Sinners’ Time-Bending Juke Joint Scene Sets 2025’s Bar High

Ryan Coogler’s Sinners might be a vampire flick on the surface, but at its core, it’s a stirring tribute to Black culture and the unifying force of music. Nowhere is this more obvious than about an hour in, when Miles Caton’s Sammie ‘Preacher Boy’ Moore takes the stage at the opening of Smoke and Stack’s juke joint, set in 1930s Mississippi. The scene, soundtracked by Raphaael Saddiq and Ludwig Goransson’s Golden Globe-nominated ‘I Lied to You’, kicks off with Sammie and then cuts between the lively crowd and Delroy Lindo’s Delta Slim, a blues legend with a taste for booze, tinkling away on the piano. As Sammie loses himself in the music, Coogler shifts the aspect ratio to a towering IMAX format, pulling punters right into the thick of the action.

Coogler told the Los Angeles Times,

‘Maybe we can take a risk and put the audience in a place that they recognise here, an awesome party and a crazy performance that stops space and time and gives you an out-of-the-body experience.’

It’s fair to say he nailed it.

Music That Bends Time and Space

As the frame edges blur, Wunmi Mosaku’s Annie, a hoodoo practitioner, chimes in with a voiceover:

‘There are legends of people born with the gift of making music so true, they can pierce the veil between life and death.’

What follows is a four-minute sequence that feels like a single shot—though cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw has clarified it’s actually three 76-second Steadicam takes stitched together. The camera weaves through the crowd, revealing musicians and dancers from across eras. One moment, Sammie’s joined by a ngoni-strumming West African griot; the next, he’s jamming with a Hendrix lookalike, both shredding their guitars. There’s an ‘80s DJ spinning vinyl, twerkers, a Zaouli dancer, a Chinese Sun Wukong performer, and more. The result is as moving as it is visually wild.

On a literal level, Sammie’s tune bridges the gap between the real and the supernatural, catching the eye of bloodsucker Remmick (Jack O’Connell), who swoops in and starts picking off the crowd. For viewers, though, it’s the glue between the film’s gritty opening and its more off-the-wall second half. By dropping in these otherworldly touches without warning, Coogler makes it clear: leave your expectations at the door, because anything could happen from here on out.

Music, Memory, and Cultural Roots

Metaphorically, the scene is a nod to music’s power to transport us—how certain beats and lyrics can bring back memories and feelings from years ago. As a group of scientists put it in ‘Cognitive Crescendo’, a National Institutes of Health paper:

‘Music and memory share an intimate bond. Often, a song can trigger a cascade of vivid memories, while melodies and lyrics, even from years past, can be effortlessly recalled. Such connections correlate with activations in areas like the hippocampus, pivotal in memory storage and retrieval.’

It’s also a strong reclaiming of heritage, recognising how much of the world’s music, dance, and culture has roots in the African diaspora and Black history. Before Sinners hit screens, Coogler spoke about never having visited Mississippi, where his grandfather grew up before moving to Oakland. Still, blues music always made him feel connected to his Southern roots. As Slim tells Sammie before he steps up to play,

‘We brought this with us… it’s sacred. It’s big.’

A song, in this context, is never just a song.

Crafting the Film’s Defining Moment

Coogler said in the same interview,

‘Every film should have its version of that scene, if it can hold it. All the choices we made had to commit to getting to it. We had to say, “This is maybe the most important scene in the film. Everything that came before and everything that comes after has to support that.” Seeing it come together was one of the most rewarding moments of my career.’

It’s a masterclass in filmmaking.

Sinners is up for digital rent or purchase on Prime Video, Apple TV, and other platforms. If you’re old-school, you can grab it on DVD or Blu-ray. For those keen on what’s next, there’s a guide to the most anticipated horror releases of 2026.