Pale, Pale Moon
THIS POST CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR SINNERS.
We were more than fashionably late to the Sinners party but, damn, am I glad we made it. My partner and I went in blind save for the knowledge that it fell within the supernatural horror category. Our former county coroner is a horror fanatic and recommended it. The visionary Ryan Coogler—producer, writer, and director—captures a specific moment in time. The film covers a single day in the Mississippi Delta in 1932. “Pale, Pale Moon” is sung by Jayme Lawson as the character, Pearline, a coy performer in a dress that moves like water. She drives a sensational “bringing the house down” scene, in which she moves the crowd in a foot-stomping blues vocal. It opens with a passionate wail. Her sensuality and confidence are on full display and distract from a violent confrontation playing out in the next room. This is a significant moment in the film because we are starting to learn the cost of such “freedom” at the juke.
Mary, the “outsider” with an in, has returned transformed and ready to pounce. She was initially viewed with skepticism by other patrons until Cornbread, the bouncer for the night, vouched for her. The audience could sense even then that she posed a danger, not because of any malevolence on her part, but rather, because of her privilege and naivety. Mary was the exception to the safe space of the juke. Although she would be considered Black at the time due to the “one drop” rule of Jim Crow, she chose to pass as white, as the commentator Fantastic Frankey observes. She is, ostensibly, the “safest” choice to confront the string band about their intentions because of how she is perceived racially. (They hope to barter entry to the venue with entertainment and cold hard cash. The latter just might “save” the juke’s prospects, at least for that night.) She proves to be a femme fatale, however. Now that she is clocked as “safe” by the rest of the group, she regains entry with relative ease, bringing impending doom with her.
The growing gang of the possessed outside share a hive mind and a natural rhythm. Earlier we listened to them perform a slightly sinister and soulless rendition of “Pick Poor Robin Clean" that alluded to a different kind of vampirism (i.e., cultural appropriation). Besides a race-blind music collective, Remmick and company are peddling the innocuous-seeming values of white society—assimilate, be polite—as the ideal. The scene in which Cornbread returns from the bathroom and is questioned at the door by Annie reinforces this. One reading of this hive mind—shared tongue and creed—is a Red Scare that positions collectivism and equality as utopian. But it is a specific kind of equality they tout, one that is blind to the injustices of the past. Check out the well-researched thread below that further illustrates this Marxist interpretation. Another is a more basic critique of capitalism and how Black people have been left behind and unable to attain the American Dream, from sharecropping and its legacy of enduring poverty to the twins realizing the juke will never be profitable because their patrons rely on scrip. Both views are compelling, especially in our current moment of antisemitism as the new Red Scare. (Antisemitism is a real and horrible scourge, and I believe bad actors influencing/in the government are furthering their own agenda by restricting free speech on behalf of Jewish people everywhere.) As an anonymous contributor reflected on an episode of A Bit Fruity: “There is not going to be a safety for Jews that makes other people less safe. That’s not how it works. Anything that pits Jewish safety against the safety of other people is suspect.”
Some other inspired songs from Sinners that represent freedom dreaming are “Travelin’” and “Last Time (I Seen the Sun)”. The score by Ludwig Göransson (Black Panther, Tenet, Oppenheimer) is a joyride as well.
Fantastic Frankey. “Colorism in Sinners.” Youtube, 22 Apr. 2025, https://www.youtube.com/shorts/44hanucoV_w.
Kelley, Robin D. G. “Twenty Years of Freedom Dreams.” Boston Review, Fall 2022. Boston Review, https://www.bostonreview.net/articles/twenty-years-of-freedom-dreams/.
Tukon. “Sinners and the Unintentional Revival of the Red Scare in Hollywood: An Alternative Theory.” Peliplat, 6 June 2025, https://www.peliplat.com/en/article/10063791/sinners-and-the-unintentional-revival-of-the-red-scare-in-hollywood-an-alternative-theory.