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I recently sat down to watch the new film Sinners (2025), and the timing couldn’t have been more striking. My team and I are currently working on an earnest exposé, a sequel to our video classic They Sold Their Souls for Rock ‘n’ Roll, unveiling the devil’s hold over the entertainment industry. This article is not just a review, it’s a spiritual warning to believers about Satan’s continued influence in mainstream entertainment. As Ephesians 5:11 urges us, “Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.”
The record-breaking success of Sinners, grossing $48 million in its opening weekend and holding a rare, minimal 6% box office drop in its second week, demands a deep dive into its cultural influence. Yet many overlook the diabolical message, as the film downplays the consequences of dealing with the devil, as well as the power of Christ and prayer, while glorifying occult practices, raising huge concerns about its spiritual implications. This tension, paired with its widespread acclaim, makes the film’s impact a critical topic for examination.
Sinners has garnered a near-perfect 98% score on Rotten Tomatoes (as of this writing), making it one of the highest reviewed movies ever. Yet beneath its critical acclaim lies a troubling agenda. Just a few nights ago my son urged me to watch this film, his voice brimming with concern: “Dad, you’ve got to see Sinners—it’s as if the director watched your video They Sold Their Souls for Rock ‘n’ Roll and turned it into a Robert Johnson vampire movie!” He insisted I stay through the ending credits to catch the hidden scenes woven within, implying that the devil emerges looking good while Christ and Christianity are mocked. While I watched this film for the purpose of critical engagement, it is not a film I would recommend to believers due to its demonic themes.
A Personal Calling: From Rebellion to Redemption
For over four decades I’ve poured my heart into Good Fight Ministries, driven by a burden to unveil the enemy’s schemes and guide souls to the saving grace of Jesus Christ. But this mission became deeply personal long before I ever envisioned such a calling. As a wayward teenager, I harbored a hardened skepticism toward Christianity, penning my first song, “My Family or My Soul,” which spoke of offering my entire family to Satan to rise as a rock star. I thought it a mere jest, but I soon realized all my songs exalted Satan and the occult and scorned God. I was summoning the very demonic entities depicted as vampires in this film, which are truly fallen angels who once glorified God through music but now use it to draw worship to themselves, promoting the kingdom of darkness through perverse immorality, illicit drugs, rebellion against God, blasphemy, occultism, death, and despair. By God’s grace and mercy, when I cried out to Christ, He saved me. And subsequently, by God’s grace, my entire family and dearest friends have also turned to Christ as well. This is the hope of the gospel: Jesus died for your sins, taking the punishment you deserve, and rose again to offer you eternal life (John 3:16; Romans 5:8) – a hope I pray you’ll discover as we journey through this article. For nearly 45 years my heartbeat has been to engage in spiritual warfare and rescue souls from the flames while I still have breath in my lungs (Jude 1:20-24). Watching Sinners reaffirmed this calling in a profound way! It’s a stark reminder of why I created They Sold Their Souls for Rock ‘n’ Roll: to shine a light on the darkness that masquerades as entertainment, which is drawing countless lives away from the truth. Our hearts at Good Fight Ministries ache for those who are captivated by these deceptions, and I pray this article opens your eyes to the spiritual reality behind the glamour.
Undermining the Gospel: When Vampire’s Pray/Prey
The 2025 film Sinners, directed by Ryan Coogler, delivers a troubling depiction of Christianity. It weaves a narrative that not only associates the faith with vampiric evil but also mirrors the dark legend of Robert Johnson selling his soul to the devil at the crossroads in Clarksdale Mississippi, casting a sinister shadow over the gospel’s light. From the outset, the film undermines Christian spiritual authority by showing vampires, a hallmark of Satanism. Blood is often consumed in rituals to invoke demonic power, reciting the Lord’s Prayer without fear, as if the sacred words hold no power against darkness. Megan Fox, in a 2022 interview with Glamour UK, described similar blood-drinking rituals with her ex, Machine Gun Kelly, noting his chaotic behavior: “And it is controlled where it’s like, ‘Let’s shed a few drops of blood and each drink it.’ He’s much more haphazard and hectic and chaotic, where he’s willing to just cut his chest open with broken glass and be like, ‘Take my soul.’” (Source) A chilling echo of offering himself to Satan.
After Susan Atkins was convicted of nine of the Charles Manson killings, my wife and I would pay her visits in prison. Before joining the cult of the Manson family, Atkins would emerge naked from a coffin during the rites of the church of Satan. We used a censored picture documenting this in our 10-hour rendition of They Sold Their Souls for Rock ‘n’ Roll. She told us how Anton LaVey, the founder of the Church of Satan and the author of the Satanic Bible, opened his refrigerator and showed her the jars of blood they used for the purpose of consuming blood in their satanic rituals.
Such vampiristic practices align with the teachings of Aleister Crowley, the most influential Satanist in modern history who, in his seminal work Magick in Theory and Practice, emphasizes the significance of blood in magical rituals: “Those magicians who object to the use of blood have endeavored to replace it with incense. But the bloody sacrifice, though more dangerous, is more efficacious. And for nearly all purposes, human sacrifice is the best.” In one chilling scene in Sinners, the lead vampire Remmick and his followers join in the Lord’s Prayer, which Sammy first begins praying when seeking to escape their powers. Remmick tells Sammy the prayer brings him comfort – a direct subversion of the prayer’s protective purpose against the demonic forces Remmick represents, e.g., “lead us not into temptation, deliver us from evil.”
Director Ryan Coogler
The absence of crosses as a defense mechanism typically used in vampire movies, which demonstrates the power of Christ over the demonic world, though fanciful, further erases the power of Christ in favor of the counterfeit motif that Satan is afraid of the very occult powers of Hoodoo, a pagan synthesis that Satan inspired and promotes. This portrayal suggests that Christianity is impotent against evil, a dangerous message that strips the faith of its divine strength and leaves viewers questioning its relevance in the face of darkness. To weave this supernatural tapestry, Coogler sought the guidance of Dr. Yvonne Chireau, a keeper of hoodoo’s ancient, occult secrets and author of Black Magic, which was revealed in her Religion Dispatches April 24, 2025 interview. (Source) With a conjurer’s care, she worked closely with Coogler and producer Sev Ohanian. Her presence cast a spell of legitimacy over the production, grounding Sammie’s otherworldly bargain in the haunting traditions of the South, where spirits whisper through the Delta’s shadows.
Gospel Truth Vs. Occult Lies
Yet, this portrayal of Satan over Christ stands in stark contrast to the undeniable power of Christ over darkness, a power Sinners seeks to undermine. You see, after realizing that I was lost and under the control of demonic forces, experiencing paralysis and the “cosmic hum” while in an occult-induced state, I cried out to the Lord and was immediately delivered, demonstrating not only God’s immense love for me but also His dominion over demonic forces. When I opened a bible after becoming a new Christian, I discovered that throughout His ministry, Jesus cast out demons with a mere word, as seen in Mark 5:1-20, where He delivered a man possessed by a legion of demons (5,000 to 6,000 demons), restoring him to his right mind and demonstrating His absolute authority over the forces of evil. Similarly, in Acts 16:16-18, the Apostle Paul confronted a fortune-telling slave girl possessed by a spirit of divination; in the name of Jesus Christ, he commanded the spirit to leave her, and it fled immediately, freeing her from bondage and exposing the powerlessness of the enemy before the name of Christ. These accounts remind us of a glorious truth: Christ always wins, and His authority over darkness is unshakable, no matter how the enemy may try to distort it through films like Sinners.
From the beginning God has displayed His absolute dominion over the forces of darkness. When Pharaoh’s magicians mimicked Moses by turning their staffs into serpents through occult trickery, God’s power swiftly exposed the fraud. “But Aaron’s staff swallowed up their staffs” (Exodus 7:12), revealing that the Lord is not in competition with the enemy, He reigns supremely over every dark counterfeit. The magicians could imitate, but they could not overcome. The occult may attempt to dazzle, but it cannot deliver. Throughout Scripture, sorcerers, mediums, and false prophets fall before the Word of the Lord, for “there is no wisdom, no understanding, and no counsel against the LORD” (Proverbs 21:30). Whether it was Elijah calling down fire to consume the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18:36–39) or Daniel standing unmoved amid the magicians and astrologers of Babylon, the message is clear: the God of Israel is unmatched, unshaken, and utterly sovereign.
In Isaiah 47 the Lord mocks the spiritual pride of Babylon, exposing the impotence of its occult powers. Speaking of their astrologers and enchanters, God declares with biting sarcasm: “Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, and the monthly prognosticators stand up and save you from what shall come upon you… They shall be as stubble; the fire shall burn them; they shall not deliver themselves from the power of the flame” (Isaiah 47:13–14). Far from shielding Babylon, their dark arts become their shame and downfall. The fire of God’s judgment consumes what the occult claimed it could control.
This supremacy climaxes in Revelation, where all evil powers meet their final judgment. After centuries of deception and destruction, Satan’s rebellion is crushed beneath the heel of God’s eternal justice. “And the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever” (Revelation 20:10). No demon escapes. No spell can delay it. Every occult spirit that has warred against the truth will be cast into eternal punishment. And it’s not just the devil, but “the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts [sorcerers], the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death” (Revelation 21:8). It is important for us to remember, this is not a cosmic struggle between equals, it is the triumph of the Almighty over the rebellion of a defeated enemy. Satan may roar, but he is on a leash. And when the final chapter is written, it will not be his name on the throne, but Jesus Christ, King of kings and Lord of lords (Revelation 19:16).
Rewriting Black History: Challenging Sinners’ Narrative
Adding lies to lies, Sinners frames Christianity as a tool of oppression, particularly within the Black community of the Jim Crow South. The film is set in Clarksdale, Mississippi–the very town where Robert Johnson is said to have sold his soul to the devil at the crossroads of Highways 49 and 61. This legend is supported by top blues musicians close to Johnson, such as Sonny Boy Williamson, who claimed Johnson confessed the deal to him, and Son House, who stated that Johnson sold his soul to the devil to play as he did. The film explicitly states that Christianity was forced upon Black people, contrasting it with the blues music they created as a true expression of freedom. While it’s true that white slaveholders often misused Christianity to justify slavery, this narrative perpetuates a lie that Christianity came to Black people primarily through white people. In reality, the gospel was spreading through Africa long before the United States existed, with early church father Athanasius, a North African from Alexandria, Egypt, serving as a prominent Christian leader in the 4th century. Known as the “Father of Orthodoxy,” Athanasius played a crucial role in defending the divinity of Christ through his writings, such as On the Incarnation, which was foundational to Christian theology. The Ethiopian eunuch in Acts 8:26-39, baptized by Philip in the 1st century, further demonstrates that Christianity took root in Africa shortly after Christ’s resurrection, centuries before European colonization. This historical truth challenges the film’s portrayal, affirming that Black communities have a rich, autonomous Christian heritage, not solely a product of white imposition, making the narrative’s framing a distortion that undermines the gospel’s universal reach.
Vampires are depicted as metaphors for Christianity, preying on the community by co-opting their music and culture, much like historical critiques of Christianity’s role in systemic racism. The vampires are portrayed as missionaries going door to door hoping to be invited in for “love and fellowship,” only to devour their hosts. This narrative paints the Christian faith as a predatory force, equating Christian evangelism with vampiric manipulation, much like Christian missionaries going door to door, seeking to be invited in to share the gospel, broaden the kingdom, and foster deeper love and fellowship through faith in Christ.
The film further contrasts the supposed ineffectiveness of Christian practices with the power of Hoodoo occult traditions. While Christian prayers fail to repel the demons and vampires, Annie’s use of pickled garlic juice, a Hoodoo remedy, proves effective in warding them off. Wunmi Mosaku, who plays Annie, shared with OkayAfrica that she was deeply influenced by messages she received from dreams in preparing for this role, stating, “I was dreaming a lot, and I felt like I was dreaming my way into the role,” reflecting an occult spiritual connection to Annie’s Hoodoo practices that allowed her to tap into the character’s ancestral wisdom. (Source) This juxtaposition elevates pagan practices over Christian faith, suggesting that the gospel lacks the power to combat evil, a deeply troubling message for believers who trust in the authority of Christ’s name and those interested in being saved from Satan’s power.
While the cross worn by the character Grace Chow has no power over the demons/vampires, the character Smoke, played by Michael B. Jordan, wears a necklace with a Hoodoo “conjure/mojo bag,” typically filled with occult empowered items like herbs, roots, and charms, effectively wards off the vampires/demons. This occult power is further glorified when the bag glows blue and effectively wards off the vampire Stack. This Hoodoo bag was given to Smoke by the Hoodoo witch Annie.
Sammie’s Rebellion: A Mirror of Robert Johnson’s Pact
Sammie, the preacher’s son, rejects his father Jedidiah’s faith for pagan spirituality, mirroring Robert Johnson’s own rejection of the religious norms of his time for the blues, often called the “devil’s music.” In a poignant scene before his fateful rebellion, Jedidiah, hoping Sammie would follow in his footsteps and preach from the pulpit, encourages him to stay and embrace his calling, urging him to read 1 Corinthians 10:13 from the church pulpit: “No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.” Sammie reads most of the verse aloud, but then, in a moment of stark defiance, closes the Bible, quoting the rest from memory as he turns away, choosing to leave for the juke joint instead. This act of closing the Bible and walking away reveals his conscious decision to reject the faith of his upbringing, ignoring the very escape from temptation God promises, and instead aligning himself with the devil’s path, a heartbreaking rebellion against God that sets the stage for the spiritual consequences to follow. In the juke joint scene, a modern crossroads moment akin to Robert Johnson’s devil deal, Sammie sings the song “I Lied to You,” declaring to his father:
I been wanting to tell you for a long time
It might hurt you, hope you don’t lose your mind
Well, I was just a boy, ‘bout eight years old
You threw me a Bible on that Mississippi road
See, I love ya, Papa, you did all you could do
They say the truth hurts, so I lie to you
Yes, I lied to you
I got the blues…I love the blues
Actor Miles Caton (young Sammie)
The Devil in the Details: Selling One’s Soul
In Sinners, the act of opening the juke joint door and inviting the vampires in serves as a literal and symbolic gateway to destruction, mirroring the haunting imagery in Robert Johnson’s “Me and the Devil Blues,” where he sings:
Early this mornin’, when you knocked upon my door
And I said, ‘Hello, Satan, I believe it’s time to go
Me and the devil was walkin’ side by side
Me and the devil, ooh, was walkin’ side by side
Just as Johnson’s lyrics depict a willing invitation to Satan, reflecting his Faustian legend of trading his soul for musical prowess, Sammie and his cousins’ decision to open the juke joint, despite warnings, ushers in the vampires, embodying the demonic forces that bring chaos and death. This parallel underscores the film’s theme that inviting in dark forces, whether through a literal door or a metaphorical bargain, leads to a perilous dance with evil, echoing Johnson’s own narrative of surrendering to the devil’s call with devastating consequences.
This scene unveils a deeper, more sinister motif of selling one’s soul, with Remmick, the lead vampire, depicted as the devil, head of demons, orchestrating a centuries-long scheme to unite the spiritual and human worlds through music. Remmick, in the form of an Irish immigrant vampire who has lived for centuries, targets Sammie because of his uncanny ability to transcend reality and break the barriers between the living and the spirit realm, a power Remmick has exploited in other musicians throughout history to serve his demonic agenda. In the water scene, Remmick attempts to drown Sammie in a twisted baptism, offering not only “eternal life in a hedonistic utopia” but also freedom from racism, saying, “I want your songs, I want your stories,” and adding, “When you are turned, you will be immortal and also can escape racism.” Remmick’s offer mirrors the devil’s temptation of Christ in Matthew 4:8-9, promising worldly gain for spiritual allegiance, a deceptive lie akin to the serpent’s promise to Eve in Genesis 3:4-5, which leads to death. Remmick wants Sammie to make the same deal Robert Johnson did, binding his soul to the devil’s service, using his music to influence humanity for darkness, just as the spirits have done across cultures, from West African griots to Chinese opera singers to Irish bards, ensnaring souls through art in a global web of deception that stretches far beyond the blues.
Parallels of Peril: Sammie and Johnson’s Shared Path
Robert Johnson
Setting in Clarksdale: Both Sammie and Johnson are tied to Clarksdale, Mississippi, the legendary location where Johnson sold his soul to the devil at the crossroads of Highways 49 and 61, framing their stories in a spiritual battleground where temptation and darkness converge.
Crossroad’s Experiences in 1932: In 1932, Sammie abandons the faith of his upbringing for blues music, mirroring Johnson’s choice to pursue blues approximately the same time Johnson made his crossroads deal, a temporal alignment that underscores their shared spiritual stakes.
Faustian Bargain with the Devil: Sammie’s temptation by vampires/demons to trade his soul, with the post-credits scenes revealing his choice and sealing his fate, mirrors Johnson selling his soul at the crossroads, along with his sudden musical mastery and songs like “Cross Road Blues,” with both narratives steeped in supernatural bargains for musical greatness.
Musical Talent Clashing with Faith: Sammie’s sudden guitar skills that will summon the fusion of the demonic with the mortal meet resistance due to his blues aspirations as the devil’s music, much like Johnson, who faced family disapproval for abandoning the gospel for the “devil’s music” after personal tragedies, highlighting their shared tension between faith and music.
Initial Rejection by Peers: Johnson was told by other musicians, like Son House, to put away his guitar because he couldn’t play well initially; in Sinners, Sammie faces similar rejection when another blues musician tells him to put his guitar away, yet both rise to prominence through their dark paths.
Adulterous Lifestyle: Robert Johnson’s adulterous ways led to his demise, possibly poisoned by a jealous husband; Sammie mirrors this reckless lifestyle, engaging in an adulterous relationship that echoes Johnson’s moral failings.
Hellhounds as Demonic Pursuit: Johnson’s “Hellhound on My Trail” describes demonic pursuit:
I got to keep movin’
Blues fallin’ down like hail
And the day keeps on worryin’ me
There’s a hellhound on my trail
While in Sinners, the vampires serve as Sammie’s hellhounds, trailing him after he summons spirits through his rebellion and music.
Spiritual Implications of Music: Johnson’s blues were called the devil’s music, drawing supernatural attention after his pact; Sammie’s song “I Lied to You” pierces the veil, summoning spirits and vampires, reflecting a similar spiritual cost for rejecting faith.
Musical Success and Temptation: Johnson’s recordings gained posthumous fame through albums like King of the Delta Blues Singers; Sammie becomes a blues legend.
Haunted by Past Choices: Sammie’s weekly demonic sleep paralysis in 1992 parallels the haunting themes in Johnson’s music, like “Hellhound on My Trail,” which reflects his own terrors bearing the weight of their past.
Spiritual Consequences: Johnson faced torment through the hellhound; Sammie’s rebellion unleashes demons and vampires who leave the devil’s claw mark on his face, revealing the spiritual implications of their choices.
The Final Temptation: Post-Credits Deception
The film’s post-credits scenes further illuminate Satan’s deceptive work, revealing how the enemy ensnares souls through false promises of worldly success, a tactic as old as the temptation of Christ in Matthew 4:8-9. In the last haunting post-credits scene of Sinners, young Sammie (Miles Caton) sits alone in his father’s Mississippi church, strumming “This Little Light of Mine” on an undamaged guitar, a stark contrast to the broken neck he clutches after the juke joint massacre. With no claw marks or scars marring his body, unlike the bloodied, battered Sammie we see post-massacre, this moment is firmly set before he leaves the church to join his cousins at the ill-fated juke joint, a timeline marker of his innocence. As his fingers dance across the strings, the hymn starts gentle but grows harder, more bluesy, its raw edge a whisper of the music he’ll one day master, a sound that will defy his father’s faith and carry him through darkness.
This scene isn’t just a glimpse of Sammie’s pure passion; it’s a prophecy of the Faustian crossroads he’ll face, where he will turn from “This Little Light of Mine” to adultery and the darkness of Satan’s kingdom. A shadow looms as Sammie plays, his gaze lifting to lock onto an unseen entity, the music’s bluesy shift a response to whispers of a deal: fame, freedom, or power at a devilish price. Coogler admitted through actress Wunmi Mosaku in The Hollywood Reporter that this church scene, with Sammie’s loaded glance at something unseen, sets up his future, framing it as “the beginning of that day” that circles back to the film’s opening, a deliberate setup for the choices Sammie will face.
Coogler told Mashable that Sinners explores “a Faustian deal,” reflecting Sammie’s temptation: “A Delta blues legend of a man selling his soul to be good at guitar for the remainder of his life…when you’ve been dealt a bad hand by society or by faith, what are you willing to give up to escape that?” (Source) For Sammie, a Black man in 1932 Mississippi, systemic racism and his father’s rigid faith, pushing him to abandon music for the Bible, make him ripe for such a bargain. The entity could be tied to the vampires, perhaps a premonition of Remmick, offering an escape through vampirism that Sammie’s music will ultimately reject. Later, at the juke joint, his cousin Smoke, turned vampire, encourages his twin Stack not to kill Sammie, whispering, “Let him play out his music,” a haunting echo of this temptation, a deal where Sammie’s talent to unite the demonic spirit world with regular mortals becomes his shield against the vampires’ cost, guiding him toward his destiny.
At the juke joint, he’ll reject his father’s Bible and faith in a defiant song, embracing the blues, a choice that sets him on the path to fame. Coogler’s choice to end here, with a blues-infused hymn and a loaded glance, isn’t just a flashback, it’s a prophecy of Sammie’s future fueled by supernatural power.
Through this moment, Coogler spins an alluring twist on selling your soul, turning Sammie’s rejection of God and his willingness to engage dark forces on his own terms into a seductive fantasy, one where you can seemingly escape the consequences. Unlike Robert Johnson, who meets the hellhound at 27 after his crossroads deal, a fate Sammie mirrors, Sammie survives this curse through a deal with his vampire cousins Smoke and Stack. They spare him during the juke joint massacre to “play out his music,” a talent that bridges the demonic and mortal worlds, with Smoke ensuring a longer life and Stack enhancing the bargain in another post-credits bar scene, offering more time while boasting they have all of Sammie’s albums, a nod to his enduring legacy. That earlier church scene, with its bluesy hymn and piercing glance, foreshadows this path, a vision fulfilled when an older Sammie (Buddy Guy) reigns as a Chicago blues icon in 1992, a legend who seemingly outlives the devil’s due. Yet, this tale whispers a darker truth from the devil’s perspective, tempting us to believe we can control dark forces on our terms, like voodoo priests, sorcerers, and witches who draw protective circles and cast banishing spells, thinking they hold power. In reality, Satan and his demons are merely toying with them, granting a false sense of freedom while binding them as pawns in a sinister game, their chains hidden in the shadows – a deception that masks the true cost of such a bargain.
The truth is, this is a tactic straight from the enemy’s playbook designed to deceive and destroy. Satan, the father of lies and a murderer from the beginning, blinds many to the spiritual ruin that awaits them (John 8:44; 1 Peter 5:8). This scene chillingly depicts his work, dangling fame to obscure the reality of eternal loss, a cost that lingers even if one lives a long life. For at the end of the day, there is still hell to pay. Jesus Himself warned, “What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Mark 8:36-37).
Sammie’s tale may seem like a triumph, but it serves as a stark reminder that no deal with the devil comes without a price, one that ultimately leads to a reckoning far beyond the mortal stage. Sammie’s survival might seem like a triumph until you consider the grim eternal picture of spending eternity in hell. It also stands in stark contrast to the many who weren’t so fortunate, their lives cut short by the same dark forces, like Robert Johnson who he otherwise mirrors in the film. Their stories, often marked by substance abuse, despair, or mysterious ends, reflect the devil’s true intent, a destructive power that offers fleeting fame but delivers death, leaving behind a legacy of loss where Sammie found a rare reprieve through his cousins’ intervention.
The 27 Club and Beyond: Real-World Stakes
The film’s narrative, initially highlighting the devil on Sammie’s trail in the form of vampires, also evokes the tragic legacy of the “27 Club.” A group of the world’s most famous musicians who died tragically at the young, tender age of 27, often under mysterious or self-destructive circumstances, a pattern that began with Robert Johnson himself and underscores the spiritual peril of their choices:
Robert Johnson (1938): Died at 27 under mysterious circumstances, possibly poisoned, becoming the first notable member of the 27 Club, his death tied to his crossroads deal with the devil.
Brian Jones (1969): The Rolling Stones guitarist, who was inspired by Satanist Aleister Crowley, drowned in his swimming pool at 27, amid struggles with substance abuse, marking an early high-profile addition to the 27 Club.
Jimi Hendrix (1970): The legendary guitarist died at 27 from a drug overdose. Hendrix claimed repeatedly to be demon possessed, his music often reflecting occult themes, such as “Voodoo Child.”
Janis Joplin (1970): The blues-rock singer died at 27 from a heroin overdose, her raw emotional style echoing the Delta Blues’ influence.
Jim Morrison (1971): The Doors’ frontman died at 27, likely from alcohol poisoning, known for his mystical and rebellious persona, also claimed spirit possession and placed a bust of Aleister Crowley on the front cover of their album 13. Morrison wrote lyrics like “Cancel my subscription to the resurrection, send my credential to the house of detention,” in his song “We Want the World.”
Kurt Cobain (1994): Grunge’s most popular frontman and Nirvana singer died at 27 by suicide, his music rooted in the blues-influenced grunge movement. Cobain, as we document in our video They Sold Their Souls for Rock ‘n’ Roll, stated that his goal in life was to worship Satan and do drugs.
Amy Winehouse (2011): The soul singer died at 27 from alcohol poisoning, her music steeped in emotional depth akin to the blues. The Grammy Award-winning singer was filmed ranting about music officials and she screamed that Satan was destroying her with drugs. (Source)
These tragic losses remind us of the real-world stakes behind Sinners’ fictional narrative. In our special exposé on Kendrick Lamar after his 2025 Super Bowl performance, we unveiled how this renowned rapper has been ensnared in this web of darkness. Lamar’s song from his latest album GNX, titled “Reincarnated,” mirror the themes in Sinners. In this song, written from Satan’s perspective, Lamar specifically references Isaiah 14:12-14, addressing the devil as the director of music, a fallen angel who once led worship in heaven but now reincarnates himself by possessing one musician after another. Lamar portrays himself as one of Satan’s latest incarnations. The song states that Satan seduces the masses through his music, revealing how Satan reincarnates to continue his deception. Satan has grown so brazen that he now openly admits what he is doing, using artists to glorify his kingdom of darkness, just as Sinners depicts through its vampiric narrative.
From the Crossroads to the Cross
As I share this sobering reflection on GoodFight.org, I tenderly urge you, beloved reader, to look deep within your heart. Have you truly repented and turned to Christ for salvation? The gospel is a love letter from God: Jesus died for your sins, taking the punishment you deserve, and rose again to offer you eternal life (John 3:16; Romans 5:8). You must turn to Christ, confess your sins, and trust in Him alone to be saved (Acts 4:12; Romans 10:9). Years ago I faced my own battle with the allure of worldly success, until I surrendered to Christ, finding a peace that the devil could never offer. I pray you’ll find that same peace today. Don’t let the allure of fame or worldly success lead you down the path of destruction as it did for so many in this film. Jesus Himself warned in Matthew 12:30, “Whoever is not with me is against me,” leaving no room for neutrality – to not make a choice is to make a choice, allowing the devil to claim your soul, and the price is eternal torment forever and ever in a Christless eternity, where there is only eternal darkness and no rest day or night, as described in Revelation 14:11: “And the smoke of their torment will rise for ever and ever. There will be no rest day or night for those who worship the beast and its image.” Do not put off this decision that you can make today, for tomorrow may be too late. Your soul hangs in the balance and the enemy seeks to devour you (1 Peter 5:8). Yet, there is a Savior who loves you beyond measure: Jesus died to save you and promised in John 6:37, “Whoever comes to me I will never drive away,” ensuring that if you come to Him in repentance and faith, He will embrace you with open arms. Please for the sake of your eternal soul, respond to the conviction of the Holy Spirit stirring in your heart and turn to Christ now. Pray this simple prayer:
“Lord Jesus, I confess my sins and turn from darkness to light, renouncing the works of darkness. I believe You died for me and rose again. I embrace You as my Lord and Savior, trusting in You alone for my salvation. Please save me and make me Yours forever. Amen.”
Join the Fight: Resources for Your Journey
To dive deeper into how Satan has been using top artists for decades to do his bidding, I warmly invite you to watch the free version of our popular video documentary They Sold Their Souls for Rock ‘n’ Roll by simply clicking the button for the video on our website. You can also explore the latest evidence on our Good Fight Ministries YouTube channel, where we continue to expose the enemy’s schemes and proclaim the hope of Christ with love and urgency. Join our community by following us on social media, where we offer ongoing encouragement through two podcasts each week. Sunday morning and Wednesday night church services at Blessed Hope Chapel, where I pastor, and recorded messages from our church to help you grow in your walk with Christ.
Press on in Jesus,
Joe Schimmel
Watch our video review of Sinners on The Good Fight Radio Show >>
Very interesting article!