Warning: MAJOR spoilers ahead for Sinners
Ryan Coogler’s ambitious new movie Sinners infuses a captivating story set in the 1930s American South with genuine vampire horror elements, sticking close to the widely-recognized lore surrounding the blood-hungry monsters that pervade cultures across the world. Sinners stars Michael B. Jordan in dual roles as twin brothers at the head of a talented ensemble cast that includes Hailee Steinfeld, Jack O’Connell, newcomer Miles Caton and a host of other recognizable actors and actresses. The supernatural horror film, which is now playing, explores a number of different themes, but its primary antagonist is the vampire Remmick (O’Connell).
Sinners celebrates a diverse array of cultures that helped shape the American South, particularly with its intoxicating, free-wheeling soundtrack. While vampires can be found in the lore of just about all the cultures represented in the movie, Sinners‘ vampire lore sticks with the more traditional modern vampire movie tropes in lieu of exploring the off-beat tendencies of lesser-known nocturnal creatures of long-ago lore. Even with so many familiar elements, the background of the vampires in Sinners, and in particular O’Connell’s charismatic Remmick, require some explanation.
How Vampires Spread In Sinners
Any Bite Will Pᴀss On The Curse
The average movie-goer likely bases their image of vampires on Dracula, or perhaps more recently Nosferatu thanks to Robert Eggers’ blockbuster from the end of 2024. As a result, they usually picture a vampire biting the neck of its victim and draining blood to feed, sometimes turning their victim into a vampire in the process. The vampires in Sinners don’t need to focus on the neck at all, although that does appear to be a common bite location as it’s a quick way to kill their victim and change them into an unᴅᴇᴀᴅ vampire.
At different points in the movie, the audience sees vampires bite their victims in other areas of the body, which still proves effective at turning them into mostly-unkillable fiends. Mary is bitten on the back by Remmick himself, while Omar Benson Miller’s bouncer Cornbread attempts to bite Smoke’s arm when he hands him money for his work at the club. It’s worth noting that while the vampires appear to be unbothered by injuries (including point-blank gunsH๏τs), their wounds don’t seem to heal like those of many traditional vampires.
The Vampires In Sinners Still Have Souls
Their Souls Are Trapped In Their Bodies
While many traditional vampire tales see the victims become more beastly or truly ᴅᴇᴀᴅ, the vampire curse in Sinners leaves much of the person intact. Wunmi Mosaku’s Annie, who has the most knowledge of magic, voodoo, and monsters, explains that the curse actually traps a person’s soul in their body, leaving them unable to move on to whatever afterlife awaits. As a result, a vampire retains most (not all) of their personality and their memories. Except for black irises and sharpened teeth (and the bite wound that turned them), it’s difficult to determine that a person has become a vampire.
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Ryan Coogler and Michael B. Jordan Collaborations By Tomatometer Score |
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|---|---|---|
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Movie |
Release Year |
RT Tomatometer Score |
|
Sinners |
2025 |
97% |
|
Black Panther |
2018 |
96% |
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Creed |
2015 |
95% |
|
Fruitvale Station |
2013 |
94% |
|
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever |
2022 |
84% |
That ability to blend in as themselves plays a big role in how the vampires are able to spread their curse. One of the elements of traditional vampire lore that Sinners adopts from foundational works like Dracula is that the vampires need to be invited into a building before they can enter. Because vampires still appear to be themselves, it’s easier for them to trick someone they know into inviting them in. Cornbread’s inability to enter Club Juke without an invite is what ultimately informs Smoke, Annie, Sammie and the other survivors that they are in fact dealing with vampires.
There Are Two Clear Ways To Kill Vampires In Sinners
Vampire Deaths Are Fairly Traditional
Sinners also sticks with many of the traditional Dracula/Nosferatu methods of killing or warding off a vampire. Things like silver, holy water, and garlic can harm vampires to some degree, usually in the form of what amounts to a burn, but those things don’t truly kill them. They can also survive just about any kind of traditional injury; Smoke peppers Mary with bullets at point-blank range, and it does nothing to stop her from running out of Club Juke. Likewise, he blows most of Cornbread’s neck and lower jaw away, only for him to pop back up immediately.
A vampire in Sinners can only be killed via a wooden stake to the heart or sunlight. While sunlight causes vampires to essentially burst into flames and disintegrate in spectacular fashion, stabbing them in the heart with a wooden stake doesn’t cause an impressive visual reaction. Rather, their chests just spray blood and they die, as one would expect with a stake to the heart. Remmick, as a more powerful and ancient vampire, catches both a stake to the heart from Smoke and the sunlight, resulting in a wild flaming spiral as he dies.
Remmick’s Sinners Backstory & How Old He Is As A Vampire
The Irish Vampire Has Been Alive For Centuries
Image via Warner Bros.
Jack O’Connell’s Remmick is the vampire that brings the horrifying curse to Club Juke, starting first with Bert and Joan, the Klan members that lived outside the Mississippi town where the club is located. Remmick affects a typical Southern accent and appearance at first to gain entry into Bert and Joan’s house, and then again trying to get into Club Juke. However, once he has taken a victim, he reveals that he has glowing red eyes, a mouthful of sharp teeth, and extended claws for fingernails.
Remmick’s old age and advanced abilities make it seem as though he could be an “original” vampire, or one of the earliest at least.
It’s clear that he is actually from Ireland given the accent he uses once his idenтιтy is revealed, along with the incredible dance scene set to “Rocky Road to Dublin” outside the club. It’s implied based on context that Remmick has been around for roughly 600 years, and it’s clear that he is a more powerful vampire than those that he turns. He’s able to levitate or fly, his claws and teeth are far more pronounced, and his old age makes it seem as though he could be an “original” vampire, or one of the earliest at least.
Stack & Mary Prove Vampires Are Immortal
They Visit Sammie Decades After The Night At Club Juke
Remmick being 600 years old at the time of the events of Sinners is plenty of evidence that at least the more powerful vampires like him are likely immortal, forever frozen in whatever their age/body looked like at the time they were turned. However, Sinners‘ post-credits scene provides an epilogue set in 1992, roughly 60 years after the night at Club Juke. In the scene, an elderly Sammie Moore is playing his blues music at a club at the end of what appears to be a legendary career as a famous musician,
He’s approached after the show by Stack and Mary, dressed in modern 1990s clothes, but the exact same age that they were in the 1930s. It’s clear that vampires don’t need to be ultra-powerful or advanced like Remmick; if they aren’t staked through the heart or exposed to the sunlight, all vampires appear to be completely immortal. That interestingly opens the door to a sequel for Sinners, although most of the appeal of the movie is the captivating performances of its now mostly-ᴅᴇᴀᴅ cast and the engrossing plot, so a sequel feels unlikely.
