out my face...

Sammie: I am with them, ma'am. We met earlier at the train station. I'm their lil' cousin

Mary: Little cousin?

Sammie: I think you should leave before they see you

Mary: Wait, you not little Sammie?

He looks genuinely surprised

Mary: The guitar. You old enough to drink now? Come on, let me buy you a drink

She takes the hand of a very confused Sammie and head over to the bar; this time being manned by Grace. She and Mary exchange pleasantries. Then...

Mary: Two whiskeys, please

Grace: Sure

Then we head back to Annie and the Twins

Smoke: I don't know hoodoo, and I can't talk slick, but I know business. And this is bad for business

Stack: It's opening night. Besides, only be a few of 'em like this

Smoke (sighs): I need a goddamn cigarette

Stack: Comin' right up

Then back to Sammie and Mary

Mary: So you play that guitar they left you?

Sammie: Yeah

Mary: That's good. You makin' any money with that thing?

Sammie: Not really. Not yet, at least

Mary: I'd tell ya it didn't matter as long as you love it, but that'd be horseshit advice

Sammie just comes straight out and asks, unable to hold it in anymore

Sammie: What are you?

She reveals that her maternal grandpops..."My mama's daddy was half Black. He raised her to keep the Klan from killing her"

Smoke makes his way over to them. After exchanging whatever is the complete opposite of pleasantries, Smoke goes over to Stack and tells him regarding Mary...

Smoke: Take care of her or I will

Stack: No, no, I'ma handle it. I got it

Smoke: All right, go on

Stack: I'm goin'

Stack makes a beeline over to Mary

Stack: Come on. Let's go

Mary: I'm not here for you

Stack: Then why you here?

Mary: I come to hear the blues

Stack: Oh no, they play the blues just fine in Arkansas. Come on. Cornbread, let's get her a car

Mary: Get your hands off me

Stack: What's it gon' take? Hm? How much to get you to get the fuck on?

Mary: You can't pay me off

Stack: Fine. I'll pay one of these field bitches in here to drag your ass out then

Mary: Shit. You taught me how to fight. I'll beat up every bitch in here and you know it

Stack: I taught you to how to walk away when the money is up, too. Got you a rich white husband. Got you a farm. Now go home to it

Mary: I ain't ask for none of that. All that shit was your idea. I didn't want no white man. I didn't wanna be white. I wanted to be with you

Stack: All it'd take is the wrong person in here to see you...word get back to them crackers and they gon' try to kill you

Mary: What would it matter to you?

Stack: 'Cause if somebody out there put their hands on you...if they hurt you...me and my brother gon' come kill 'em all

Mary: So you'll kill for me

Stack: That's right

Mary (smiles): But you still won't tell me the truth. I was young enough to believe you were comin' back. I waited. I waited a long time. But I'm grown now, Stack. And I know you never planned to stay. Why can't you just say that?

Stack: Say what? Hm? (Removes his hat) That I love you? That I think about you every day? I just wanted to keep you someplace safe. And that was never gon' be here. And that was never gon' be with me. Never. All right. (He puts his hat back on and walks away while she sheds a single tear)

Delta Slim finishes his piano solo to a rousing ovation. He stumbles to his feet and takes a swig of that Irish beer

Delta Slim: Hey. I been hearin' about this one particular young man all day. He 'posed to be a bad blues man. Preacha boi, where you at? Come on here, now

Sammie lifts his guitar and walks forward to applause

Stack: My lil cousin, y'all. Watch this

Sammie begins strumming his guitar

Delta Slim: Hold up, hold up. Tell 'em who you are, where you from

Sammie turns back toward the audience with all the confidence in the world, still strumming his guitar

Sammie: I'm Sammie Moore. I'm a sharecropper from Sunflower plantation. They call me Preacherboy account of my daddy being a pastor. I wrote this song for him

Next, we get treated to one of the best scenes in cinematic history. The bread and butter really of this movie. Sammie's ultra powerful rendition of I Lied to You, while not only attracting the utmost evil, but also paying homage to the many genres of music spawned from Blues. After all, is it not the B in R&B? This is one quite unforgettable song and scene

In between Sammie cooking up his bluesey ass track, we're shown Delta schooling young Sammie and becoming his music mentor. I love this dialogue Delta gives

Delta Slim: Blues wasn't forced on us like that religion. Nah, son, we brought this with us from home. It's magic, what we do. It's sacred...and big

Later, right before the roof, the roof, the roof is on fire...

Delta Slim: With this here ritual...We heal our people...and we be free

Love this!!!

And also loved the visual. Once Sammie hits a high note, it sets the roof on fire and eventually burns the entire building. But the party, the dancing, singing and socializing doesn't stop at all, although it's now exposed to the elements (theoretically speaking)...and the evil

The camera zooms away from the building-less party all the way until we see a trio in the not so distance. It's the same trio we just saw in the last scene; Remmick, Bert and now a clearly turned Joan as well (both her and Bert's eyes were glowing white, while Remmick's eyes were glowing red)

Remmick has his eyes locked on the party with an added twinkle in his already red ass eyes. He stands there admiring it for a moment before the trio slowly begin walking toward the front door of the mill

During I Lied to You, Pearline gave Sammie a look while she danced that said, "oh, he can most definitely have all this pussy". Sorry, cooz

We next see Pearline acting on those very desires, as she and Sammie passionately kiss in a room of some sort. She asks him if the door locks, to which he said, "only with a key". She tells him to keep his foot on the door, and then she sits on a nearby table or something. He tells her he wants to try something and goes down to find that goddamn button his cousin told him about

First, she lightly protests, stating a desire to wash up as she walked to the party. Sammie being the pimp he already is, tells her she's beautiful and he just wants to taste her. She relents

Stack heads up to room they're in and notices the door is unable to be opened. He thought it was locked and reaches in his pocket to retrieve the key. But then he hears Pearline in there moaning Preacherboy's name and figures out what's going on

Stack: (chuckles) Boy found that button, didn't he?

Grace walks up to him

Grace: Hey. Smoke wants ya

Stack: Check out my little cousin

Grace places her ear to the door and can hear Pearline moaning and groaning, before making a hilarious "alright then" face before walking away

Meanwhile, back at the front, Cornbread is seated at the door conversing with his fellow overall wearing field brother who is smoking a cig

Cornbread: He call himself tellin' me about the cotton. I said, 'shit...that boy don't know nothin'

He glances up and spots Remmick, Joan and Bert approaching the mill. Remmick gives that white man wave

Cornbread stands up and directs the guy he was speaking with to go get the twins

Then we quickly cut back to the twins having a conversation I think is important to a scene coming up in a short while

Smoke: I tallied the till

Stack: And. What's the count?

Smoke hands him a document. Stack smiles

Smoke: Now, that top figure, that's plantation money (the fake money he didn't like). That bottom figure, that's real dollars

Stack: So what's the projection?

Smoke: Two months, and we out of fresh cash

We head back to the front door, and the trio have made their way just steps away from the door

Remmick (played by Jack O'Connell): Hey there

Cornbread: Good evening. How may I help you folks?

Remmick: Oh, we heard tell of a party. Drink, food, blues music and the like

Cornbread: You did?

Remmick: We like to drink. We happen to be musicians, and we walked here. So, we hungry as dogs

Bert: Woof woof

Bert and Joan chuckle

Remmick: You wouldn't mind us comin' in, now, would you?

Remmick takes a couple of steps forward, but Cornbread parks himself firmly in the doorway

We cut to Sammie opening the door of the room they were in, and he and Pearline exit after apparently getting their nut on

Cornbread: I think y'all in the wrong place

Joan: (chuckles) What makes ya say that?

The twins then make their way to the front door. Sammie and Pearline stand behind them, as does Annie and Mary

Remmick (to the twins): You fellers must be the owners of this establishment

Smoke: That's right. And you are?

Remmick: Name's Remmick. This here's Joan and Bert

Sammie: Hey, Stack, y'all all right?

Remmick: Oh. And you...must be that voice I heard from out here. Aw it was beautiful

Joan: Goddamn bee-utiful voice (lmao she's loving being a vamp)

Bert: Even through these walls (ha, that's an awesome line considering we saw the walls were gone when they heard it)

Remmick: Mm

Smoke: Where y'all from?

Joan: Just down the road

Stack: And how far is that?

Remmick: North Carolina

Smoke: Y'all Klan?

Remmick: Sir...(sputters) We believe in equality. And music. We just came here to play. Spend some money, have a good time. Here, I'll show you

The trio grab their instruments they were carrying, and begin the next song we hear on the soundtrack. This extremely fucking creepy ass tune right here

Pick Poor Robin Clean, by Jack O'Connell, Lola Kirke and Peter Dreams

My people as a whole tend to not paricularly pay attention to specific lyrics, rather just the melody of the song. I think this was one of those situations. Our peeps didn't really seem like they were paying attention to the words of this song. Because if they were, they would have recognized it as some truly morbid shit!!

Cornbread even said, "these pecks ain't bad"

And Stack was definitely groovin' for a moment. But Smoke's heard enough

Smoke: All right, all right, hold on, hold on. Just a minute

Remmick: Aww, it's just about to get good

Smoke: Nah, I believe ya, but this here a juke joint. Blues music

Bert: But we got money, and we ready to spend it with y'all

Remmick: Sounding damn near perfect and you're saying we ain't welcome?

Smoke: No, I'm saying you get down that road and get back into town. Plenty of white barrelhouses down there

Remmick (scoffs): Aww, this 'cause we're....(rubs his skin) All right. (Pointing at Mary) How'd she get in?

Mary: Now, that's none of....

Annie: She here...'cause she family

Remmick: Family. (kinda annoyed) Can't we just, for one night...just all be family?

He slowly walks toward the door. Smoke puts his hand on his weapon on his holster

Remmick: You don't need to do that, sir. We'll be on our way

They turn and begin slowly walking away

Remmick: But we're gonna walk real slow. Just in case y'all change your mind

They begin walking childishly slow

Stack: Y'all have a nice night

Annie: They gave me the willies

Stack: Yeah, well, crackers at nighttime will do that to you (lol)

Annie: Wasn't just that

Smoke (to Stack): You think they brought company?

Stack: I doubt it. But we got enough pepper on us if they did

Smoke: Shit, we forgot the trunk

Stack: Man, why you ain't remind me?

Smoke: Fool, I told you to remind me

Mary: Y'all don't need the trunk. There was just three of 'em

Stack: Now listen to me, what if they just came to sing?

Smoke: And what if somebody spill somethin' on 'em? Step on their shoe? Look at their woman a bit too long? We gon' have a bigger problem than just a fight

Cornbread: Sho'll do

Smoke (to Cornbread): Don't let them in

Cornbread nods that he understands

We know the trio are vampires, and we know they can't enter a building unless they get an invite. So, this preliminary decision turns out to be the right one for the time being

Smoke walks away first. Annie looks at Stack while he shakes his head and is the next one to walk away. Annie and Mary just stand there staring out the front door

Next, in the background as the partygoers are letting loose on the dance floor, we hear the next song from the soundtrack. But you're forgiven if you didn't notice it and skip this song on the soundtrack like I do

Old Corn Liquor, by Rhiannon Giddens and Justin Robinson

Then we splice between two important conversations the brothers are having. First, to Smoke and Sammie

Sammie: They said you wanna talk

Smoke: Yeah. Seen your performance down there. Pretty damn good

Sammie: Can't thank you enough for this. I mean, y'all the ones who put that guitar in my hand. Now this

Smoke: Well, you got the talent. That's for certain. But all this ain't no life for nobody. I know plenty musicians. I ain't never met a happy one. Yeah, it's cute now. But it get old. That ramblin

Let me interject here really quickly to say that I thought Smoke was DEAD ASS WRONG for this part here. Another part where I'm glad Sammie stuck to his guns

Sammie: I mean, being with y'all today...Smoke, I feel like I'm flying. Well, today settled it. I'm headin' off on my own

Smoke: Where you goin'?

Sammie: I don't know. Maybe Chicago

Smoke: Hm

Then we head to Stack and Mary

Mary: What's wrong, Stack?

Stack: We underwater

Mary: How?

Stack: All the plantations down there payin' with credits

Mary: What about them crackers?

Stack: What about 'em?

Mary: I can go feel 'em out before they're too far gone

Stack: I can feel 'em out myself

Mary: They'll tell me more than they'll tell you. And I can find out what they really have

Stack: And what happens if they're from Little Rock?

Mary: They ain't

Now, this part was actually really interesting to me, and I didn't figure out what was going on here until about the third time I saw the movie. We know the tragic event that happens next, but before that we should really take a closer look at this scene

Remembering the name of the movie, we know that Stack is a compulsive liar. We already saw him tell Sammie a lie in the car (though we wouldn't find out until toward the end of the film that it's a lie). Later on, he would lie to his brother (more on that when we get to that scene). And just a few moments ago, right when Remmick, Bert and Joan approached the front, we saw a conversation between Smoke and Stack that let us know that he just lied to Mary about them being underwater

As soon as he tells her the lie that all plantations are paying with credits, that's when she suggests going to speak with the trio outside. If he hadn't lied to her, she may not have thought to help by going out to speak with them

We already saw what Remmick is capable of in his first scene, so the first time I watched the movie, when Mary discusses with Stack going out to speak with them, I shook my head in the theater thinking, "this cannot end well"

But the only reason she was even going out there was because of the lie that Stack told her. True, Stack didn't know they were vampires and ultimately what he was allowing Mary to do. But still, in a sense, that lie he told cost Mary her life. Then with shit continuing down the rabbit hole, that same lie would then turn around and cost Stack his life as well

Very, very interesting

We then head back to Smoke and Sammie's convo

Smoke: One day our daddy beat Stack real bad (he wasn't in the car when Stack told him the story). So we get in our minds that we need to run away (lol, he conveniently failed to mention this was after he killed him, and he doesn't know that Sammie already knows). See, me, I wanna go to the next plantation over. But Stack, he figure we get to Mound Bayou. Small town. Right here in Mississippi. Founded by free slaves. And everything is Black owned

Sammie: That sound like a crock

Smoke: Yeah, well, I seen it

Sammie: Why y'all ain't stay?

Smoke: That mayor knew who our daddy was. Knew he was a evil man. Figured it was no way that he ain't passed that evil down to us

Then back to Mary and Stack

Mary: Let me go get this money for us

Damn, she loved her some Stack

Mary (cont): I know y'all need it

Stack: And what's that supposed to mean?

Then back to Sammie and Smoke

Smoke: See, your daddy a preacher. You can go and do that

Sammie look like he ain't having none of it

Smoke (cont): You like makin' music? Make church music. You wan' leave...go on down Mound Bayou. Live with the proper Black folks. Leave all this here improper shit to us

Again, Smoke is dead ass for this

Then back to Mary and Stack

Mary: Irish beer? Italian wine? You rob both sides. Let 'em blame each other while you and Smoke come down here and set up shop. You gon' need every dime you can get when they put two and two together

Stack: But they won't

Mary: They might

Back to Sammie and Smoke

Sammie: Well, I ain't goin' to Mound Bayou. My daddy a reverend, but I'm y'all cousin, too. And a lot more people know the Smokestack Twins than they know my daddy good point. we've seen that shit tenfold just in this first half of the movie

Smoke: Yeah? Well, you better enjoy the rest of the night, 'cause this your last juke

Sammie is clearly (and rightfully) pissed at this

Sammie: You ain't in no position to tell me how to live my life preach brotha...family always got that stupid ass muthafucking tell you how to live your life shit REAL BAD!!! Fuuuuuck all the way off you bitch ass motherfuckers!!

Back to Stack and Mary

Mary: Let me go talk to them....and see about puttin' something real on the till. Come on

He takes off his gun and hands it to her as she heads outside

Then back to Smoke and Sammie

Smoke: Come tomorrow, I find out about you playin' in one of these...boy, I'll kill you myself

So, Smoke was already dead fucking wrong. Now he adds threatening his life if he don't do what he says to his wrongdoings? Bitch, stop!

Fortunately, Sammie is unfazed though

Sammie: Look, I'm leaving that plantation just like y'all did. And if that's a problem for you...kill me now

Ol' bitch ass Smoke pulls his gun on his little cousin. Smh

Smoke: What's the matter? (you got a gun on me dumb ass) I'm a soldier, boy. And you just gave me a command

I definitely rolled my eyes at this part first time I saw it. If I'm Sammie I put my head against the gun and dare that muthafucka to pull the trigger

But eventually, Smoke puts the gun away

Next, we get to another favorite scene and definitely one of my favorite songs from the soundtrack. In fact, when I got back to my car after the first viewing and downloaded the soundtrack, I started from the first song and let it play. But I was secretly especially waiting for this song

I would later find out Jack O'Connell (Remmick) is said to have signed on after only reading the script once, as the Irish man was happy he'd get to sing Irish folk songs. That explains why he loved the song. But not why the fuck this black dude loved it. But then I remembered

Side note: When I was a kid, like up to pre-teen age, I used to go to this YMCA Summer Camp for one week per year. I remember I had to sell peanut brittle and everything. The camp was called Camp Round Meadow, and it had all sorts of fun activities; a pool, arts & crafts, BMX dirt bike riding, archery and canoeing, to name a few

I recently looked up to see if the camp was still in existence, as I considered going back as a counselor for the nostalgia. It does still exist, (although I'm not going back, as I saw and remembered the little padding we had to sleep on in those uncomfortable sleeping bags in my single digit age group, let alone now in my 40's and my love of edibles....shiiiit) but it looks like most things that were there are no longer there (as you'd expect from shit that was there in the 80's). Hell, I don't even know if the same YMCA I went to in Torrance is even still around. It wasn't listed as one of the YMCA's that still goes to Round Meadow

Anyway, one very fond memory I have of my time at camp, was the nightly campfire to wind down at the end of every day. The first part of campfire was always an energetic, raucous of a time. It included shouting all of our answers to everything, and a game that we used to play with one of the guys who worked there. Toward the beginning of campfire, we'd always yell at the top of our lungs, and the man would "count the echoes" off the trees in the background. Lol it was always total bullshit, because the first night we'd always only have like 2 echoes. Then by the end of the week, we always magically reached our goal of 10, despite the fact that we could not possibly have yelled any louder on the first night. I'm thinking most of us campers knew it was bullshit. But we still did it because it was fun. It was a great place to let loose. Our group was the only group up there in those mountains that week. So we could get as loud as we wanted

The second half of campfire was the wind down. Everything was quieter from any responses from us to the music. I remember the director of the program, Jody - we literally called her director Jody whenever we saw her - would take her guitar and play and sing those old folksy songs. Her voice was similar to Joan's (Lola Kirke) in this movie, and I remember it was always soothing. She would sing Puff, the Magic Dragon, of course, but also another song about the flicker of the campfire that was a really nice song. And soothing as well

It wasn't until the third or fourth time I watched the movie that I linked that campfire memory to why I liked this song so much. I remember it hypnotized me in the theater, especially with their excellent sound system. But another really cool thing, in my recent google search of Round Meadow I came across pictures. While the campfire itself has changed a bit (again as you would expect in the past 35+ years), can y'all believe the fucking campfire is still in the same place it was when I went, including those same trees in the distance the man (his name was Fred, and he looked like he lived at Round Meadow year round, with the long red-beard and all) would supposedly count our echoes on? When I saw the pic, I let out an audible 'whoa'

There were many more trees in the distance when I went, and the campfire area seems smaller now (or maybe it's the same size and it just looks that way because I was smaller then), but that is most definitely the same spot, including that little walkway in the background right in front of the trees, that was the trail to the arts & crafts building and the pool. Campfire was also at night, of course, and you couldn't see shit out there by the end of campfire. We had to take flashlights with us to campfire to head back to our cabins after

Have y'all ever seen an image from childhood brought back to life before your eyes? It's some trippy shit! But it's super cool. I still sometimes go by my old neighborhoods and schools and reminisce. I love shit like that

So, I said all of that to say, that is why I love this song, and why it resonates with me so much. Seriously, fond memories of my uncle and my childhood, Ryan Coogler tapped into more shit with me than he realized in making this film

Will Ye Go, Lassie Go (Sometimes called Wild Mountain Thyme), by Lola Kirke, Peter Dreams, Brian Dunphy, Darren Holden & Jack O'Connell

As Mary heads outside, the trio are singing this song. I think it hypnotized me in the theater because that's what they could have been doing to Mary. The way Joan stared at Mary the entire time she sang her part? And the way Remmick looked at Bert, similarly to how Ike used to look at Tina..."bitch you betta sang this MF right"...before he sang his part was just perfect

I loved the song from the first time I heard it, but then when you figure out what's happening in this scene, I loved it even more. This was one of the two scenes I filmed on my phone the second time I saw the movie. We saw Remmick turn them in the previous scene, but here we see just how much control he has over them in turning 'em. We would later find out just how powerful he is. So, not until my second viewing, did I fully understand what was going on

Shit, for all we know, Bert's ass didn't even have any musical talent. The only talent he had probably came from Remmick. When have you ever known any KKK members to be able to win any fucking talent contest? I don't care if he was the nephew of the grand dragon

Bert's ass was singing very fucking carefully, that's all I'm saying

And did you notice the light posts shaped like crosses in the background?

Fantastically fucking eerie scene

As they end the song, Mary claps

Remmick: Are you lookin' for some fresh air? Or...

In other words, fuck is you doin' out here bitch?

Mary: I just come to see if y'all was good people

Joan chuckles. Mary goes to sit next to Remmick

Remmick: Aw, darlin', that's so sweet of you

Joan: So sweet

Remmick: We most surely are

Mary: And y'all got money to spend?

Remmick: Oh, yeah. Plenty money. You wanna see?

Mary: Yeah, I wanna see

Remmick turns toward Bert and motions to him. Bert reaches in his pocket, pulls out some coins, and hands them to Mary. She examines them

Mary: What type of money is this?

Remmick: The solid gold kind, darlin'. Yeah

Mary: Where's this from?

Remmick: It's from a different place and a different time. But it spends just the same. You can have it. But it's no good to you

Joan: It's no good to her

Remmick: Mm-mm

Mary: Well, what makes you say that?

Remmick: 'Cause you in some deep, deep pain that money can't fix. Am I right? You came over here for fellowship and love

Joan: Fellowship and love (lol seriously, she's creeping me the fuck out)

Mary: My mother...she just passed

Remmick: Oh, that's awful. Oh

Bert: Just awful

Joan: (rubbing Mary's shoulders with her fingertips) Just awful

Bert: Losing a mother's a hurtin' feeling

Remmick: Mm-hm. And I wish in my heart that we'd have met sooner. I would've liked to have saved your mother from her fate. I can still save you from yours

Mary: No, you must have me confused

Remmick removes his banjo from around his neck

Mary (cont): I'm sad is all, but I don't need no savin'

Remmick then places the banjo on the ground beside him. When he looks back at Mary, he's droolin' n shit, and his eyes are red

Remmick: Yes. Yes, you do. You all do

He goes in slowly, for reasons unknown, to bite her. She jumps to her feet, removes the gun Stack gave her from off her leg, and points it at Remmick. Remmick's eyes return to normal

Remmick: Oh

Bert eerily chuckles. Joan just stares at Mary as she did when she was singing her song; without expression

Mary: I'm gonna head back now. And I think y'all should too. Back to wherever y'all came from

Then Mary does something that I will never understand, no matter how many times I watch this movie. She turns her back to the trio to walk back to the mill

While I get that she of course didn't know they were vampires, I would like to point out that she did feel uncomfortable enough with them to draw her gun. Why in THE FUCK you would turn your back on people you don't trust is something I just can't wrap my head around. BUUUUUUT!!! Ultimately, I give Mary a pass as I do the rest of our team. More on why later

As stated, Mary turns her back and starts walking briskly back to the mill. But we see more of Remmick's power here. He allows her to walk a solid few steps before he stands up and effortlessly...float flies(?) over to Mary before the camera cuts away

Ok, so remember earlier when we first see Remmick touch down in front of Bert and Joan's house, and I said I would explain more what I thought he was doing there later? I was waiting for this scene. He did it again, one other team later in the movie, letting us know this was his move. When we first saw him running from the Choctaw hunters, we see him land both feet on the dirt road leading up to the married couple. I think he was 'float flying' then to get away from the hunters too, which is why he landed on both feet when we first saw him

After the camera cuts from Remmick 'float flying' to Mary, it cut to Pearline taking the stage and providing us with the next song on the soundtrack

Pearline is fine and all, but I wasn't in love with her song. Her voice isn't phenomenal to me (although I think it did work for the song), and I have to be in the mood to hear this song when I peruse the soundtrack. I would say the song is fun but not great

Pale Pale Moon, by Jayme Lawson

Early in the song, we cut to the front door and Mary quickly approaching, while Cornbread enjoys Pearline's performance

We know how fucking efficient Remmick is from just his first scene. So, we know enough to know that ain't Mary as the crew knew her approaching the door

She approaches Cornbread, surprising the shit out of him. He asks her what she's doing out there, and she doesn't answer. Knowing she's a vamp now, we know she now needs permission to enter the building. But the way Vampire Mary did it was brilliant

Mary: You gonna let me in? Or just sit there blockin' the door?

Genius. It was almost a hypothetical question. She got Cornbread to let her in without having to give away too much

Cornbread: No. Come on. Go on in

And here at this exact moment, the first vampire makes their way into the party. To quote the look on Grace's face earlier, "ahh shiit" lol

Mary makes her way into the party doing all kinds of shoulder shimmy's, clearly loving the vampire blood like Joan

At this point, Delta Slim heads up to the front door, laughing and fanning himself with his hat

Delta Slim (to Cornbread): Man, it's hot in there, boy

Cornbread: Hey, watch the door for me. I got to piss

Delta Slim: Hold up, hold up. Why you can't piss right here?

Cornbread: Boy, you ain't shit. You old fool. Watch the door

Delta cracks up

Sooo, even when I watched the movie the first time, I didn't get this part at all! One of the reviews I saw on YouTube said, "Cornbread, you knew those people were out there and still went to pee outside"

But I take it a step further. To help with my point, I'd like to point out two things that were said earlier in the movie

When bitch ass Hogwood is showing the brothers the mill, he said, "the workers lived upstairs". You also figured a sawmill in its hey would have quite a few "workers". Are you telling me there was no bathroom in the mill at all?

Then the other thing. Right before Sammie tries to find that button on Pearline's cooz, she points out that she walked there and tells him to let her "wash up first". I'm going to take a while fucking guess here and assume she wasn't suggesting freshening up OUTSIDE!!!

And none of the guests went to the restroom the entire time they were there?

Why the fuck couldn't Cornbread use a restroom in the safer confines of the mill? Smh

But as I said, I give our team a pass. Admittedly though, Cornbread's pass was the hardest to grant

We head back inside, and Stack has gotten himself involved in gambling in a card game. He loses

Mary walks into the room and makes a beeline to Stack

Mary: Elias

He meets her out of the room where he's gambling

Stack: Hey, hey. So what happened?

She hands him the coins Remmick gave her

Stack: Hell yeah

Mary: Mm

Stack: What they wanna drink for this or somethin'?

She shakes her head

Stack: You sure?

She hands him back the gun and he puts it away in the back of his pants

Stack: Okay. Well, then, shit. Wanna go out there and tell 'em to do a song?

She takes the toothpick out of his mouth and kisses him

Delta Slim, still manning the door for Cornbread, sees this entire exchange and begins laughing hysterically here

Stack backs up from Mary's advances

Mary: Are you scared?

Stack looks up at Smoke (remember, Smoke told him to handle her or he will)

Mary: You're scared

Stack: Nah. Just that you somebody else's

Mary: Hm. So you rob trains and banks...but you can't steal this pussy for a night?

Aww shit. Stack never stood a chance!

At this point, we cut to Bo in the crowd trying to get Smoke's attention. He whistles and strongly nods in a direction

Then we head out to witness Cornbread's fate

He finds his ideal pissing spot and begins his business. There are some fireflies in the background, that are really cool. But then Cornbread starts hearing his name whispered and shit in the woods by Remmick, who's clearly fucking with him before he kills him. His tormenter ends it with "peak a boo"

Then we jump back to what Bo was trying to get Smoke's attention for. A man approaches Smoke bleeding in the face

Man: This son o' bitch had loaded dice! Been wearin' us out!

Smoke looks at and walks up to the ole Donald Glover looking ass nigga in the corner with the blade and loaded dice

Smoke: Best you put that blade down

Donald Glover Lookalike: Can't do that twin. Told him not to put his hands on me

Smoke: So you gonna cut me too?

DGL: If I have to. I just wanna be allowed to leave

We head back to Stack and Mary still tryna get him to steal that pussy for a night. She seductively walks into a private corner room. He follows like he wants to tear that azz up. She walks in the room and got them creepy ass wandering vampire eyes. She knows what she wants to do and at this point, she also knows she's got her prey just where she wants him

He follows her into the room and begins disrobing

Then we go back to Pearline's performance, as she's still doing Pale Pale Moon

Followed by quickly jumping back to Mary and Stack kissing in the room

Then we see Donald Glover Lookalike take a wild, random ass swing at Smoke. Smoke dodges it and swings on dude's face. Then he pushes him against the wall, shoves a gun under his chin, then knees him in the stomach/groin

Smoke gets him on the floor

Smoke (to Sammie): Come check his pockets

Thought you didn't want him doin' dirt Smoke!

Then back to Mary and Stack heating things up in the room. Then back to Donald Glover Lookalike

DGL: Get your dirty-ass hands outta my pocket

Smoke: Hey! Easy, boy

Back to Pearline and her possessed ass performance getting the party hoppin'

Smoke: Take care of this fool

The guys in the room begin stomping DGL at the same time Pearline's song has her stomping on stage. Bo closes the window leading from the kitchen, preventing Grace and Annie from witnessing the beating. When he closed the door, the ladies just went back to the party

But wait, Annie, what happened to all that "your money come with blood" talk? Here, you don't seem like you have a problem with his lifestyle

We then head back to Stack and Mary. Stack has paused the get down temporarily

Stack: Baby. You droolin' (exactly as Remmick was before he turned her)

She wipes it from her mouth before realizing they could do some real freaky shit with it

Mary: You want some?

He nods and lays back down. She leans over him and drops a line of drool in his mouth that he swallows. Ol' freaky ass muthafuckas

He begins removing her dress as they kiss. He doesn't see what we see...a nasty bite mark on the top of her right shoulder

Smoke takes a closer look at the guy DGL sliced up in the face

Smoke: Yeah, you gonna need some stitches. (turns to Sammie) Go and get my brother

Sammie heads out into the party and looks for Stack while Pearline continues Pale Pale Moon in the background. Sammie walks toward the front door

Sammie: Hey, Slim. You seen Stack?

Delta Slim (pointing to the room behind where Sammie is standing): Oh yeah, he in the back. In the back there. Go 'head, you can go. Go 'head

Sammie turns around and heads to the door of the room. As he opens the door

Sammie: Hey, Stack. Smoke lookin' for you

He walks in and sees Mary on top of Stack humping him. Sammie quickly closes the door

Delta Slim: Oh, he busy, huh? Lmao, I swear I love this fucking character

Sammie quickly heads back over to Smoke

Smoke: You go get him?

Sammie: Nah

Smoke: And why the hell not?

Sammie: He was gettin' some nookie

Smoke: I don't give a fuck what he doin'. I told you to go get him, didn't I?

Sammie: Ain't doin' that by myself

Smoke: Shit

He starts walking over toward the door Stack and Mary are in, but I don't know how he knew that was where they were fucking. Even Sammie had to ask Delta Slim

On the way to the door, Smoke glances over and sees Delta at the door

Smoke: Hey, where the hell's Cornbread?

Delta: Probably buildin' you a new outhouse. Nigga left to take a piss two damn days ago

Smoke: And he left you to watch the door?

Delta: You think I can't handle it?

Smoke just turns around and heads to the door his brother is in. Guess that was a 'nope'

Smoke: Shit. Y'all get decent. I'm comin' in. Y'all in here playin' around so....

He walks in and see's Mary still on top of Stack, but neither of them are moving. She's grunting and growling and has her head down into his neck area

Smoke: The fuck?

When she heard Smoke, Mary jumps up with blood all down her neck

Mary: Smoke. It's not what it looks like (lol...since she was taking that Stack semen she must have inherited his lying)

Smoke looks down at his brother who is bleeding and struggling to breathe. Smoke pulls his guns and unloads them both on Mary. Sammie cowered behind Smoke covering his ears, and the gunshots could be heard by the partygoers, interrupting Pearline's song

Smoke puts his guns away and begins to head toward his brother to check on him. But before he can put the second one away, Mary resurrects laughing hysterically, causing Smoke to pause in his tracks, and Sammie to look at her like "what the fuck"

Mary (still laughing): We gon' kill every last one of ya

Smoke shoots at her again as she quickly exits the room. He fires at her again from behind, but that gun is out of bullets. Mary runs out the front door and past Slim

Delta Slim: Oh, god!

Mary: I'll be back soon, Slim! Gonna have some real fun tonight!

Annie makes her way into the room with Smoke trying to console his brother

Smoke: Hold on, Stack. Hold on

Stack starts hemorrhaging

Smoke: No, no, no. Hold on, hold on, Stack

Annie: What happened?

She rushes into the room and kneels by Smoke and Stack. Delta makes his way into the room and sees Stack

Annie: What happened?

Smoke (to Stack): No, keep them eyes open

Delta closes the door of the room

Stack: She, she...she bit me

Annie looks like she can't believe what she just heard Stack say. Sammie shudders in the corner

Stack (weakly): I'm so scared. Smoke....

Damn. Did not hear that part in the theater either. Didn't realize he said it until watching it with the subtitles turned on

Smoke (softly, kinda whispering): Let it go. It's, it's okay. I'm with you

He literally hears his brother begin to die

Smoke: I'm with you

Stack: Love you

Smoke starts to cry. Then his brother stops moving. Sammie cries. Delta Slim removes his hat

Annie (softly): I'm sorry

Smoke sobs

Annie: I'm so sorry

Smoke looks at her in shock

Annie: Slim, keep everybody out

He turns around and heads back outside. As he walked out the door, the entire party is approaching the door they heard shots come from

Bo: Hey, Slim, who the fuck is shootin', man?

Woman Partygoer: Is y'all gon' bring the music back?

Pearline: The hell with the music. Slim, is Sammie in there?

Slim: Yeah, yeah, Sam be out directly. Party's over, y'all

Man: No

Slim: Yeah, y'all got to go

Another person at the party: Bullshit

Bo: All right, all right. You heard the man

Slim: You have to go

Bo: Go on. Go on. Thank you for comin'. We really appreciate y'all. Go on. Oh, I need that

Man: Damn! It was gettin' good, too

Bo: All right. Thank you. See you soon

We see the partygoers scatter to their cars and off into the night. This may seem arbitrary but it's not. It's very crucial to a scene coming up shortly

Delta Slim (still standing in front of the door of the room Stack was killed in): We got us a problem, y'all

Back in the room, Sammie feels guilty

Sammie (voice breaking): I could have stopped it (no you couldn't bro...Annie is right with what she's about to tell you)

Annie: Don't do that

Sammie: I thought they was makin' love. I thought...

Annie: Sammie, this is not your fault (agreed, and y'all don't even know you fucking with vampires yet)

Sammie: Is Stack really dead?

Annie sighs

Annie: Did she say anything?

Sammie: She said, "We gonna kill all of you"

Annie: "We"? She said "we"?

Sammie just sits silently still in shock and blaming himself. Annie thinks for a second. Then heads over and kneels beside Stack's body

Annie: Smoke...We gotta move his body. Outside. Just for now...

She reaches toward Stack's body

Smoke: Don't....touch him. Nobody move him

Annie: You shot her. And she kept runnin' like nothin' happened. This a haint we're dealin' with, Smoke. Or worse. We gotta keep everybody inside and the dead body out

Smoke: This ain't no dead body. It's Stack. He stayin' in here with me

Sammie either sulks in the corner or begins praying, I can't tell which

Smoke: You got any magic to bring my brother back? Got a mojo bag for him?

Annie just drops her head at first before she starts shaking it

Annie: I can't

Smoke: Please!

Annie: I can't. I'm sorry

Smoke: Damn. He gone

That had to be a sobering reality for Smoke. Even the way he said it was revelatory, like prior to this moment, he genuinely thought there may have been a chance for her to perform a miracle

Smoke (softly repeats it as a realization): He gone

He kinda nods a bit of acceptance. Trying to, at least

Sammie shakes his head in the corner and drops his head. Smoke gently lays Stack's head on the floor and stands. He looks down at this brother again, and says to Annie...

Smoke: Best thing about me was him

Then we cut to the Chow's in a scene that I understand why Grace made the decision she made, but bet she would undoubtedly like to take it all the way the fuck back. They still don't know what they're fucking with just yet, which proves to be crucial in many of the decisions they make...including this one

Grace (to Bo): We gotta go

Bo: What?

Grace: We gotta get out of here

Bo: Man just lost his brother

Grace: Look, we came here to help them with the party, not this. (That's why I understand the decision she made) We gotta go home, okay?

Bo: Okay

Grace: Lisa's waitin'

Bo: Yeah

Grace: Okay? Let's go home

Bo: Yeah. Yeah

Grace: Go get the car

Bo: All right, I'll get the car

Grace: Okay. Okay

Bo: I'll get the car. Yeah

He walks out into the night to go get their car

Back inside, Annie locks the door Stack's body is in and hands Sammie the key

Annie: Watch over him

He takes the key and stands in front of the door, still very distraught as Annie walks away. Pearline comes over to him

Pearline: What happened?

Then we cut to Annie and Smoke

Annie (to Smoke): I'm here Nice

Then we cut to Delta Slim walking past the front door, as Sammie and Pearline hold hands in the background. As he does, he hears a familiar voice approaching from outside

Cornbread: Slim! Smoke!

Delta turns toward the voice, irritated, and sees Cornbread marching toward the front door

Delta Slim: Where the hell you been at, man? Huh?

Cornbread: To go see a man about a dog, like I told ya, you old drunk

Smoke stands up in the background and begins walking toward the front door

Cornbread: Turns out I need to take a shit, too

Smoke gets closer to the front door, and Cornbread notices all the blood on his clothes

Cornbread: God dog! What happened to you, Smoke?

Smoke: Stack dead. Nigga what the fuck happened to you?

Cornbread verbally stumbles for a second

Cornbread: I'm sorry. All right, well, let me in, so I can help

Reminder, this is the scene I didn't fully understand the first time I saw the film

Cornbread begins to walk inside

Annie: Hold on

She's the next person to approach the front door. Cornbread stops in his tracks

Cornbread: What y'all doin'? Just step aside and let me on in, now

Annie: Why you need him to do that?

Sammie, Pearline and Smoke all look at Annie intently, interested in what she's getting at

Annie (cont): You big and strong enough to push past us

Cornbread: Well, that wouldn't be too polite now, would it, Miss Annie?

Annie sighs

Cornbread (cont): I don't know why I'm talking to you anyway. Probably your fish sandwich messed up my guts in the first place. Usin' old, stale grease

Annie: I ain't never used stale grease, and you know it

Cornbread: Shut up, Annie. Smoke...

Annie: Don't talk to him. You talkin' to me right now. Why you can't just walk yo big ass up in here without an invite, huh? Go 'head. Admit to it

Cornbread: Admit to what?

Annie: That you dead. That one of them white folks out there kill you, and you a haint now

Grace looks like 'uh oh'. Sammie and Pearline are now fully invested. And Slim. Well, this is the part I alluded to earlier about him taking a swig from his flask at the most hilarious, inopportune time lmao

Cornbread knows he's busted but still has to play it off. He starts laughing

Cornbread: Smoke, you listenin' to this?

That wasn't a denial

Cornbread: Woman, this man showed me kindness. Employed me. Grabbed me out the field

Actually, that was his now deceased brother. But the audience already knows Cornbread ain't Cornbread no mo, and Annie is almost 100% right (them white folks did kill him but he ain't a haint)

Cornbread (cont): Now, he say his brother been killed. The man needs comfort, not you fillin' up his mind with that old Louisiana bayou bullshit you on

Let's pause here for a second. This is what I meant when I said that it seems every actor fully committed to their role. Omar Miller played the shit out of this scene, in my opinion. They all fully understood exactly how their characters would be affected once they became vampires, and that made for excellent antagonists in the film to me. Even, as I said, the way Mary brilliantly got regular Cornbread to let her into the building after she turned. Now, Cornbread is trying his damndest to let them do the same. Shit like this is why this movie worked so well

Cornbread: Now, we out here playing games (motions to nobody outside), telling ghost stories in place of doin' what we ought to do

Delta Slim: And what is it we s'pose to be doin'?

Cornbread (flashing a big kool aid smile): Bein' kind to one another! And bein' polite. Now, we is one peoples. And we shouldn't go in, bargin' into other folks places uninvited. So...

He motions for them to back up so they could let him in. Nobody moves

Smoke: You been in and outta here all day. Ain't never need an invite then

Cornbread looks like he's running out of both excuses and patience

Smoke (cont): Yeah, somethin' ain't addin' up

Cornbread: (Tries a new approach) Shit, Stack was my ride up here. I 'posed to walk back?

Smoke: That ain't my problem

Cornbread (scoffs): Well, it be your own peoples. And I thought you was better than this, but you just like the white man

He turns to start walking away but remembers something and turns back around

Cornbread: Can I at least get my money?

Delta Slim: Oh you did such a bang-up job...now you wanna get paid for what you ain't did?

Cornbread: Ain't nobody talkin' to you, you old drunk. Shut your mouth

Delta: No, you shut the fuck up. Don't give him shit, Smoke. Don't give him nothin'

Cornbread hilariously extends his left hand tucked by his side to receive money

Smoke thinks for a second, then reaches in his pocket

Annie (to Smoke): Careful

Alrighty, now let's pause again here. I may not have understood this scene in its entirety the first time I saw it, but from that same viewing this part pisses me the fuck off every single time I watch it!!

Our survivors made a couple smart moves here. Annie accurately pointing out he shouldn't need an invite to get in the building if he's still Cornbread. Smoke even agreeing, saying "you been in and out of here all day, ain't need an invite then...something ain't adding up"

Then Delta Slim pointing out he disappeared long enough for him to accuse him of building the twins a new outhouse but still wanting to get paid. These could all be viewed as red flags

So, WHY IN THE FUCK would Smoke even try to pay this dude, despite all of these red flags? Smoke even told him getting him a ride back home wasn't his problem. But paying this dude that as far as you know may be a haint was your problem?

Then after all these red flag warnings, Annie tells him 'careful'. The fuck?! Why didn't she tell him to stay the fuck as far away from him as he possibly could? Or if he insisted on paying him, why not the throw the money behind Cornbread and close the door? Why not do one of dozens of other actions instead of the one you decided to do? Smh

Smoke looks at Annie and then at Cornbread, who again signals to "gimme my money". Smoke pulls several bills out of his pocket and slowly hands it to Cornbread

Cornbread waits until the money touches his hand, then reveals his true nature by grabbing Smoke's arm, and exposing them vampire teeth to bite him

Smoke pulls out the other gun (the one that wasn't out of bullets) and quickly shoots Cornbread in the face, as they both tumble to the ground just outside the door

Grace: Oh no!

Sammie: Smoke!

Smoke lies in the dirt face down, still gripping his gun in his right hand. He glances over at Cornbread, and as soon as he does, Cornbread (with his eyes glowing a familiar white) resurrects from getting shot in the face and abruptly turns and looks at Smoke. This cause Smoke to incredulously look back at Cornbread

When he sees Cornbread resurrect, Smoke immediately goes to rise to his feet while looking at him like, "THE FUCK??!!!" Cornbread growls as he rises to his feet. He looks like he's ready to attack Smoke with fury

Annie steps out and quickly grabs Smoke by the arm to help him up, before dragging him inside just in time for Delta Slim to close the door on Cornbread, who was ultimately unsuccessful in getting an invite into the building once he turned

Once the door is closed, Annie begins adamantly checking Smoke to see if Cornbread bit him. He didn't

Annie: He got you? Did he get you?

Smoke: No, I'm alright, I'm alright, I'm alright. What the hell was that?

Annie: I don't know

Sammie looks terrified, and Pearline covers her mouth to hide her gasp as she remains in front of the door with Stack's body. In the midst of all of this crazy shit, my man Delta Slim once again delivers some well-timed comedic relief

Delta Slim: Hey. Hey. Y'all smell anything?

Annie: No

Delta Slim: I think I shat myself lmfao, Delta for the win

Smoke (to Annie): How the hell he get up, huh?

Smh because he's obviously the same thing that Mary was, considering the exact same thing happened with her also from your gunshots, Smoke. Bless the po' babies hearts

What happens next is CRUCIAL to the plot, because it's not until this scene that the crew finally learn exactly what they're dealing with

A knock can be heard coming from the other side of the door that only contains Stack's lifeless body in the room

Pearline: Is someone in there?

Sammie slowly approaches the door and inexplicably places his right ear on the door, listening. What the fuck he was gon' do if he heard anything is another question for another day

Seconds after Sammie places his ear against the door, a blade comes slicing through the door only inches away from Sammie's face before retracting

Sammie: Smoke. Smoke!

Smoke slowly approaches the door putting his gun away (another move I didn't understand). As he approaches the door, the crew can hear someone inside

Stack: Smoke? Go on ahead. Open up this door, let me on out of here

Smoke approaches the door and looks through the impromptu peephole Stack's knife just created

Smoke: Stack...Nigga, that's you?

Stack: Nah fool, it's Jim Crow. Nigga, of course it's me. Open the door

Smoke: Stack...H-how you feelin'? Boy, you lost a lot of blood

And here is the part I alluded to earlier in saying that Stack told a lie to his brother in this scene

Stack: Oh, yeah. Yeah. (He walks across the room and puts on a vest he tries to use to disguise his still visible bite marks, then he returns to the door and that's when he lies) It was scary, and I'm doing much better now. I swear. On Mama grave

Oh, then to use your mother's grave smh

Grace: I thought you said he was dead

Annie: He was. I checked his pulse

Grace: Then what the fuck is he doin' talkin' to us?

Pearline: But this is good, right? Means he's okay

Annie: Smoke...that ain't your brother

Stack: Smoke, what that witch out there talkin' 'bout? You gonna let her get in between us again? What we've been through...German trenches, nigga. Chicago gangways

Annie quickly runs off to another part of the building. We don't initially see where she's going

Stack: Oh, all right. Y'all niggas gonna pay for this shit. Lockin' this pimp in the closet, huh?

Did they have pimps in the 30's? Asking for a friend

Stack (cont): Huh? (He begins banging on the door) Open the door, Smoke! Let me the fuck out or I swear before god, I'm layin' all you sons of bitches down. One by one!

He starts banging his head on the door like a crazy muhfucka. Smoke presses his head against the other side of the door, hearing his brother's pleas to be freed and is genuinely torn

Stack: Smoke. Come on, man. Open the door, it's me. You know I don't like this shit, man. Please, Smoke, let me out of this room. Smoke please

Smoke makes a decision

Smoke: Annie, give me the key

But Annie had already run off, so he begins heading over to where she is. But he's also unaware that she already gave the key to Sammie. Sammie again approaches the door Stack is behind smh. Somebody come get this kid

Sammie: Stack?

He puts his eye to the makeshift peep hole, same as his cousin did. But this time Stack breaks down the door onto Sammie, causing Sammie to fall, and Stack to land on top of him with the door between them. Stack rolls over off the door and rises to his feet

Just at that moment, Annie runs up toward Stack and splashes some liquid in his face. The liquid starts fucking sizzling on Stack, causing him to grunt. Lmao, dude what a crazy ass fucking movie. Stack runs out the front door and off into the night

Smoke rushes over to Sammie, lifts the door off of him and helps him stand to his feet. Delta closes the front door after Stack ran out

Pearline: What was in the jar?

Annie: Pickled garlic. These ain't haints. They're vampires

DA DA DUUUUUUUUUUUUUMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The revelation of exactly what they're dealing with turned out to be the worst possible news for Grace. Around this time she realizes her mistake with her husband

Grace: Bo's out there. We gotta go get him. I'm the one who sent him out there

Annie: Can't let you do that

Grace: He needs my help (I love them)

Smoke: Bo know how to handle himself. Probably got in that car and got someplace safe (they clearly don't know how vampires work)

Grace: Y'all ain't gonna keep me from my husband

Delta Slim: Grace, we tryin' to keep you alive right now

Annie: We just gotta hole up till sunrise. Okay?

Grace reluctantly agrees by nodding her head

Annie: Now, we need...garlic, wood, silver, and holy water

Cut to the crew working on cleaning guns

Smoke (to Sammie): Shit might not kill 'em, but it'll slow 'em down

Back to the convo with Sammie now having a question. Here we get more important information to what they're dealing with

Sammie: How could it move and sound like Stack...if it ain't Stack?

Annie: I only ever heard stories. I ain't never come across them myself

Pearline: What stories you heard?

Annie: How haints work. They switch places with the soul of a man. But vampires is different

We cut to a shot of Annie blowing into her hoodoo items that she's about to roll on a makeshift roulette table to determine her fate. She continues explaining

Annie (voiceover): Maybe the worst kind

Back to the current timeline

Annie: The soul gets stuck in the body. Can't rejoin the ancestors. Cursed to live here with all this hate. Can't even feel the warmth of a sunrise

Smoke: Okay then. Can we bring him back? If I killed the ones that made him this way...

Annie: Smoke...

Cut to another shot of Annie blowing into her hoodoo items, and once again rolling them. She appears to have received the same message from when we saw her do it the first time, as she again continues explaining

Annie (voiceover): They have a connection, but they live on...

Return again to the current timeline

Annie: ...even if the one that made them is killed. The best thing we can do for him is free his spirt from this curse. They gotta be killed, one by one

Delta Slim: And how the hell do we do that?

Annie: Sunlight. A wooden stake to the heart

Smoke: The hell, Annie? I kept that boy safe all these years. All over this world. Why tonight?

Annie gently shakes her head, unsure what to tell him. Then unfortunately, Sammie uses this moment to call back on his dad's ole useless ass words

Sammie: It's 'cause of me. My daddy told me. He said the devil was comin' on account of my music

Insert several massive eye rolls here

But, as always, we can ALWAYS count on my favorite character to bring some comedic relief of all this tension

Delta Slim: I had a gal once, vampire. She was light skinned, too. That gal bit me everywhere but my neck lmao

Delta chuckles. No one else was amused but me

Delta Slim: Sammie...you don't worry about a thing, hear? Devil done came for me plenty of times. If he come knockin' tonight...he gonna have to go through his old friend Delta Slim before he get to you. That go for everybody in here

Words cannot describe how much I love this character. All of the other characters seemed to take comfort in Slim's words

We then go to a private conversation between Smoke and Annie. Those of us who don't read fluent hoodoo were not completely aware of what her rolled items said. Here, we get filled in on it

Annie (to Smoke): If I get bit by one of them...promise me, right now....that you'll free me 'fore I turn

Smoke: What you mean, "free you"?

He looks over at her hoodoo items. Apparently, she taught him to read that shit

Annie: I got somebody on the other side waitin' for me. They waitin' on you, too

She reaches down and mimics his wooden stake going through her heart. He now realizes what she's asking him to do. He quickly grabs the stake with a confused look on his face

Annie: You understand?

Smoke: Hey, come on, look at me. I don't care about what that shit (them items she rolled) say. I'm gonna make sure you get home safe

Pearline suddenly screams from the kitchen

Pearline: Sammie! Smoke!

We see a body surrounded in what looks like blood on the floor

Grace: Well, who did this? Was it Stack or Mary?

Sammie: Nah. They ran straight out. You saw them

Grace: Well, who bit him, then?

Annie: We gotta get him out before he wakes up

Cut to Sammie and Smoke moving the body outside the front door. The man's a bit heavyset, so this is not an easy task. They drop him on his back in the dirt right outside the door

Smoke: Come on

Sammie: You don't hear that? They playin' music

Am I the only one who thought the chanting at the beginning of this song was done by the Choctaw vampire hunters?

We cut to a shot of them 'playin' music' under a dark sky that seems to only be lightning and thundering over where they are. Remmick is the one actually singing

This not only leads us to the next song in the film, but it is also quite honestly one of the most chilling scenes I've ever seen in a movie

We zoom in to all the people out there fellowshipping with Remmick, Joan and Bert, and their eyes are all aglow, same as Bert and Joan had been earlier. The first time I watched this scene, I recognized Cornbread out of the crew but not anyone else

I thought, "who are these--"

That was about as far as I got. I remembered that Delta had sent everyone home after Stack's death from Mary's bite. We knew the trio and now Mary were out there, but we don't see what, if anything, happens to the partygoers after they leave

"Ohh, those are the people who were at the party", was the next thing that popped into my head

While we didn't see it, this told us that the trio out there changed ALL of the people who left the event into vampires. And worse, Remmick is technically controlling all of them right here. None of these people, besides Remmick, were there because they wanted to be

This was an eerily wonderful scene, including the way Vampire Cornbread was dancing like a possessed scarecrow pirate slave. We also see Mary and Stack high off of vampire blood, and realize they can't help it, again showing how the cast really leaned into their characters becoming vampires

Absolutely creepily fantastic!

Rocky Road to Dublin - Jack O'Connell, Brian Dunphy, & Darren Holden

We head back inside, and with there being a partygoer who appeared to be bit that no one knows who did it, tension is high in the mill. Our crew as well as other strangers scattered throughout are standing in a circle, silently checking each other out

Annie: We all gon' eat this clove of garlic

She takes one out of the jar and puts it in her mouth before passing the jar to Smoke, who also takes one out of the jar

Pearline: I don't much like the taste of it

Maybe y'all should have given her some silver to eat instead

Annie: Ain't no one saying you gotta like it. We just gotta figure out if any of us left is one of them

Sammie hands the jar to Grace, who notices him scrunching his face up in disgust at the clove of garlic he's eating. She takes the jar, grabs a clove and eats

Grace: You don't get none of the pickled ones?

Annie shoots her an irritated look. Then one of the guys we don't know passes the jar to Pearline. She doesn't take it and instead sucks her teeth

Pearline: This is ridiculous

Smoke pulls his gun and points it at her. She freezes

Sammie: Smoke, put the gun down

Smoke: Shut up (to Pearline) Eat, or I'll shoot

Sammie: Put the gun down, Smoke. She ain't no damn vampire

Smoke: How the hell you know that?

Grace: Just eat the damn garlic, girl

Smoke cocks the gun

Sammie: Smoke!

Smoke backhands Sammie in the nose with the butt of the gun. Sammie agonizes in pain

Smoke: I'm trying to keep you alive, boy. You ain't to question me

Pearline: You a evil man. No wonder the devil come for us

She takes a clove of garlic out the jar and reluctantly places it in her mouth. She proves she really in fact, doesn't like the taste of garlic by damn near having a conniption. But she keeps it down and appears to be unaffected

Delta takes the jar from her and places a clove in his mouth. Almost immediately, he looks like he's about explode

Annie, standing next to Delta, notices his reaction and backs all the way up behind Smoke

Annie: Mm-mm

Smoke: Hey, Slim. (pointing his gun at Slim) What's goin' on, man?

Delta Slim continues grunting and begins stomping his foot. The whole room goes on high alert

Smoke raises his wooden stake, ready to take Slim out if necessary. Slim starts grunting even harder

Smoke: What's goin' on, Slim?

Delta Slim: I drank too much. That goddamn beer from Chicago. My nerves all fucked up, Smoke

Slim exhales deeply mimicking an atomic bomb detonating

Delta Slim: I'm fine. See?

Smoke lowers his gun

Annie (to Smoke, with them all having passed the garlic test): You sure that was blood?

He goes back over to the area that looked like blood, kneels down and rubs his fingers in it before smelling them. He looks like he had a revelation but doesn't say anything, preventing us from confirming that. But then he picks up what looks like a wine bottle nearby, leading those of us paying attention to conclude that it was likely not blood, rather that Italian wine

This is all but confirmed by what happens next. The man they dragged outside they thought was bitten, wakes up and starts banging on the door yelling to be let in. It seems pretty obvious to everyone inside that the man yelling is clearly not a vampire

Not sure if you all recognized this dude they thought was bitten and dragged out, but he was the guy who Donald Glover Lookalike was cheating against and who sliced his face. Maybe his injury and drinking that wine caused him to temporarily pass out, leading them to think he was dead

As he starts knocking on the door, Vampire Cornbread standing nearby notices him

Vampire Cornbread: Huh. Lookit here

Injured Man: Smoke, Smoke, let me in! (Banging on the door) Smoke, I swear I paid my tab, man. (Banging on the door) That's what this about? Smoke! Hey, Smoke! (Banging harder on the door)

Smoke and the other survivors rush to the front door

Injured Man: Whatever you need, man! (looks behind him) Smoke! Some weird shit going on our here, Smoke! I know you hear me, Smoke!

Smoke gets to the front door and throws it open. But just as he opens it, Cornbread makes his way to the man and tackles him. Smoke sees Cornbread tackle the man

Smoke: Whoa, what the....Oh, shit

Cornbread begins to feast on the man like them white people sang about doing to poor Robin

Injured Man: (Screaming) Get off me!

Annie: Close the door. Come on

Grace: Wait! (As she runs up to the door behind Annie)

She notices her husband casually walking toward the front door while Cornbread continues to feast on the man

Grace: Bo

Bo: Hey, baby. Come on outside, I got the car started. Let's go

Grace glances over at Cornbread eating this dude

Bo: What is it, Grace?

Grace (voice breaking): He's killing him

Bo: Oh, you talking about that? Lmao, yes muthafucka, she is Oh, don't worry about Cornbread. He's just a little hungry, that's all. Let's go

Around this time, Cornbread finishes feasting and allows all of his vampire features to shine bright in the moonlight. Grace just gasps

Bo: Come on. Come on and go. (Begins to get irritated) I got the car all warmed up

Grace looks at him like she doesn't understand what the fuck is happening with her husband right now. I'm guessing she's starting to piece things together right here though, enough to know that's not her husband anymore

But then her recently turned vampire husband has a revelation, and switches his game plan

Bo: Or...You let me back in there. (Eyes roaming quickly) And I'll come in, and we can grab our things...and head home?

He reveals his eyes are now a completely different color. They're not glowing white like his fellow vampires, but they change to look more like cat eyes, which has to be the point when Grace knows for sure her husband is dead

Annie: Don't listen to him

Smoke: Grace, we're gonna find a way out of this, I promise

Remmick appears out of the shadows of the night

Remmick: I am your way out

Smoke grips his gun in Remmick's direction

Remmick: This world already left you for dead. Won't let you build. Won't let you fellowship. We will do just that. Together. Forever

Bo (eyes still looking all catlike): It's better this way, baby. So why don't you go ahead, invite us in

Remmick: You should listen to him, Grace. Or listen to me. 'Cause I know everything he knows now. And I want you to let us in there. Or we gon' go to the grocery store. We gon' pay little Lisa a visit

Grace (loses it): No, no, don't you fucking dare! No!

Remmick: Oh, yeah, Grace. I know everything now

Grace starts sobbing hard

Remmick (in Chinese, more specfically Taishanese): Even how you like to be licked. I can promise I won't bite too hard

Grace is crying uncontrollably

Pearline: This can't be real

Sammie: You the devil, ain't you? (Curse Sammie's religious patriarch)

Remmick: SAMMIE!!!!! You the one I came for. I sensed you. I wanna see my people again. I'm trapped here. But your gifts can bring 'em to me. Y'all give him to me now. Just give me little Sammie...we'll let y'all live

Sammie goes to walk to him to accept his offer. But all of the other survivors stop him

Pearline: No!

Smoke: Whoa, whoa. Hey, hey, hey, easy. Easy

Then Delta Slim jumps in. All them old niggas back then always wanted to "let me tell you something"

Delta Slim: I'm gon' tell you somethin', you goddamn peckerwood. You can't have him. He belongs to us. He belongs with us

Smoke: And I ain't gonna let that happen

Remmick: You can't save him, Smoke, no more than you could save your brother

At this exact moment, Stack and Mary, and Joan and Bert emerge from the shadows and stand behind Remmick and Bo, continuing to send this scene into some morbid shit

But this next piece of dialogue is super important. Pay close attention here

Remmick: You ain't safe here. No matter how many guns, or how much money...They gon' take it from you when they want. You built somethin' here tonight, and it was beautiful. But it was built on a lie

Delta and Smoke in particular seem very interested in this tidbit of information

Remmick (cont): Hogwood. Well, he's the grand dragon of the Ku Klux Klan. That's his motherfuckin' nephew (Points at Bert, whose KKK Halloween Costume we saw behind him when Remmick was talking to them at the door of their home). And they was always gon' kill you. I just happened to show up at the right place at the right time

Stack comes up and puts his arm around Remmick

Stack: He tellin' the truth, Smoke. I can see his memories

Delta Slim: Smoke, that ain't your brother

Stack: This wasn't no juke joint. No club. This here's a slaughterhouse

Bert: It's a goddamn killing floor

Joan: But what Uncle Hogwood don't know is we're gonna start ourselves a new clan, built on love (raises both of her hands and closes her eyes before laughing creepily, like this whole thing is a religious experience for her)

Remmick: Now that we got numbers, we'll probably go to that old bigot and rectify him, too

Annie: Why can't y'all just go?

Mary: 'Cause we're not leaving without y'all. We're family. Ain't that right?

Remember, earlier when Remmick asked how she got in, Annie told him she's there because she's family. This was Remmick pointing that out through Mary. When Annie hears this, she gives a look that seemed like she regretted saying that line to Remmick earlier, unaware they would later use her words against her

Mary (cont): I know it sound crazy, but after we kill y'all...we gon' have heaven right here on Earth

Yep, you shole right about that bitch. That sounds crazy as fuck

The injured gambler Cornbread just killed resurrects right here

Remmick (turning to the man): Oh. Hey there

He sits up on the ground, stretches, and looks over at Smoke with a chunk of his face still bitten into

Remmick: Welcome

The injured man, now a vampire, smiles at Smoke. Smoke can't believe what he's witnessing

Stack (jumping from behind Remmick to the front): Hey, hey, hey. Look at me

Lmao fucking Delta Slim needs to tell another muthafucka something

Delta Slim (to Stack): Hey, let me tell you somethin'. Let me tell YOU goddamn somethin' nigga. The Stack I know ain't fellowshipping with no goddamn devil

Stack: Fuck you nigga. It is me. Elias Moore. And I'm talkin' to my big bother right now, Slim, so I'ma kindly ask you to shut the fuck up

Delta looks like he can't believe Stack just said that to him, even though he already told Smoke earlier that wasn't his brother. Stack turns his attention back to his brother

Stack: We was never gonna be free. We've been running around everywhere looking for freedom. You know damn well you was never gonna find it. Until this. This is the way. Together. Forever. And I ain't doing this shit without you. There is no me without you. What's it gon' be?

Smoke is clearly influenced by this dialogue and has a look like he's seriously considering his brother's offer. Again, the other survivors step in

Sammie: No. No, no, no

Pearline: Hey

Annie: Close the door

Sammie: No. No

Delta Slim: No, man

Sammie slowly closes the door while staring at Stack until the door connects

Stack: No vision

Back inside, we first see a close-up of Smoke's shaking hands. Prolly all that nicotine that nigga be ingesting. I thought tobacco was supposed to calm y'alls nerves

Delta Slim discreetly peeps out the window. Grace, meanwhile, is going ballistic

Grace (walking briskly across the room): He said he was gonna take our daughter

Annie: You can't believe him. He was just trying to get you to let him in

Grace slams her gun on the table

Grace: He ain't threaten your children!

Pearline: We just gotta stay through the night

Grace: And what? Let him kill my family? Kill the whole town? Turn everybody to monsters? All valid points, btw That white devil spoke Chinese. He got in Bo's mind. (She comes from behind the table and approaches Smoke) We gotta stop 'em, Smoke. We gotta get 'em before they get away I love that her character was so fiery. That's why she's my second favorite character in the movie

Smoke: Grace, just slow down. Give me a second to think

Grace: What? Ain't you a soldier?

He slowly looks at her and then begins to stand up

Grace: Yeah? Didn't you just shoot two men for touching your truck?

I'm sorry y'all, but how the fuck did she know that? I know she knew that he shot two dudes, but she didn't know why. What, she asked Bo? Well, let's think back to that scene

The little girl blew the horn mid-conversation while Smoke was talking to Bo. Smoke rushed outside and Bo didn't follow him (which I honestly thought was a little weird). When Smoke went back inside, he told Bo "I just shot two niggas outside" but he never said why

Little Lisa goes over to get her mom, and her mom walks across the street and notices the shot guys outside before she heads inside. She said,

"You know, there's two guys out there, look like they've been shot"

So how did she know that was why he shot them?

Grace (cont): They killed your brother. Made Stack one of 'em. And my Bo. Said they was gon' kill Lisa. If now ain't go time, then I don't know what is

I mean, I see no lies anywhere within her sexy, fiery ass passion

Grace (cont rallying the troops): We supposed to wait the night while they take more of our loved ones? Make 'em demons?

Delta Slim: They don't look like they leavin', Grace

Grace: Oh, shut your drunk ass up, Slim!

Delta Slim: I ain't drunk right now. You need to watch your mouth, woman

Grace begins casually making a Molotov cocktail

Annie: What you doin'? Stop that. Come on

Grace: N--

Pearline: Y'all hear that?

We can all hear muffled singing. But Sammie points out the song

Sammie: It's the song they were singin'

We cut to the vampires surrounding the mill singing "Pick Poor Robin Clean", but this time it sounds like a chorus of monsters are singing it, making the already creepy song a good 20 times (since that's this movie's favorite number) creepier

Grace walks over to one of the windows to look out at the monster chorus, and spots Bo, who blows her a kiss between singing the creepy lyrics. Grace tries to cover her ears. She walks back over to the table she was standing behind earlier, and this time grabs a wooden stake and makes a beeline to the front door

Smoke and Annie intercept her

Smoke: Don't...Grace...Calm down!

Grace: Let go. Let go of me!

Smoke: Calm down! We gotta think!

Grace: God damn it!!

Smoke (Trying to get her to drop the stake): Let go! Let go!

Grace: We'll kill all of them!

Smoke successfully gets the stake out of her hand

Smoke: Let it go, let it go. Calm down

I don't even know who this nigga Smoke is right now

Smoke: We just gotta think, Grace, we gotta think

Annie: Grace, calm down

Smoke: We gotta think

So Grace does begin thinking. About Lisa. This sends her further into a rage

Smoke: We gotta...We good

Grace: Come on....

Smoke puts his hand over her mouth and then in it to prevent her from talking. But Grace bites his finger hard AF

Grace: Come on in, you motherfuckers!

Smoke: No!

Delta Slim: What the hell you doin'?

Smoke and Annie look at each other like they know it's too late now

Grace: AHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cut to Remmick outside, who is standing in the background not joining his minions in singing with his hands in his pocket. He hears Grace's invite and laughs delightfully to himself

Smoke: Goddammit Grace

Pearline: Grace, why would you do that?

Annie: Are you fucking kidding me?

Delta Slim: I told you to keep your goddamn mouth shut!

I didn't hear none of this shit in the theater. One word. Subtitles

We head back inside and our crew all rush to the table Grace was behind and pick up a weapon, since Grace had already invited them in and they couldn't uninvite them

Meanwhile, the vampires are still eerily singing Pick Poor Robin Clean, and the singing gets louder as they approach the building

Annie: I think they comin' in, we gotta get ready

Grace heads back to the bottle and begins lighting that Molotov cocktail she originally wanted to hit em with

Delta Slim: Don't panic. Focus y'all

Grace gets the cocktail lit, grabs the bottle in one hand and a wooden stake in the other as she walks determinedly toward the front of the group, landing right to Smoke's left, technically the second one in charge

The group awaits the entry of the monsters

While Remmick wasn't singing with his minions, he's still the first one through the door. He opens the door and takes a couple of steps inside

Grace yells and throws the bomb at him. He deflects it and it shatters off to the side, creating a fire toward the front door

Let's pause one mo gin. Earlier, I said that I missed a few things the first time I saw it, so I went back two days later for a second viewing. What happens next is actually one of those things

Now, I may have been high when I saw the movie, whatever, that's not important. But I didn't catch what Grace did after Remmick swiped at her bomb. I remember wondering why they never revealed what happened to Grace. At the same time, when I saw this person on fire, I said to myself, "who is that?"

So, the second time I watched the movie, I paid extra close attention here. When I saw what Grace did, that basically solidified her place as my second favorite character in the movie

Once the fire was already started in the corner, both sides attacked each other like on a battlefield. Grace made a beeline directly toward her husband, screaming, with that stake in her hand. She stabs him in the heart and they both catch ablaze from that fire in the corner. But Grace doesn't stop there. She allows herself to get burned to death after already killing her husband. She was the one on fire when I first saw the film that I didn't know who she was

This may have seemed crazy, but there was absolutely a method to her madness. It was her plan all along as to why she even went against the group and invited them in

We already know that once someone is turned into a vampire, they can see each other's mind. Once Remmick turned Bo, this is how he knew about Lisa and how he was even able to speak Chinese

Grace killed Bo, which disconnected the information Remmick had about their family. But if she had let herself live, she knew it was possible she could have been turned, which would have given Remmick access to Lisa all over again. Unwilling to take that chance, Grace killed her husband and then sacrificed herself, removing any ties Remmick has to them, to keep Lisa safe. It was a heart-breaking moment when you realized what she did, especially since she probably had at least a tinge of guilt for sending Bo outside in the first place

But it was also completely fucking brilliant. That's why she didn't care about the frustrations of the group at her letting the vamps in, because as she told Annie, "he ain't threaten ya children"

Grace was a little firecracker until the very end, and probably not coincidentally, my two favorite characters in this movie sacrificed themselves for the survival of their respective families

But that was only Grace's perspective of this much bigger war. There are still many more characters to incorporate into this battle

So, again, Remmick walks into the building, Grace throws the cocktail, he deflects it, and all-out war ensues

The vampires pour into the building while the group works to fight them off. They're successful in fighting some of them off, but the vampires are also successful in killing some of them. We see Stack run in and attack someone

Then we see someone attack Sammie while he fights him off, with Delta fighting right beside him. Then Mary jumps on someone and bites the shit out of him

We see Smoke flip some vampire dude on the table, and Annie stab the shit out of his heart with a wooden stake. Blood was all squirting out and shit. It was awesome!

Joan then attacks Delta Slim. She has his arm trying to take a quick bite. But Sammie shoots her and then Slim punches her, before he tosses her off to the side. Joan twists all up like a pretzel as she rises to her feet again

Annie stabs somebody and Smoke shoots someone else. We then see Bert attack Smoke, but Smoke sliced him, stabbed him, then shot him in the head, likely killing him

Pearline then yells and stabs a vamp in the heart. But that vampire didn't go down. Annie runs over and stabs him on the other side of his chest, finishing the job. Then Remmick runs right toward Annie, but Annie tosses some pickled garlic in his face

Remmick (screaming): Mother...

All of the other vampires start screaming too. Annie figures out what that means and makes a fatal mistake!

Annie: Smoke!

She makes the mistake of turning toward Smoke to give him some information

Annie: They feel his pain

I call this a mistake by referencing an old martial arts proverb...never lower your eyes to an enemy. Annie didn't technically lower her eyes, but she did take her eyes off of her enemies, and to make matters worse, it was completely unnecessary

Had she not taken her eyes off of her enemies to tell her man something, she may not have met her demise. But earlier, I said I gave our team a pass. Here's why

Annie was the most experienced in dealing with the supernatural, and even she said, "I only heard stories. I ain't never come across 'em myself". So all these moves that I can see with the benefit of having more information than the characters do, I can't expect the characters to see without knowing all the variables. And obviously, none of them have ever come across anything like this before. How could I expect them to make the most well-informed decisions under those circumstances? In fact, I would have criticized the movie if they had made all the right calls despite them all being monster virgins. These characters fucking up added to the realism of the film to me. I mean, ya know, as realistic as a film about vampires can be, anyway

Almost immediately after Annie turns her head and shouts to Smoke that the other vampires feel Remmick's pain, Annie is attacked by a vampire who begins chomping on her neck

Pearline: Annie

Smoke: No!

Smoke tries to intervene, but he's attacked by Remmick as Annie continues to get bitten. Her feaster takes a break from chomping and lifts his head, revealing it to be Stack, of all people, who killed Annie

Annie: Not you. Not you

Smoke: Elias, not Annie! Lmfao! I love the implication here. Elias can bite anybody else...

Stack goes to take another bite

Smoke: No! No!

Stack (to Smoke): Everything gon' be all right now

Pearline GI Joe shoots Stack off of Annie. Then she cocks the gun again and shoots Remmick off of Smoke

Smoke rushes over to Annie

Smoke: No! No! Annie. No, no, no

He places his hands on each side of her neck. I have no idea what that was supposed to do. Pearline and Sammie continue firing for their life in the background. Smoke is still trying desperately to figure something out to save his girl

Smoke: No, no, no! Oh, no

At this exact moment, all three of the vampires; Stack, Mary and Remmick regroup and watch what's going on here. Mary smiles as this was all part of her plan to have "heaven right here on Earth"

Annie (weakly to Smoke): Elijah. You promised me

Smoke looks devastated, like "fuck...I did promise her"

Annie: I'll see you soon

We see Smoke very distraught by this but determined to keep his promise. He slowly lifts up a nearby wooden stake and hovers it over her heart

Mary's smile fades as she realizes what Smoke is about to do. He's about to fuck up her heaven on earth plan. Stack notices too

Smoke: I love you

Mary: Annie!

Stack: No!

Smoke grunts and stabs the love of his life in the heart, causing more blood to splatter. Mary has a fit as Stack pulls her back before they run out. Mary begins screaming as she runs out. Smoke killing Annie before she turned was a big deal to the vamps

Smoke is almost in tears, but he doesn't have time to mourn. Delta Slim comes up to him from behind and grabs his shoulders

Delta Slim: Smoke, we gotta get the boy out the back. She's not here. Come on. Smoke, come on now

He pulls Smoke away from his recently deceased love of his life

Pearline: Shit. I'm out. But, I'm out!

Delta Slim: Up the steps. Go there

Sammie: I'm out too!

Delta Slim: Sammie (he hands him his guitar)

Sammie: Let's go, let's go

Pearline: Sammie! Come on!

Delta Slim (to Sammie as he hands him his guitar): Remember what I told you. Go

Sammie: No, Slim!

Delta Slim: Now, go!

Pearline: Let's go!

Sammie: Slim, Slim!

Delta directs them out the door, still with a stake in his hands. Before he resumes fighting, here is where he grabs that bottle of Irish beer and takes one last swig

Delta Slim: It's still nasty

He breaks the bottle on the table and that's what he uses to slit his own wrist to buy Sammie and the remaining survivors some time. Blood starts spurting from his arm

Delta Slim: Hey. Hey, y'all want some of this?

We hear vampires growling and make their way into the mill to Delta by the droves, smelling his blood

Delta Slim: Last call, Delta Slim

Upstairs with Sammie, Smoke and Pearline, Sammie is still distraught about Slim

Sammie (as they're running upstairs): Slim

Cut back to Slim half assed fighting off the vamps to buy the group more time

Upstairs, Smoke was in front of the group as they ran up the stairs, so he's the first one to get to the door up there and open it

Sammie: Yeah, let's go

Smoke (to Pearline and Sammie): Get outta here. Get outta here!

But when Smoke opened the door and Sammie gets ready to walk through it, he sees Remmick already there waiting for them. Pearline gasps

Remmick (taking on more of his natural, terrifying self): Sammie!

Remmick hilariously (though probably only to me) mushes both Sammie's face and the side of Smoke's head

Then Stack appears, tackles his brother and growls over him

Back to Delta, he's decided to just go 'head on and die lol. He's pulled into a pit of monsters by one of the vampires and they begin feasting on him

One question I had after though...why did we never get to see vampire Delta Slim? Was there a specific reason for that?

When Remmick rushed in and mushed Smoke and Sammie, he also kinda forced himself into the room and in doing so, he knocked Pearline down. Remmick is still focusing on Sammie, while Stack is focused on Smoke. Pearline comes to and notices Sammie in trouble. So, she rises to her feet, grabs a stake and stabs Remmick in the back. Remmick yells and let's go of Sammie. He then turns his wrath on to Pearline

Meanwhile, we cut to Delta screaming as he's being eaten alive. Joan is feasting on Delta too, although I thought she was dead. But it was actually her husband that was already killed at this point, not her

When Remmick turned his wrath on to Pearline, he succeeded in biting her too

Sammie: No!

He goes to stab Remmick from behind, but Remmick turns around and intercepts it, causing a brief power struggle between the two. But Smoke, who has managed to temporarily subdue Stack, fires several rounds at Remmick until he ran out of bullets. Remmick stumbles backward

But the damage to Pearline is already done, who reaches down and feels the immense amount of blood spewing out of her neck. Sammie looks on in horror

Pearline: Go!

Sammie: Pearline...

She pushes him

Pearline: Go!

Sammie: Pearline!

Pearline begins gasping as she slowly backs up farther into the mill, still in shock from all of her blood

Smoke (to Sammie): Go! Go! Keep running. Right to the sunrise

Sammie turns around, runs out the door, and falls the maybe 12 - 15 feet to the ground. He lays on the ground for a second, then gets up and begins hobbling off into the night

But then we see Remmick float flying up to Sammie. I have no idea how he got past Smoke up there, but whatevs. He lands right behind Sammie and digs his now long ass vampire nails in his shoulder. Sammie yells, then turns around and tries to hit Remmick with his guitar. But Remmick blocks it and slices Sammie's face with his long ass nails

This is another scene that, again, the scene in the beginning ruined for me. If you were going to have Sammie go through all of this, we did not need to know in the beginning that he survived. Even if you don't agree, my stance on this part will not change

We then return to the fight between Smoke and Stack. I guess Remmick was able to get by Smoke because Stack had broken free and they were fighting. Besides, Sammie is the one Remmick really wanted anyway

Stack: I had it all worked out. Then you go and kill Annie. (pointing to his own temple) Fuck is wrong with you, man?

Smoke reaches out to stab him but misses. Stack grabs him and tries to bite him but is unsuccessful

Then back to Remmick trying to break Sammie down

Remmick: I want your stories. And I want your songs

Sammie flaps around in the water. Remmick walks up to him and picks him up under his armpits like a baby

Remmick: And you gon' have mine

I really liked this next part too. Preacherboy starts praying

Sammie: Our father...which art in heaven...hallowed be thy name...

To Sammie's, mine and possibly everyone else's surprise, Remmick not only finishes the prayer, but he has his minions, all with their eyes glowing white, chant it in unison with him. Dude, vampires chanting the lord's prayer in unison? Fucking powerful!

Remmick: Thy kingdom come...thy will be done...

Cut to Smoke and Stack's pretty even fight

Remmick (voiceover): On Earth, as it is in heaven

Remmick (current timeline): Give us this day...

Vampires in Unison: Our daily bread...and forgive us our trespasses...

Cut back to the Smokestack fight

Vampires (voiceover): ...as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil

Exactly as soon as they say 'deliver us from evil', Stack tries to bite Smoke, but Smoke's mojo bag from Annie prevents him from being able to do so

Then we go back to Remmick and Sammie

Remmick: Amen. Long ago...the men who stole my father's land forced these words upon us. I hated those men, but the words still bring me comfort

Then, for reasons unknown, Remmick, um, baptizes Sammie, causing Sammie to grunt underwater before Remmick pulls him back up. Again, so. We already know he survives

Back to the Smokestack fight. Stack throws Smoke and it causes Smoke to land back first into a wooden pillar before crumbling to the floor. He almost immediately begins to get up after he hits the floor

Stack: Hey! Hey. Stay your ass down

Smoke gets up grunting

Smoke: Ohh I'm bored of you

Smoke grunts while first kicking Stack

Smoke: Mother...

Then he punches him. Stack falls to the floor

Back to Remmick and Sammie

Remmick: Those men lied to themselves and lied to us

Remmick baptizes Sammie again, causing him to grunt and cough

Remmick: They told stories of a god above and a devil below

Remmick's white eyed minions silently approach the water and stand on the dock

Remmick: And lies of a dominion of man over beast and Earth

He dunks Sammie again

Back to the brothers fight. Smoke has Stack in a chokehold as they both grunt n shit. Stack elbows Smoke to the ribs and flips Smoke over onto his back. Stack starts trying to bite him again, but Annie's mojo bag once again serves as a repellent

Smoke grabs Stack and now flips Stack onto his back. He grabs a stake and goes to stab Stack. But he takes a look at his brother - who is looking up at him scared, same as he did when he was dying - and can't find the rage to finish the job

Smoke: Sorry I couldn't keep you safe

Stack: Don't be sorry. You always did

Smoke has a look in his eyes that said those words got him. And we don't see what happens next, which is important

Back to Remmick

Remmick: We are earth and beast and god

Sammie begins feeling around in the water for his guitar he knows should be nearby

Remmick: We are woman and man

Cut to some vampires feeling the spirit of Remmick's words, including the customer earlier who told them they were some classy niggas, and he didn't need no ice nothing, just corn liquor

Remmick: We are connected, you and I...

Sammie feels his guitar and picks it up

Remmick (cont): ...to everything

Sammie slams the guitar into Remmick's head, causing a big chunk of it to break and get lodged in there. We already know from Annie erroneously turning to tell Smoke that "they (vampires) feel his (Remmick) pain". So all of the vampires (including Joan, Cornbread, and unfortunately their latest addition, Pearline) on the dock begin groaning and yelling in agony while all holding their heads

Remmick (with this piece stuck in his head, sums it all up in one word): Shit!

Sammie: No (realizing that move didn't kill Remmick like he hoped it would)

Remmick removes the part of the guitar stuck in his head (with that part of his head now steaming, btw), causing more blood to squirt from his head (so cool!) while he is slowly revealing more of his true (and fucking terrifying) form. Once he removes the guitar part from his head, his minions continue to agonize in pain, revealing he's still in pain from it, but clearly not dead

He angrily tosses the guitar part into the water he's standing in. Sammie has that "aww shit" look we've seen a few times in the movie. He's already tried praying and now stabbing him in the head, and neither worked. He just knew he was going to die at this point. That's why I say they shouldn't have shown us the fucking...never mind, y'all get my point on that by now

Remmick attacks Sammie with his massive ass nails and Sammie yells

Remmick: You will taste the sweet pain of death. We will make beautiful music together

He goes into bite Sammie, but we already know he wasn't successful in that. I'm not gon' say it. At least not here

But the specific reason he wasn't successful is revealed. As Remmick goes into bite Sammie, we hear a sharp object seemingly piercing his back, but we don't initially see the culprit. Remmick lets go of Sammie and is clearly shocked that he's likely about to die. The other vampires start hollering but this time louder

After a quick shot to Sammie, we cut back to Remmick, with his head still all steaming n shit, but the camera cuts out about three feet or so from him. With that shot, we're able to clearly see a wooden stake driven through the middle of his chest

A second or two later, the culprit is revealed by him taking a step or two to the side to show us his identity. Smoke just literally saved his little cousin's life. Not that I'm complaining because Remmick's ass had to go, but am I the only one wondering why none of his minions warned him about Smoke approaching IN THE WATER from behind?

Smoke rushes over to Sammie and begins adamantly checking him for bites

Smoke: He get you? Did he get you?

Sammie is too shook to speak. He's paralyzed with fear. Meanwhile, more of Remmick is now steaming as he's clearly struggling here. This was the knockout punch Sammie hoped he could deliver with his guitar

We see Vamp Pearline really wailing in pain. One of the vampires shouted out NO when Remmick got stabbed, but I don't know who it was because the camera was on Smoke checking Sammie. But I think it was Pearline because she said it again here and it sounded like the same voice. Just as all the vampires shared a mind, they all knew that because the one responsible for turning them was just dealt his final blow, they knew they were heading to the same fate

The sun begins to rise, and the vampires standing on the dock all begin their fiery death, being engulfed in flames instantly. But this is another argument for why I think there was too much sunlight on Remmick when he appeared at Bert and Joan's house. I legit feel like that sunlight was brighter than it was here

More of the vampires on the dock catch fire. Some of them started trying to crawl then run into the sawmill to avoid the sun, with all of them burning to death with some just a few steps from their destination

Meanwhile, Remmick experiences a nice, slow, agonizingly satisfying death

This next image is an image that you saw many times before the movie even dropped; of this I am certain. I said somewhere else on this site that when I first saw the trailer for this movie, I thought it was a slavery piece. When I saw this part, I assumed the white folks set their home on fire. This movie takes place in Mississippi, so I thought it was on some Mississippi Burning type shit

But that wasn't it at all. I mean, I was wrong on all that shit. What it actually was is the final part of Remmick's agonizing death, vanishing into the thin air after his sun fire formed a spiral of some sort, as Smoke has one arm tightly around Sammie while they both look on in horror

Smoke's Business to Take Care of

It is now the morning after one of the craziest fucking nights we've ever witnessed on film. Our two lone survivors, Smoke and Sammie, unload "the trunk" the brothers referred to earlier from their truck, with Sammie still gripping that guitar handle for dear life

Once they lay the trunk on the ground, Smoke reaches in his pocket and hands something to Sammie...money?

Smoke: Go home. And bury that fuckin' guitar

Oh, ok, so nobody in this family can see that it ain't a fucking guitar, huh? Alright. Sammie gives the handle a long, hard look. Then eventually...

Sammie: I can't. It's Charley Patton's

Smoke: What? Boy, who told you that?

Sammie: Stack. Said y'all won it off him

Smoke: Lyin' son of a bitch

So this is where I said we saw Stack lie to him in the car but wouldn't find out it was a lie until the end. And note his brother's words. "Lyin' son of a bitch". That implies that was Stack's thing. But to me, this is actually a bigger part of the movie

We know the name of the movie. Now, admittedly, I haven't finished working all of these out in my head yet, but I have worked out some; enough to feel like maybe I'm on to something

We know these two characters are the only ones left from our crew. Let's look at all the people who became vampires. I can point back to their "sin" in the movie, and it seems like almost all those blatantly in so-called sin were turned into vampires

Stack: Compulsive liar and who knows what other dirt he did with his brother all over the globe

Mary: It may be easy to forget but she was absolutely cheating on her white husband

Delta Slim (wasn't turned on screen): He called himself a sinner when talking about Messenger's, the spot he's been playing in every Saturday for 10 years

Pearline: She too was committing all sorts of adultery in that sawmill

Annie (killed before she could turn): She didn't become a vampire, so she may have not been in sin. Her board kept telling her death was coming, so maybe she just needed to be reunited with her baby

Bo: His was a little tougher for me to spot. But I'm pointing to the scene when the dude was cheating with the loaded dice. Bo orchestrated a lot of that, from getting Smoke's attention, to closing the window opening back there to Annie and Grace

Grace: She didn't turn into a vampire either and she sacrificed herself for her daughter. But she no doubt felt guilty as fuck for sending Bo out to get the car

Smoke: He did dirt along with his brother all over. And we saw Smoke's temper flare throughout the flick. He was spared becoming a vampire so that he could he handle this important piece of business before checking out

Cornbread: Ok, admittedly, I've got nothing for him. The only thing I thought of was very argumentative. With the look that he gave her when he said it, I got the impression he was lying to Mary when he said they would have made the repast, but he and his wife had to work. But again, that's on very shaky ground

We finish this last conversation the cousins will ever have

Smoke (cont): That's our daddy guitar

Sammie continues looking at it

Smoke (reaching out and placing his hand on Sammie's shoulder): Hey. Come here. (They come face to face) Be strong, you hear me? Hear me?

He hugs his little cousin

Smoke: I got some business to handle. Be strong. You hear?

Sammie walks over to the car. Then the next scene, we repeat the opening scene of him driving up to the church, for what should have been our first time seeing it! But whatever

He again gets out of the car and again approaches the church with the babies singing This Little Light of Mine. But this time we've been filled in on all the crazy shit that went down. As Sammie nears the front door of the church, we cut to another scene I've mentioned before. Smoke rolling a cig while reminiscing about everyone we lost

First, he thinks back to the first time we saw the brothers in the movie, by their car waiting for Hogwood. Then he thinks back to a deleted scene of the crew setting up for the party. In the flashback, as Smoke pulls up to the mill in the truck with Annie in tow, Stack approaches the truck, heads over to the passenger side and opens the door for Annie. As she exits the truck, he takes her hand, removes his hat and bows to her. Probably a difficult memory for Smoke considering Stack is the one who bit his love. In the flashback, Stack then goes over to the driver side to hug his brother as a truck of helpers arrives in the background

Stack goes to open the mill door with Cornbread and Sammie standing behind him watching. Then we get a closer look at the helpers arriving in the truck, and I didn't even notice until right now when watching this scene to write about it, that the guy wearing the overalls and smoking a cig at the front door that was talking to Cornbread when Remmick, Joan and Bert approached, was getting off the back of the truck to help

Then in the flashback, we head inside to a kitchen full of women socializing and getting their cook on. We cut to Smoke in current time still struggling to roll his cig and he begins to get emotional at all these memories

Then back to the flashback, we see Cornbread give the Black Power sign with his fist that wasn't even a thing back then. But I think he was actually signaling for the truck that was backing up to the mill to stop. It does. Then he approaches the back of the truck to begin unloading it

We stay in the flashback, but head to Annie taking some fresh catfish out of the grease. Bo is anxious to try one and grabs one while it's still piping hot. It's so hot it causes him to fumble the piece and for Annie and Grace to laugh at him. As I said, I really felt this part. It honestly felt like we lost part of our family when we lost these people, and that is the brilliance of the movie

We cut back to Smoke in the current timeline. He gives up on rolling his cig and continues reminiscing. Next to a man carrying a crate across the mill. He's approached by another man who takes something out of the crate he's holding and signals for him to keep going. The man who approached the man holding the crate? Delta Slim

Back in the current timeline, Smoke grabs the mojo bag around his neck that Annie gave him (and protected him from Stack's bite). When he grabs it, he sees a flashback of his lady love looking at him. He then snatches it from around his neck and drops it on the ground. He then pulls something out of his pocket and stares at it, but I can't tell what it is. Maybe the key to the trunk?

Because the next thing we see is him unlocking and opening the trunk. Turns out it's a stash of automatic weapons. We then get filled in on the business he has to take care of, and the business he has with that trunk, by way of a series of flashbacks from earlier in the movie

First, we go back to the twins' meeting with Hogwood, and Smoke warning him

Smoke: And if we see you, or any one of your Klan buddies cross our property line...

Cut to a series of cars pulling up to the mill in real time

Smoke (cont, voiceover): ...we gonna kill 'em right where they stand

Then back to the flashback and Hogwood lying through his racist ass teef

Hogwood: Klan don't exist no more

Back to real time. Hogwood's Klan buddies are revealed to be the group in these cars approaching the mill. The cars pull up and they begin piling out

Klan Pussy #1: Little coon huntin' this morning, boys

Klan Pussy #2: Love skinnin' me a nigger first thing of the day

Even though we didn't flashback to it, it's worth noting that this all happened because Smoke trusted his brother when Stack told him that Remmick was telling the truth about Hogwood's true intentions, by saying, "He's telling the truth Smoke. I can see his memories". That's why we first cut back to Smoke's warning to Hogwood

Hogwood's bitch ass exits the car he was riding in with a ole punk ass smile on his face and begins walking toward the mill. Some of his henchman around him are carrying guns

Klan Pussy #3: Gettin' a little too uppity around here. Time to teach these boys a lesson

Hogwood: Club Juke, huh? Grand openin' and grand closin' (ole disrespectful on more than one note ass mutha--). Let's do it. Open it up

Klan Pussy #2: Yeah

One of his henchmen carrying a handgun approaches one of the doors of the mill. He reaches out to open the door. But before we see if he can, we cut to Sammy simultaneously opening the church door, and see an abridged version of the full conversation we saw earlier

Then back to the mill. The henchman pussy continues trying to open the door and he can't. He turns to Hogwood

Klan Pussy #4: Door's locked

Hogwood (turning toward another door): Try the front

Then back to the church

Jedidah: Drop the guitar, Samuel

Then back to the mill. The pussy trying to open the front door is also unable to do so

Klan Front Door Pussy: This one is, too

They suddenly hear gunshots ringing out. The pussy who was trying to open the front door is shot in the heart

The next one shot in the chest is the one trying to open that front door, killed still with his gun in his hand. The other fuckers, including Hogwood's bitch ass, start to panic and try to find some place to take cover

Klan Pussy #1: Where the hell is it comin' from?

Hogwood turns around and begins running veeeerrry veeeeeerry sloooooowwwwllly. He's the next to be shot on the right side of his stomach

Klan Pussy #2: Niggers is shootin' at us!

We know Stack and Smoke spent some time in the military. So we cut to who we already figured was doing the shooting but confirmed it for us; Smoke is sniping these bitches from the bushes

They all take cover behind or in front of their cars they just pulled up in, and some of them start firing in the direction the shots are coming from. Smoke, realizing they've spotted his location anyway, emerges from the bushes and continues firing as he walks toward them, picking them apart video game style

He runs out of bullets in the gun he's shooting and tosses it on the ground. Hogwood's bitches continue to shoot at Smoke

He pulls up an automatic weapon he hid underground and begins firing, in another moment you undoubtedly saw in the trailer

Hogwood: Kill his black ass

But their weapons are no match for his automatic weapon. He takes a lot of 'em out with it. But then, of course, the gun jams

Klan Pussy #3: (After jumping into the passenger seat of a truck) Drive! Drive, damn it, drive!

Smoke pulls a grenade from his waist, pulls the clip with his teefus, and spits it out. The pussy ass Klan dude #3 was all firing his gun at Smoke like the little sissy that he is. Smoke tosses the grenade into the truck where those two guys are. He then apparently miraculously fixed the gun when we weren't watching and begins firing it at the truck

But the Klan pussy on back of the truck Smoke just threw the grenade into, delivers a final, fatal shot to Smoke's stomach with his hand pistol as the truck raced away. It didn't get far though. Despite being hit, Smoke finishes firing the gun resulting in the truck exploding, undoubtedly killing all three passengers in it

Smoke checks his wound by lifting his blood-stained tank top, and notices blood pouring from it like a chocolate fountain at a wedding reception. He looks like he may have figured out he won't survive this. He looks back at Hogwood, grunting and sliding across the dirt like the bitch ass muthafucka he is

Smoke watches him writhe around on the ground as he walks beside him, seemingly satisfied at the sight of Hogwood struggling. Hogwood can't move anymore and lays down while turning and looking at Smoke. Smoke is looking at him. Then...

Back to the church. Oh shit, forgot about that didn't, you?

Jedidiah: Drop the guitar, Samuel. Put it down. In the name of god. You tell them...my heart...

Sammie has a flashback to Pearline

Jedidiah (cont): My voice...

Sammie has a flashback to Delta Slim

Jedidiah (cont): My soul...

Cut to Sammie silently singing This Little Light of Mine in the post credit scene

Jedidiah (cont): Belongeth to the lord

Back to Smoke and bitch ass Hogwood. Smoke continues to tower over him, staring at him blankly. Hogwood has his hands up on the ground

Smoke: You got a cigarette?

Hogwood: You go to hell, nigger

Smoke removes the clip from his gun and tosses it to the side. He reaches in his pocket and grabs a fresh one before affixing it to the gun. For the second time in this movie, Hogwood's bark is revealed to be much bigger than his bite. He gives in and reaches in his vest pocket and hands Elijah a pack of smokes

Smoke takes it while still clearly weak. He removes one with his mouth and then reaches in his pocket to get a light. He lights the cig, takes a big puff, removes it from his mouth, and immediately falls on his ass. Literally in the seated position

Hogwood notices him fall but doesn't say anything, nursing his own gunshot wound to his stomach. Smoke takes another puff on the cig from the seated position. Right when he started removing it from his mouth, he could hear a baby cooing to his right

He slowly turns his head in that direction, and he sees Annie wearing all white breastfeeding their infant daughter he knows damn well both ain't around no more

Annie: Elijah. You put that cig out, you can hold her

He looks like this is all too much for him to bear. But then, ever so subtly, you saw it...acceptance

Annie: I don't want any of that smoke to get on her

Smoke wastes no time in putting the cig out. He turns back to his family and slowly reaches out his arms. But ole fuckface ass Hogwood interrupts this family reunion at the most inopportune time

Hogwood: Hey. Listen...

Smoke turns an annoyed look toward Hogwood.

Hogwood: I got money. Huh?

Yeah, muthafucka...including the twins' money. Why the fuck would you have thought that was going to save your ass?

Smoke barely wastes any time holding that gun up toward Hogwood, and dumping the clip in that bitch's stomach and dick

Even though Annie is not really there, she again gives him a look that says she understands his lifestyle more than she let on early on when they first reunited at her shop. She then hands their baby over to her father, and he says the same words he said when he first arrived at her gravesite

"Papa's here"

He looks over at Annie with now what can best be described as total acceptance. She smiles angelically. This was after smiling at their daughter. He immediately felt right at home in death, being able to rejoin his family that he loved so much

Back to Sammie, who is distraught in trying to make this decision on following his father's guidance or following his heart. We again cut to a close up of him gripping the guitar handle. And again before we see if he drops it or not, we cut away. This time to Sammie speeding away in the twins' car. He lifts the guitar handle to his heart, revealing the decision he made

It then cuts to what we will soon learn is old ass Sammie, played by Buddy Guy, playing guitar at a club. The screen cuts to black to tell us that this scene takes place 60 years to the day from the day after all these events happened; October 16, 1992, which as it turns out, happens to be a nod to the release date of the original Candyman movie

The credits begin showing while splicing shots of Buddy Guy's Sammie playing the guitar on stage. On maybe the fourth or fifth cut to the stage between credits, we see a shot from maybe 15 - 20 feet from the stage. This reveals a picture on the wall behind the stage of Sammie beneath the name of the club

The name of the club? Pearline's. It was a nice sentiment, but bro, you ain't met nobody else in six decades?

The credits begin, revealing one name at a time, while continuing to splice between Buddy Guy's guitar playing. Then quite a few names are revealed in the credits in order to advance it to the mid-credit scene. Then the mid-credit scene begins

Buddy Guy takes a seat at the bar (actually he literally took HIS seat at the bar), and I swear here he kinda looked like my dad to me

The bouncer comes in and heads over to Sammie

Bouncer: Hey, boss...we got two out there. I told 'em we closed, but they offered a couple hundred bucks. That okay with you?

Sammie: That don't bother me none

The bouncer nods before turning around to let the guests in

Bouncer: Come on in

Sammie goes to take a drink of his alcoholic beverage (why I said he continued drinking after taking that first swig from Delta Slim in the car) and pauses to peek at who is about to enter, extremely curious

The bouncer opens the door...and to all of our surprise, we first see Mary sucking on a lollipop walking in, then right behind her, Stack, and they both look exactly the same way they did when we last saw them 60 years prior, although they have upgraded their clothes and style to match the times of the 90's

Sammie stares at them like, "what in the entire fuck?"

Then we revisit something Annie told the group earlier for context as to why we're all seeing what we're seeing

Annie: Vampires is different

Cut to the current timeline with Stack and Mary walking over to Sammie in slow motion

Annie (voiceover): Maybe the worst kind

Flashback to Mary throwing a fit when Smoke killed Annie before she could turn

Annie (voiceover): But they live on, even if the one that made them is killed

Cut to Buddy Guy's Sammie sitting at the bar in shock

Annie (voiceover): They gotta be killed, one by one

Stack pulls out a chair to Sammie's immediate left and sits

Stack: I'll have what the old man is having

Mary remains standing to Stack's left. After Mary scares the shit out of the bartender forcing him to flee, we cut to Sammie looking incredulously at Stack

Sammie: How?

Stack: I guess I was the one person he just couldn't kill. He made me promise to stay away from you. Let you live out your life

Sammie then starts looking like, "ain't this about a bitch?"

Stack removes his shades, revealing his still glowing eyes, and begins sniffing Sammie

Stack: Won't be long for you, huh?

Sammie just looks at him without saying anything

Stack: I could make it so that you could stick around. Keep tourin'. Keep livin'. No pain

Sammie: I think I've seen enough of this place

Stack looks over at Mary

Stack: Hm. (Turns back to Sammie) You know, we got every single one of your records. I don't like that electric shit as much as the real (none of us do, Stack). Yeah. I miss the real. Recordings from back then sound like a pile of dogshit. How about it, Sammie? You still got the real in you?

Cut to Sammie playing the guitar still seated in the same seat. Stack is still seated beside him, but his back is to the bar now, and Mary has sat down in the chair to his right. Sammie begins singing the same song he shocked the hell out of Stack singing in the car 60 years prior...Travelin'

Sammie finishes his song, and Stack drops the $200 he promised the bouncer he would pay on the counter. He then gives Sammie a big hug, before turning to grab his sunglasses, as he and Mary begin walking out the building. Real quick side note, why the fuck would this vampire have sunglasses? Anybody?

Mary: Take care, little Sammie

She and Stack begin walking out with their arms wrapped around one another

Sammie: You know something?

Stack and Mary stop walking and turn toward Sammie

Sammie: Maybe once a week, I wake up paralyzed reliving that night

Stack takes a couple of steps closer to Sammie and listens intently

Sammie: But before the sun went down...I think that was the best day of my life. Was it like that for you?

Stack: No doubt about it. Last time I seen my brother. Last time I seen the sun. And just for a few hours...we was free

Flashback to Stack and Mary dancing at the party. Then to Annie and Smoke dancing. Then to Sammie playing while Pearline dances seductively in front of him. Then finally back to Sammie in the current timeline, with a very fond look of reminiscing on his face before managing a slight smile. Stack does the same thing before he and Mary turn and walk out. Sammie smiles again

Then we head to one last flashback to Sammie riding in the back of the car with the twins in the front seat. Sammie turning around looking behind him while his guitar lays across his lap. He turns to the forward position as the car continues riding off

Meanwhile, the final song from the soundtrack to play during the movie begins. Another one of my favorites as the screen cuts to black while the car is still hurling down the street. Seconds later, the title screen appears one last time

Last Time I Seen the Sun - by Alice Smith and Miles Caton

Then the last song played in the post credits scene was just a reprise of another song we heard in the beginning

This Little Light of Mine - by Miles Caton

Closing Thoughts

Ok, look. No, the shit wasn't perfect. But to be fair, very few films/tv shows are safe in that regard from this advanced observation system I got firing in here. But as I've said before, a movie doesn't have to be perfect to earn my fandom, otherwise I wouldn't be a fan of much of shit

I just need to be entertained at a higher degree than the number of questions I have surrounding the story I'm being told. And this was definitely one of those films. I consider it on the same level as Maverick and Lean on Me, as three movies I definitely had no interest in seeing at first but would go on to become some of my all-time favorite movies. And Sinners has been added to my all-time list, if not in the top 10, in my top 20 for sure

If I can see what you were trying to do, I'll look past all of my questions that I'm probably the only one who thought of anyway. When you go see a movie, the main thing you want to do is to be so entertained that it feels like an escape. This movie succeeds in that from the very beginning. Well, except for the....nope, not gonna say it!

This is only the second movie I ever remember pre-ordering after Inception, nearly 15 years ago. So, it obviously struck a very surprising chord with me

Once you're done reading/listening to this review, in addition to checking out the extra features if you bought the movie, I encourage you to check out as I always do - especially if I love a movie - the IMDB trivia page for Sinners here, for tons of awesome background information on the movie