Sinners’ Time-Bending Juke Joint Scene Remains 2025’s Standout Moment

Ryan Coogler’s Sinners, while rooted in vampire lore, is at heart a stirring tribute to Black heritage and the transformative force of music. Nowhere is this more evident than in a pivotal sequence set in a bustling Mississippi juke joint during the 1930s, where Miles Caton’s Sammie ‘Preacher Boy’ Moore takes centre stage. As the opening night unfolds at Smoke and Stack’s, Sammie’s guitar performance, underscored by Raphaael Saddiq and Ludwig Goransson’s Golden Globe-nominated ‘I Lied to You’, electrifies the room. The camera glides between the lively crowd and Delroy Lindo’s Delta Slim, who is found coaxing melodies from the piano in the background. When Sammie closes his eyes and plays, the film shifts aspect ratio, drawing the audience into the heart of the celebration.

I thought, '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,'

Coogler remarked to the Los Angeles Times. It’s fair to say he achieved just that.

Music as a Portal Through Time

As the scene’s edges blur, Wunmi Mosaku’s Annie, a practitioner of hoodoo, narrates:

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 seamless four-minute sequence—though, as cinematographer Autumn Durald Arkapaw has clarified, it’s actually three 76-second Steadicam shots expertly stitched together. The camera weaves through the revellers, revealing musicians and dancers from across eras. One moment, Sammie is joined by a ngoni player from West Africa; the next, he’s side by side with a flamboyant Hendrix-like guitarist. The scene is peppered with an ‘80s DJ, twerkers, a Zaouli dancer, and even a Chinese Sun Wukong performer, creating a visual and emotional crescendo.

On a literal level, Sammie’s music bridges the gap between the real and the supernatural, drawing the attention of Jack O’Connell’s Remmick, who soon wreaks havoc among the club’s patrons. For viewers, though, this moment serves as the connective tissue between the film’s gritty opening and its more surreal second half. Coogler’s sudden introduction of the extraordinary signals that anything might happen from here on out.

The Resonance of Memory and Heritage

Metaphorically, the sequence is a powerful nod to music’s ability to transport us across time and space, as certain melodies and lyrics evoke vivid, emotionally charged memories. As noted in ‘Cognitive Crescendo’, a National Institutes of Health publication:

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 moment of reclamation, recognising the deep roots of music, dance, and culture within the African diaspora and Black history. Ahead of the film’s release, Coogler spoke about his own family’s journey from Mississippi to Oakland, and how blues music kept him connected to his Southern roots. Before Sammie takes the stage, Delta Slim reminds him:

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

A song, after all, is never just a song.

Crafting a Cinematic Centrepiece

Coogler has said,

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, both technically and emotionally.

Sinners is now available to rent or purchase digitally, or on DVD and Blu-ray for those who prefer physical editions. For those eager for more, there’s plenty to look forward to in the world of horror cinema in 2026.