Sinners: The World is a Vampire

This movie was selected by our Patreon Supporters over at the Cinematic Doctrine Patreon. Support as little as $3 a month and have your voice heard! 

Shirleon joins Melvin to discuss Sinners, Ryan Coogler’s massive 2025 hit. As the film continues to dominate conversation, the two discuss it’s myriad of themes, whether the film mixes its ideas together well, how they interpret the dichotomy between Smoke and Stack, and the relationship between music, creativity, power, and community. 

Topics:

• (PATREON EXCLUSIVE) 20-minutes discussing the announcement that John Krasinski will be returning for A Quiet Place Part III despite A Quiet Place: Day One turning out to be the best of those films and he wasn’t even attached to it, and whether it’s even theater worthy or a “wait-till-streaming” kind of thing. (PATREON EXCLUSIVE) 
• Shirleon absolutely loved Sinners in every way possible.
• Melvin didn’t love it but he did think it was good, and he spends some time exploring what he believes are the film’s 3 parts: drama, themes, and vampires.
• Contrasting coalescence and coexistence, two things Melvin observed in the film.
• Shirleon was consistently in awe of the film, noting not only the visuals but the dialogue as well.
• Thinking about “it” movies and whether movies can be “objectively good” or “objectively bad”.
• Talking about the music and THAT scene.
• Melvin, “…when you are excellent you are attractive to more than just good people. You are also attractive to evil as well.”
• Talking about the title and how some spiritual leaders have misaligned priorities.
• How Sammie exists as a “what comes next” kind of character, both literally within the story and thematically in its metatext.

Recommendations:

• Primal (2019-X) (TV Show)
• The Running Man (1987) (Movie)

Sinners is Rated R for strong bloody violence, sexual content and language. It features Michael B. Jordan, Miles Caton, Sail Williams, Andrene Ward-Hammond, Jack O’Connell, Helena Hu, Yao, Delroy Lindo, Jayme Lawson, Omar Benson Miller, and Hailee Steinfeld. Directed by Ryan Coogler. Sinners is available here.

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Melvin Benson is the Founder, Editor-In-Chief, and Lead Host of Cinematic Doctrine. Whether it’s a movie, show, game, comic, or novel, it doesn’t matter. As long as it’s rich, he’s ready and willing to give it a try! His hope is to see King Jesus glorified as far as the east is from the west!

Cinematic Doctrine is available on iTunes, Spotify, YouTube, and other major podcast apps.

Frogman – Cryptids, Found-Footage, & Self-Destruction – Cinematic Doctrine: A Movie Review Podcast Hosted by Christians

Send us a Question!PARTY PLEASER:Shirleon & Kathryn join Melvin to summarize Frogman, a surprise found-footage horror feature from 2023 about the Loveland Frogman! The three discuss their familiarity with Frogman, the inherent qualities of Found-Footage narratives, and whether they're frog people or rat people!Topics:(PATREON EXCLUSIVE) 33-minutes describing three cryptids, exploring their history, and deciding, "Do we believe?". (PATREON EXCLUSIVE)Asking the important questions: what's Frogman, and is he a swamp-mermaid?Each scene cleverly employs a new framing device, helping the film keep a healthy forward momentum.So… what does the gang think about the film's characters?The interview section of the film is when Melvin thought to himself, "Oh, like, this is a competent, real found-footage film, not just some Tubi-esque feature. Nice."Frogman is a real cryptid, but some of the environmental stuff in Frogman isn't. Kathryn shares why that may be.Does the Found-Footage genre typically result in a main character's self-destruction?Recommendations:Episode Thirteen by Craig DiLouie (2023) (Book)Old Gods of Appalachia (2019 – X) (Podcast)Hokum (2026) (Movie) Support the showSupport on Patreon for Unique Perks! Early access to uncut episodes Vote on a movie/show we review One-time reward of two Cinematic Doctrine Stickers & PinsSocial Links: ThreadsWebsiteInstagramLetterboxdFacebook Group 

1. Frogman – Cryptids, Found-Footage, & Self-Destruction 59:30
2. Vertigo – The iPad Kid Killer 01:05:58
3. Grant Gow on "What's Theater Programming?" at the Hiway Theater 35:50
4. Obsession – w/ Dreadful Digest on Female Agency and Pathetic Men 01:16:29
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