This event began 07/02/2025 and repeats every year forever
someone asked
Sinners - Evil Cannot happen without your consent...true or false
the following is my reply
Well... as a writer...
when I look at Coogler + Peele, the two most commercially successful black writer-directors in the last twenty years [commercial success defined as profit earned from films, not creative assessment] both make one and done films, no sequels. Both don't go into deep public analysis of their films, let audiences make assessment videos. Both tell stories dealing with the black experience having global implications but from a personal space. They remind me of August wilson's plays where the outer world is present, potent but the plays setting is a small black space.
Get Out- Black man taking white woman to see her clan.
US-Black family on a vacation to country house
Nope- Black siblings on a ranch
Sinners- Black blues joint in the south
Booth Peele + Coogler's movies have aspects of spirituality[ The sunken place, the doppelganger, the horse whisperer, Hoodoo] . Religion by name is a spirituality tied to a book. Spirituality is anything involving the spirit of a person , regardless of whether that involvement is technological [ psychological tools, cloning], a skill[communicating to nonhumans, horses or aliens] , a specific tradition passed down[ hoodoo]
When I think of
Within our gates from oscar micheaux [ written and directed]
blood of jesus from spencer williams [ written and directed]
Ceddo + Emitai from Ousmane Sembene [ written and directed]
Daughters of the Dust from julie dash [ written and directed]
The reality is most Black writer-directors tend to make historical fictions or historical dramas [Malcolm/Boyz in the hood/Black girl/Superfly/dead presidents/down in the delta(I can't believe maya angelou didn't edit or manipulate it) or similar]. But the works of Peele + Coogler follow the least traveled road of said list of artist using worlds with fantasy elements.[ may it be science fiction or spiritual heritage] And that harkens back to the classic Black descended of enslaved storytelling or heritages from before the war between the states, championed by Zora Neale Hurston.
Now to answer the question you asked "Evil Cannot happen without your consent" in the context of the film sinners.
Well, one thing , we don't know how the white vampires were made? The film doesn't go into in great detail nor does it need to. All we know is the lead white vampire is old, their are rules. But as the black twins prove, the goodness of ones actions is not bounded to humanity. Vampires can be good as his twin proves at the end, if you define goodness by non verbal actions and not race[whether race is defined as a categorization or ranking or order based on religion/language/gender/blood lineage/phenotype or appearance/age/philosophical adherence/ or other determinant]. To restate Vampires are not inherently evil in the film, thus their entry into a place can not be deemed welcoming evil, if you take the whole story into account. In parallel, in the film humans are not inherently good. And the KKK are not coming with the consent of the juke joint.
So from my point of view, in the film itself, your question is not answered.
And what is the contrapositive to your question. Good can happen with your consent? Well define good. Are humans good while vampires evil? is goodness defined by non verbal action. but can't one action be deemed good or evil based on its specifics.
OR about the opposite. Good cannot happen without your consent? again define good
and in my view Coogler isn't offering viewpoints but not being ironclad in opinions. Steinfeld some say is yella, some say is white, by one drop is black, but their is a long heritage of blacks in the usa who are visibly white ala Charles W. Chesnutt.
Away from writing....
Your posiiton as a black christian, i find thought provoking. I am not christian, but my views on black christianity are various. If I have one wish for black christians, it is for black christians to accept the many branches of black christianity, which I don't think black christians tend to do. But to your question, Evil Cannot happen without your consent, I think based on your definitions, the answer is yes.
For me, away from writing, the first question for me is always elements in the question. What is good? what is evil? what is consent?
I comprehend positivity or negativity. I know what can be mostly positive or mostly negative, but nothing in my mind is all negative or all positive. and for me what people refer to as good is a supposed all positive, or evil is a supposed all negative. And I prefer to use the word grant over consent. What is granted is complicated. Sometimes one is granting things absent their knowledge or awareness, the raising of children proves this.
Philosophically or spiritually, I can only answer your question, Evil Cannot happen without your consent, once it is restructured with more definition to what is evil or what is consent.
If you ask me, Vampires cannot interact to non vampires absent non vampirical grant? I will say no because Vampires I define as any creature that absorbs leechlike from another. Do the gnomes who suck souls require grants? Do the succubi require grants? I don't think so to either. Some types of Vampires do but not all.
If you ask me, those with negative intent cannot happen absent anothers grant? I will say not usually. Negative intent can be from many and rarely requires the targets permission.
If you ask me, can human blood craving Vampires enter the home of others absent a grant? I say both. historically from ancient times, some of said vampires have been blockaded from entering the homes of others , not all but some, arguably many.
