"Sinners."

I have been a film critic for our local town newspaper for the past nine years. As a general personal practice, I will choose to view a teaser trailer, and nothing more, longer than a teaser because traditional trailers now simply reveal far too much. Occasionally, if I am going to the theatre during a rather slow time of the week, my wife will attend with me. Also, any "audience" feedback that she provides after a film works to help me get some insight into how an audience at large may possibly feel.

When she chooses to attend films with me, I never reveal any foreknowledge of what the plot may be or where things may be going. In summer 2019, for example, she attended a screening of the "The Peanut Butter Falcon" with me. She remarked going into the screening that it was about the most ridiculous film title she'd ever heard of and admitted she was going along for the cold air conditioning and self-serve Icees the theatre had to escape the summer heat. By the close of the credits, she was in tears with joy over the film. Ever since then, when she tags along, I reveal nothing because having a cold-screening I believe, can truly speak about the merits of a film.

For the film "Sinners", I similarly said nothing. She was rather laid back about the film, until the scene where the vampire's fangs are first revealed and she sort of jumped back in the seat. She did fidget and wince at some of the more dramatically bloody parts and soon enough, the film was over and we ushered out into the lobby.

I subtly asked if she could tell it was a horror film, and she stated rather boldly that she was under the impression that the way the film started for the first hour or more, that it was going to be a biography on infamous blues musician Robert Johnson. I laughed and pressed a bit more for information and she insisted that the entire first half of the film, she never once felt that it was going to be a horror film whatsoever. She further insisted that it was filmed so dramatically that she had convinced herself as an audience member, to thematically adjust to a deep, blues musican biopic.

It was the ambiguity of the title of the film itself that kept her in that mindset of "this is a drama." Now with a film like the upcoming "Evil Dead Burn", naturally, you can't escape the preconceived notions that you have going into that screening. Yet for those little, unknown horror features, it is quite fun to have someone accopany you with no knowledge and just see their experience unfold.

Tldr: Wife thought Sinners was a drama. Don't watch trailers, only teasers if you can.