Sinners Love Vs. Lust (Spoiler Alert)

Sinners' Lust vs Love, (Spoiler Alert 🚨) 

Love is one of the most powerful themes in storytelling—yet it’s often misunderstood, misrepresented, or romanticized in unhealthy ways. In film, relationships are frequently portrayed as passionate and intense, but upon closer look, many are rooted in control, obsession, or imbalance. This is especially important when examining love stories involving Black characters, where authentic depictions of tenderness, mutual respect, and emotional depth remain far too rare. In this blog, I explore two contrasting love stories from the film Sinners—Annie and Smoke versus Mary and Stack—to unpack the difference between true love and lust, and to highlight why showcasing healthy Black love on screen truly matters.

Let’s begin with Annie and Smoke. After the heartbreaking loss of their child, Smoke coped by immersing himself in work and relocating from Mississippi to Chicago with his twin brother, where they spent seven years building their careers, leaving Annie behind. During their absence, Annie remained in Mississippi. She didn’t chase after Smoke, nor did her world come to a halt. Though she continued to love and miss him deeply, she chose to respect his need for space and focused on living her own life with grace and resilience.

When Smoke returned to Mississippi, he and Annie realized they were still in love and rekindled their romance. Annie even remade Smoke’s protective necklace, which she had created for him years earlier. When the vampires appeared, she made Smoke promise that if she were bitten, he would kill her so she could reunite with their daughter in the afterlife—and he agreed.

Unfortunately, during a gruesome showdown with the vampires, Annie gets bitten. Smoke, devastated, rushes to her side. Through the pain, she reminds him of their promise—and with a heavy heart, he honors it, plunging a wooden stake through her heart. At the end of the movie, Smoke removes Annie’s protective necklace and prepares for a final showdown with the Klan members who came to kill him and his brother. In a fierce shootout, he manages to take them all down, but not without cost—he’s shot in the process. As he bleeds out, his vision blurs, and he sees Annie and their daughter waiting for him in the afterworld.

Annie and Smoke’s romance exemplifies true love because they found their way back to each other naturally, without force. Annie could have chased after Smoke when he left for Chicago, but she chose to give him space instead. In time, he returned to her, and their love rekindled on its own. Likewise, Smoke honored Annie’s request to end her life when she became a vampire—even though it pained him—because he loved and respected her deeply. True love is patient, selfless, and effortless, and Annie and Smoke demonstrated this through their mutual acts of understanding and devotion throughout the film.

Stack and Mary’s story, on the other hand, doesn’t quite qualify as love. Their relationship is largely physical, lacking the emotional foundation and mutual respect that define true intimacy. Because of Mary’s mixed heritage and white-passing appearance, Stack chooses not to pursue a relationship with her, constrained by the harsh realities of Jim Crow laws and the social expectations of 1932. Instead, he joins his brother in Chicago, leaving Mary behind with empty promises. When he eventually returns, he sees Mary again—now married. Despite this, Mary attempts to rekindle their connection, but Stack rejects her. Later, upon learning that Stack and his brother have opened a juke joint, Mary decides to visit. However, she is met by Stack once again—this time, urging her to leave.

Mary confesses her love to Stack, but he reminds her that she’s married and urges her to leave before her husband finds out and possibly comes after them. In a vulnerable moment, Mary admits that she never wanted to be married—what she truly wanted was to be with Stack. Later that night, Mary is bitten by a vampire. After her transformation, she reunites with Stack, and in a final, passionate encounter, they make love—only for Mary to bite him to death, turning him into a vampire. By the end of the film, it’s revealed that the vampires remain fully conscious of their actions, adding a chilling layer of tragedy and intention to her choice.

What sets Mary and Stack’s relationship apart—and reveals it as lust rather than love—is the element of force and selfishness. Mary consistently disregards Stack’s wishes not to be together, placing her own desires above his boundaries. Once she becomes a vampire, she takes it a step further by biting him, ensuring they would be bound together forever. This act isn’t love—it’s control. It’s the equivalent of picking a flower to possess it, rather than watering it and allowing it to grow freely. Instead of letting Stack live a full life without her, Mary chooses to see him die and become the undead, just so she wouldn’t have to let him go. 

Love is not about forcing someone to be with you—it is patient, kind, and built on mutual understanding and respect. Stack and Mary’s relationship was never truly rooted in that kind of love. Their union was strained by overwhelming external factors: the harsh realities of Jim Crow laws, Mary’s racial identity, and her marriage to another man. Additionally, as a white-passing woman during that era, simply being with Stack could have put his life in serious danger. If Mary had truly loved him, she would have respected his boundaries and prioritized his safety over her own desires. Real love would have meant letting him go—not pulling him into harm’s way. Too often, characters like Mary and Stack are mistaken for representations of true love when in reality, their story reflects lust, control, and obsession, not genuine affection. True love is rooted in free will: two people choosing each other, choosing to love, respect, and care for one another. It’s a conscious commitment, not something driven by demand or manipulation.

Personally, I’d love to see more films that showcase authentic love, especially those that center Black characters and highlight their depth, tenderness, and emotional complexity. Too often, filmmakers portray Black love as either lust or struggle, which reinforces the idea that Black love is somehow less than ideal. Real, healthy love between Black characters deserves to be seen and celebrated on screen.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!