When Salma Hayek as a snake dancer Santanico Pandemonium on the stage of the biker meeting Titty Twister Converted into a bloodthirsty vampire, 61 out of 108 minutes have already passed. Until then, Robert Rodriguez 'cult film “From Dusk Till Dawn” still looked like a very classic gangster road movie, without any fantasy attack, but seasoned with the laconic cool dialogues by screenwriter Quentin Tarantino. In “Blood & Sinners“It also takes a good hour for the first time with the bloodsucker Remmick (Jack O'Connell) a supernatural element into the story in the Mississippi in 1932.
Until then, Ryan Coogler's fifth feature film as a bluesy southern gangster drama, which already tries up in these early scenes with such an image of image, that-fortunately-only very briefly-it is even a bit sad that it continues as a horror film, which the German title added “Blood” (in the original the film is only called “Sinner”). And not only the sudden genre change warns of Quentin Tarantino-even in the lead-containing final you feel inspiring from “Django Unchained”, “Inglourious Basterds” and “Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood” reminds you to the “pulp fiction” creator.
The besieged in the Juke Joint are preparing for the rush of the vampires.
For seven years, the infamous twins Smock and Smack (Michael B. Jordan in a double role) were in Chicago, where they did a lot of Reibach during the prohibition. There are even rumors that they have worked personally for Al Capone. Now they are back in their (fictional) hometown Clarksdale to open a nightclub in an empty mill. There is still a lot to do on the day before the opening of her Juke Joint: the alcohol has to be brought up, a decent name tag is still missing – and earlier love affairs such as Mary (Hailee Steinfeld) and Annie (Wunmi Mosaku) also want to be taken care of.
But with her blues guitar cousin Sammie (Miles Caton), the son of the local preacher, the twins have at least found a music act for the big party: According to legend, there are artists whose music is so pure that it has the strength to overcome the border between life and death-and apparently Sammie has exactly this rare administration. However, the music not only has a healing effect, it also attracts evil, this time in the form of the vampire Remmick who quickly enlarges his bloodsucker army to besiege the Juke joint until someone finally gives him in …
That was damn expensive – and you can see that too
After his Megahit's “Creed”, “Black Panther” and “Black Panther 2”, Ryan Coogler now ventures to a fabric that is not based on real events or on an already existing franchise-and yet a bidwetting between several Hollywood studios has flared up for the project: So the “Next Support: Fruitval Station” At the end of between $ 90 and $ 100 million available as a budget – an actually outrageous sum for such an ambitious historical horror film. Instead of visibly in sets and equipment, instead of in computer effects – and this is exactly where it is best off.
“The Last Showgirl” Camerafrau Autumn Durald creates large pictures from this steep template, which also look so elegant-epic because they were only filmed on 65mm analogue material. Special IMAX cameras were also used in selected scenes, which is why the aspect ratio changes several times in the course of the film (also in non-IMAX performances)-in a very extreme way between the IMAX format (1.43: 1) to Ultra Panavision (2.76: 1). So the fine balancing act between the epic expanse of the cotton fields and the oppressive tightness of the Juke Joints besieged by vampires succeeds.
In the first scene with the double Michael B. Jordan, the film states a little bit of how well this works technically. But then as a viewer you quickly forgot that a star plays two roles here …
If you only see a handful of settings from the first half of “Blood & Sinners” without knowing anything else about the project, then you would probably be the first to tap Martin Scorsese. Who else has spent so much money apart from the “Killers of the Flowers Moon” director in recent years to make a historical setting look so good? Nevertheless, the music as the heart of the plot and the figures is even more important for the film than his pictures – and so it is only logical that the two -time Oscar -winning composer Ludwig Göransson (“Oppenheimer”) is also on board.
In the story of the story from the sunny melodic to the dark and clever, Ryan Coogler from Metallica's anti-war song “One” was guided-and his passion for blues music was even the origin of the whole project: the idea that blues in the churches were conflicted as devil music, but many famous blues musicians were preached by him From the beginning as a contradiction worthy of research – and so in “Blood & Sinners” it is very central about the at the same time healing and destructive power of music. This is most evident in the spectacular centerpiece-a multi-minute, fiery, swirling plan sequence in which space and time seem to disappear almost completely and for centuries black music history on the dance floor of the Juke joint, as well as in a melting pot.
The double Jordan
Right in the first scene with the twins, the two -time Michael B. Jordan (“Just Mercy”) is enough during the dialogue itself a cigarette – so underline the actor and the director directly at the start that they have a technically absolutely technically absolutely off, and then it is hardly noticeable. Instead, the script scores with a detailed, highly specific knowledge of (black) history, the “Blood & Sinner”, beyond the complex production design, give a huge level of authenticity – the various currencies with which the guests mostly want to pay for their beer is just one of several examples.
But don't worry, “Blood & Sinners” is definitely not a dry Oscar film. When the vampiric madness finally breaks in the second half, Ryan Coogler does not make any prisoners – thoroughly bite and piles are rammed in the heart. Ironically, the blood -sucking besiegers, of all things, seem the most terrifying when they put a happy Irish dance on the floor. And finally, Ryan Coogler does not miss the opportunity to end his film with a revenge fantasy-and with that, the sheet of Quentin Tarantino finally closes, although the long-distance massacre in “Blood & Sinners” does not seem ironic, but honestly angry and much more personal.
Conclusion: An absolutely epic, yet deep-personal vampire horror film against a historical edge of the noble backdrop! With his first original fabric, Ryan Coogler puts everything on one card and thus consolidates its status as one of the most exciting directors of our time, who obviously had a lot more on a new franchises to raise a new level …