Spoiler Alert: Sinners Portrays the Empire Feasting on Our Blood

Original article: Alerta de Spoiler: Sinners, el imperio se alimenta de nuestra sangre

By Jean Flores Quintana

Ryan Coogler transforms the screen into a political battleground with Sinners. This Oscar-nominated film pushes beyond the confines of horror to deliver a fierce geopolitical critique.

The director employs the vampire myth to illustrate the predatory nature of imperialism in its decline. While the story is set in the 1930s, it directly addresses the monster residing in today’s White House.

Actor Michael B. Jordan takes on the challenging dual role of the protagonists, Smoke and Stack. Through his performance, he embodies the two sides of the oppressed subject amid barbarism: the temptation to compromise and the urgent need to fight back. His expressions reveal the dilemma of a working class cornered by an ancient, decaying power that refuses to die.

The film’s antagonist serves as a perfect metaphor for Donald Trump and his domination agenda. The southern entity, like the Republican mogul, requires foreign vital fluids to rejuvenate a decaying body.

The blood sought by the empire is specifically named: it’s Lithium in northern Chile, pension funds in the financial markets, and digital sovereignty. The vampire Trump and his local managers seek to sink their fangs into necks to drain our salaries and plunder the mountain ranges. «America First» reflects the basic instincts of a predator that sees the rest of the world solely as food or fuel.

Coogler crafts a villain who seduces before attacking. This dynamic mirrors the strategy of global far-right movements. The northern leader heads a court of servile imitators. Figures like Javier Milei in Argentina, José Antonio Kast in Chile, Giorgia Meloni in Italy, and Viktor Orbán in Hungary act as the count’s relatives, managing the human farm for their master. These anti-people governments impose austerity and hatred, transferring wealth from their societies to the imperial metropolis.

The horror becomes real when we witness the neighbor opening the door to the monster. Coogler presents the figure of the «yanacona,» the class traitor who betrays their own, dreaming that the beast will spare their life. We observe this same attitude in politicians who call for consensus with fascism, believing they can negotiate with those who desire them for dinner. The film shatters that illusion: an alliance with the oppressor guarantees one’s own moral destruction.

The narrative of Sinners obliterates any hope in traditional institutions. The sheriff and the law shield the predator. The bourgeois state guarantees the impunity of imperial looting, while the police protect the interests of the beast and suppress the victims.

In light of this reality, Michael B. Jordan’s characters understand that salvation lies in autonomy. Their clandestine bar becomes the headquarters of the resistance. The blues resound as a battle cry, contesting the narrative of fear.

Here in Chile, we know resistance. We survived the dictatorship and rose up once before. Faced with the fangs of Milei, Kast, or Trump, our response must mirror that of the twins on screen: community organization, our own culture, and not a step back. The stake is sharpened in the assembly, in the union, and in the streets.

Go see this film with sharpened awareness. Sinners alerts us to the real danger. The greatest contemporary monster dispatches from the Oval Office and has branches in our own countries.

The final lesson is clear: face the empire and its local overseers with determination. The organization of the people is our wood and our strength.

Jean Flores Quintana