Ryan Coogler’s Sinners offers its central cast a few modes of protection against the horde of vampires, derived from classic vampire lore with hard rules to be followed. Sinners’ story kicks off when twin brothers Smoke and Stack (both played by Michael B. Jordan) return to their Mississippi hometown with aspirations of opening up a juke joint. However, on the club’s opening night, the vampires led by Remmick (Jack O’Connell) descend upon them, and the twins’ family and friends find themselves trying to hold up in the building until sunrise.

When the vampires can’t actually enter the building without an invite, it would seem to be a simple matter of waiting it out. However, Remmick and his retinue play a game of psychological terror, when multiple members of the found family have already been turned and try to persuade their loved ones to allow the same to happen to them. Remmick then threatens Grace’s (Li Jun Li) daughter Lisa (Helena Hu), who stayed at home while her parents went to help with the party, pushing Grace over the edge and prompting her to shout to all the vampires to come in.

Vampires Needing To Be Invited In Connects To Old Vampire Lore

Vampires Hate Garlic, Are Killed By Stakes, & Can’t Enter Buildings Occupied By Humans

Sinners includes aspects of vampire mythology that other projects are too embarrᴀssed to do, such as vampires being warded off by garlic, a weakness often seen as too goofy for modern vampire fiction. In their most traditional iterations, vampires burn up in the sunlight, are warded off by garlic and holy water, and can be killed by silver and stakes. Additionally, they cannot enter a building without being formally invited in by the (presumably human) occupant.

So, Smoke and co. should have been safe until sunrise, were it not for Grace’s understandable reaction to wanting to keep Remmick away from Lisa. Remmick and his first two vampire victims try to join the party, but the twins firmly deny them an invitation as they are concerned about the safety of their mostly Black patrons. Mary (Hailee Steinfeld) manages to get an invite out of Cornbread (Omar Miller) through casual conversation, but Cornbread later fails to do the same when the others finally catch on.

How Annie Knows About Vampires Needing To Be Invited In

Annie Comes Into Sinners’ Story With Vital Mystical Knowledge

Smoke’s wife Annie (Wunmi Mosaku) is shown to be familiar with the occult, possibly learned from past generations of her family. She actually first believes that Stack and Mary have become haints, evil spirits in African spiritual traditions, when they walk off what should be fatal injuries. However, once it becomes clear that Cornbread cannot enter the building without an express invite, Annie concludes that they are actually vampires. Thus, this very classic vampire weakness is what completes the puzzle for these characters in Sinners and allows at least one of them to survive the night.