This will be a spoiler’s alert so if you have not yet seen it, stop, save this post, watch the movie, and then return.
If you’ve seen the film then let’s get into this masterpiece.
My maternal lineage comes out of Louisiana, not from New Orleans, definitely not from the Mississippi Delta so I’m not deeply connected to Hoodoo, but I am connected to spirituality and my ancestors. Originally when I first saw the trailer for the film, I immediately decided that I did not want to see it because I thought it was a movie based on race in the early 1930s in the South and I’ve seen a lot of those movies. Honestly, I was triggered due to the country’s current state in terms of discrimination and racism. If it hadn’t been for my dad telling me he wanted this to be our movie choice for our movie date together I would’ve missed out on this magnificent piece of art. I need to set up the characters real quick before I can discuss the spiritual aspects of the film, so let me set the scene.
We missed however many minutes when we arrived at our cinema seats due to low staff at the concession stand where we waited for what felt like HOURS to purchase our tickets and get a few things to eat. We sit down and we see Sammy in the church talking to his father about wanting to pursue music and his father, who is a preacher pleads for him to remain connected to God and not the blues which is immediately centered around “evil and Satan”. As a Black woman who liberated herself from religion at a young age after being forced to attend church and observe the hypocrisy immediately understood the falsehood of religions and colonizing mentalities that were forced upon African Americans during the era of slavery. During the scene Sammy leaves the church in a car with his seemingly older cousins. A few minutes later I whisper to my Dad, “Hey I think Michael is playing himself as a twin because those two look alike”. I talk during movies, well whisper, in efforts to process and understand the story plot, don’t yell at me! Anyways… so we find out soon enough that yes Michael is playing twins, Stack and Smoke whose characters represent duality and the internal conflict between assimilation and cultural preservation.
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The three drive through the cotton fields and it’s an immediate connection for as a frame of where Blacks in this country come from and where we could go, as represented by the fact that the Twins present with wealth and upgrade after we learn that they left the Delta and went to Chicago to engage in crime sprees for some years before returning back home. Now we we’re introduced to the Chinese store owners Bo and Grace when Smoke arrives at their store to ask for help with their function later that evening. I knew that the Chinese was present in the Delta at that time, so it wasn’t surprising for me to see them. The Chinese community at that time served as a meditating factor between Whites and Blacks at that time. This is why history is so important to know.
Next, we follow Sammy and Stack in their endeavor to find entertainment for their shin-dig. We learn that Sammy is extraordinarily talented with the guitar and his voice. I immediately thought about Robert Johnson who was an actual man in the 1930s who was said to have sold his soul to the Devil at a crossroads in Mississippi just to be able to play the guitar. Whether he sold his soul or not Robert became a phenomenal guitarist with a short life lived. Ok so now that we know Sammy has been gifted with such talent, we follow them to the train station so that Stack can find a community known pianist who unfortunately also struggles with alcoholism. His name is Delta Slim. He is reluctant to join them but eventually decides to play at the function. Let’s not forget Mary, who is a white passing Black woman (x% of black) who sees and confronts Stack after he left the area and abandoned her and their relationship they had before him and his brother depart the area for Chicago. Stack is not kind to her, and they leave the area. She represents the role of assimilation of culture, and she was absolutely necessary to the plot.
Next scene, we see a man seemingly fall out of the sky at the brisk of sunset and he had smoke coming off of his body and I immediately understood that he was a vampire. We learn this is Remmick, an Irish vampire, who was ultimately being chased by some men from the Choctaw tribe. Remmick runs to the door begging to be let in the house. A woman and her husband answer with a gun and he tells them that Choctaw Indians are chasing him, and he needs help. He identifies them by their cultural name which signifies a level of respect but when he sees the white robe of the Klan in the backroom of the home, he changes his narrative to invoke connection to the two at the door and it works, they let him in. Soon after a car full of Native Americans and a few men on horseback come to the house and tell them the woman that the man she invited into her home is not what he seems and that they are in danger. The woman makes a derogatory statement, and the men leave, and the woman ultimately understands what they meant when she found her husband on the floor in a back-room dead after having been attacked by Remmick and then she sees blood on his face.
We are then redirected back to Smoke who is seen driving to a small home. He stopped in front of a grave with flowers that he lays across the grave. We see a small rock with a small handprint, and it’s understood that this is his child’s grave. He then walks to the home where there’s a woman giving children a few items before they run off. Annie is her name, and we quickly understand that she is the child’s mother and she’s a rootworker, a spiritual worker who works with African spiritual traditions, who has protected Smoke all the time that he has been gone due to a having made him a mojo bag that he had worn the entire time and was currently wearing. Annie is a pivotal character in this story.
Alright, are you still here? Now that I’ve reviewed the characters we can dissect the profoundness of the film. It’s nighttime and the function at the property the twin purchased (we missed that part) is on and poppin as my younger millennial self would say! When I tell you that I was reactive during the scenes that follow, bayybbeeee I was reactive. When Sammy hit the stage and made his initial blues debut, it was transformative. The energy in that scene was unmatched. My body reacted by my knees folding into my chest within the reclining seat I was in, my arms wrapped around my knees, my heart was racing, and my body was swaying side to side. I was entrenched within the vibration of the music and the blues within my soul. Ancestral characters came in from the music from Africans and Asian cultures There was a break in time dimensions that allowed the past, present, and future versions of music and dance to come in and be present for that moment. It was transcendent.
It’s this energy that invited Remmick and the other two to show up at the door of the function which is the ultimate turning point of the movie. If you thought that this was just a vampire movie, you unfortunately are not at a higher frequency and consciousness, but you can be. Keep reading on.
The characters we just discussed minus Grace and Bo arrive at the front door after three White individuals ask to be let in to join the party. The bouncer, Cornbread, alerted the Twins to address the issue. They tell them to leave and find a White party to join but it’s then that’s where Remmick communicates that he does not have the mind of a White Southern man and instead shares that he understands the Black culture in America due to being discriminated against for being Irish and what atrocities occurred in Ireland due to Christianity and colonization. He is yearning for community in which he hears it in Sammy’s song, in his voice. He wants Sammy so that he can steal his gift and create a community of his own. This brings an entirely new nuance to vampires. Now let’s speed up the plot. We now know that he’s a vampire he then tells the group that the Klan will be coming in the morning to kill them and that he could offer them an escape and a forever-hood, of course they decline.
This was a psychospiritual masterpiece. One that is so profound, so conscious, so spiritually integrated. As a Black psychic medium and licensed psychotherapist, this movie educates and provides an example for an invitation to connect with Spirit, ancestral lineage, community, and connection through music/frequency. Colonization is not the “right” way, it’s been the “forced” way. When you’re able to break free from the system that was created to keep you from shining your light and stand in your soul’s truth and purpose, only then are you truly free. It shed light on cultural representation on so many levels of depth. This was a college course, more than just an experience. This was an opportunity for immersement, inclusion, and love. Being a twin also and watching this movie hit too deep, too fucking deep. That’s a connection that is different than a sibling relationship and I found myself mourning the loss of one twin and the celebration of the other. If you’ve made it this far, just go ahead and follow this publication.
I could’ve written for more hours on this piece but I’m content with what I’ve wrote. There’s so much to dissect here!
This movie is approved and given 100/100 from this Black psychic medium✅✅✅.
👉🏾👉🏾👉🏾 If interested in having a mediumship reading you can view my schedule here.
