Prominent Antagonists: Remmick From "Sinners"

An analysis of the vampire villain from Ryan Coogler's hit 2025 film

Intro

Ryan Coogler’s recent horror film Sinners has been performing incredibly successfully, raking in over $123.2 million at the box office as of April 30th, 2025 as well as garnering rave reviews from both critics and audiences alike. A longtime fan of vampire media, I watched this movie at my local theater on April 26th and absolutely loved it.

The Movie

Sinners opens with a narration and animation explaining that some people are musically gifted to the extent of being able to summon spirits from the past and the future. It depicts these musical mystics in European, Native American, and West African culture. Although being blessed with this musical ability is a gift, it can also manifest as a curse by attracting evil.

In the Mississippi Delta in 1932, twin brothers Elijah "Smoke" Moore and Elias "Stack" Moore move back from Chicago, where they had been working for Al Capone, to their hometown of Clarksdale, Mississippi, where they plan to start a juke joint. They recruit their teen cousin Sammie, a skilled guitarist and aspiring singer, to perform for them at their opening night. Sammie is known as “Preacher Boy” because his father is a pastor, but, much to his father’s disapproval, he wants to pursue a career in blues music. The cousins drive around the Delta promoting their venture and recruiting more people to help, including married Chinese shopowners Bo and Grace, a black sharecropper known as Cornbread, local performer Delta Slim, and Smoke’s wife, Annie, a healer. The opening night is a success with a massive turnout, including Pearline, a married woman Sammie had flirted with earlier, and Mary, Stack’s white-passing former flame whom he had broken up with because of hostility toward interracial couples. In one particularly memorable scene, Sammie puts on a performance so potent that the spirits of black musicians from eras ranging from pre-colonial Africa to the 1970s and ‘80s appear, but this performance also summons evil entities in the form of vampire Remmick and his posse, who want to harness Sammie’s power for their own use. As the head of an ever-expanding group of vampires, Remmick is an effective leader because he is deceptive, persuasive, and dedicated to carrying out his vision for a post-racial future, even through the carnage and bloodshed of innocent people, both black and white.

Who is Remmick?

Remmick’s first appearance occurs around sunset of that evening, when he arrives at the doorstep of Bert and Joan, a local couple who is part of the Ku Klux Klan. Posing as a panicked victim of Choctaw Indian attacks, Remmick begs the couple to let him into his home. Bert and Joan are initially skeptical of his claims, as they state that “there are no [American Indians] around here”, but they quickly relent. Soon after, the Choctaw do indeed arrive at their home and ask if they are hiding a man they are looking for. Joan, armed with her gun, refuses them entry. She is warned by the Choctaw leader that the man is not what he seems; he tells her, “May God […] be with you.” After the Choctaw leave, Joan goes back down the hallway to find that Remmick has bitten Bert, who is now in the process of becoming a vampire. Remmick laughs at her, his exposed fangs dripping with blood, before turning her into a vampire as well.

The way in which Remmick is able to gain entry into Bert and Joan’s home continues setting up the movie’s themes of racial and ethnic prejudice. The Ku Klux Klan was hostile toward Irish immigrants because of their Catholic faith, which may explain why Bert and Joan at first question Remmick rather than hiding him. However, they seemingly set this bias aside in favor of another; Joan ignores the Choctaw’s warning about Remmick despite the fact that the Choctaw are peaceful to her and she and her husband were formerly skeptical of Remmick as well. On the other hand, it is also possible that Joan saw that Remmick was indeed being truthful about the Choctaw pursuing him. Based on her dismissal of the Choctaw, she may have viewed their assertion about Remmick not being what he seemed as merely their justification for wanting to kill him.

Nevertheless, the fact that Remmick is able to deceive his way into Bert and Joan’s home by taking advantage of existing racial divisions sets up what he will do later on at the juke joint.

Confrontation at Juke Joint

That night, Remmick arrives at Smoke and Stack’s juke joint with Bert and Joan, requesting entry. In an effort to impress the owners, they play some music of their own, a bluegrass rendition of "Pick Poor Robin Clean", originally by black musicians Geeshie Wiley and Elvie Thomas, but they are refused as its genre does not fit with the focus of the venue. Smoke, Stack, and the others are cautious of white people trying to enter the juke joint due to their fear of minor mishaps like the white patrons having their feet accidentally stepped on or a drink spilled on them going horribly wrong. The twin brothers also had to very viscerally overcome racism to start their joint in the first place; they bought it from KKK Grand Dragon Hogwood, at which point the building’s floors were still stained with blood from killings that had taken place there. Remmick tries to guilt-trip the owners for refusing him on racial grounds, despite the fact that nearly all white establishments of that time and place did the same to black people. In the context of anti-Irish and anti-Catholic sentiment of that time period, Remmick may have been trying to connect with Smoke, Stack, and the others, albeit deceptively, as kindred spirits who had also experienced discrimination. When the three vampires question why Mary is allowed to be at the joint despite being light-skinned, Annie replies, “She’s family”, words that will come back to haunt her later on.

Mary is Turned

After the vampires leave, Mary reminds the brothers that they need the money, so they send her out to investigate Remmick, Bert, and Joan, armed with a gun. As she comes across them, they are playing and singing an Irish ballad, the lyrics of which even hint at the fact that they want her to join them. Mary compliments their musical ability and asks them what they want with the joint, and they answer that they only want to play music. They also offer her strange gold coins, which mesmerize her. After Remmick observes that she seems downcast and that therefore, their money is “no good to her”, Mary opens up to him and tells him and the others that her mother has recently passed away. Remmick expresses condolences and says “that’s a hurting feeling”. He laments that he couldn’t save Mary’s mother from that fate, then says that he can still “save” Mary. Mary says that she doesn’t need saving, but Remmick replies, “Yes, you do. You all do.” His and the others’ eyes begin to glow red. Upon realizing his sinister nature, Mary stands up, threatens them with her gun, and starts to leave. However, Remmick catches up to her and turns her into a vampire.

Remmick’s interactions with Mary reveal his skills of manipulation— he offers her money and immortality, both of which are attractive prospects to a supporter of a fledgling music venue who has recently suffered a loss. It is implied that Mary may be captivated by the vampires first and afraid of them second, as she does not shoot them when their eyes start to glow menacingly red, instead merely telling them to leave. It is telling that, as a light-skinned mixed-race woman whose relationship with Stack ended because of racial divisions, she finds the vision of the vampires’ post-racial world somewhat enticing and liberating.

Vampire Group Grows

Now transformed into a vampire, Mary goes back into the juke joint, seduces, and bites Stack. Smoke shoots her, but she is not injured, laughing and running out of the joint. As patrons leave the party, Remmick and his posse turn them and other surrounding people into vampires, including Cornbread and Bo.

When Cornbread tries to enter the juke joint but cannot do so without an invitation, Annie realizes that he is a vampire. She orders the others to close the doors and instructs them on how to defeat vampires. The group prepares holy water, wooden stakes, and garlic. In the meantime, the vampires engage in singing and dancing to "The Rocky Road to Dublin" with Remmick in the center, their literal ringleader, in an attempt to intimidate the juke joint's owners and show off their passion for musical heritage. Truthfully, it’s kind of a beautiful moment of cultural appreciation and racial harmony, tarnished only by the fact that these are bloodthirsty vampires.

The vampires reapproach the juke joint, and Bo tries to convince Grace to leave with him. Remmick tries to sway the people inside by promising that, by joining him, they will be part of a new community without prejudice, hatred, or divisions. He points out that his followers are composed of people of all races and backgrounds, even including the nephew of the local KKK Grand Dragon. While raising her hands to the air in a gesture of ecstasy, Joan enthusiastically states that the vampires’ group is all about “love”, and Mary ghoulishly states, “Aren’t we family?”. These statements cause some inner conflict and anguish among the people in the juke joint; they know they can’t believe the vampires, but they desperately want to. Remmick then says that he and the other vampires will let the people inside live if they hand over Sammie, whose musical talent he wants to use to summon his own ancestors. Sammie almost hands himself over, but Smoke, Slim, and the others emphatically refuse and prepare for battle so they can kill the vampires before the latter group can murder more people.

During this scene, Remmick and his followers appeal to the people in the juke joint by presenting them with the prospect of becoming part of a unified family above human concerns such as racial prejudices. However, when Remmick appeals to their self-preservation by stating that he will let the others live if they hand over Sammie, the true meaning of family comes into focus, as Smoke would never let his young cousin be taken by a group of bloodthirsty undead creatures. The group inside the juke joint then prepares for battle, promising to take down the vampires once and for all.

Climactic Battle

In the film’s final battle, Smoke and Stack face off against each other. Annie is bitten, but Smoke stakes her, in keeping with a request she made prior to her death. Devastated at Annie’s death, Mary flees the joint, showing how she still has some humanity intact.

Sammie and Pearline face off against Remmick. Despite his rejection of his religious upbringing, Sammie draws strength from spirituality and begins to pray the Lord’s Prayer. Remmick chases Sammie to a river as the other vampires encroach, reciting the Lord’s Prayer as well. Cornered in the river, Sammie smashes his guitar over Remmick’s head. Remmick reveals that, like Sammie, he is not very religious, but sometimes finds comfort in words of prayer. He dunks Sammie into the river multiple times in a type of dark baptism. Remmick severely scratches Sammie across the face with his claws and is about to bite him, but Smoke then arrives and stakes him. Remmick and the other vampires are incinerated as the sun rises.

In a post-credits scene, an ageless Mary and Stack visit an elderly Sammie in 1992. Sammie is now a famous blues musician who still plays at that same juke joint, now called Pearline’s. Stack reveals that Smoke spared him that night on the condition that Sammie be allowed to live out his life. Stack and Mary ask if Sammie “has that real in him” and listen to Sammie play music on his guitar, the same one he used on that fateful night. Just before they leave, Sammie says he has nightmares about that night, but that before he goes to bed each day, he thinks about it as the best day of his life. Stack agrees, saying that that was the last time he saw the sun, the last time he saw his brother, and the last time he truly felt free. The vampires’ respect for Smoke’s and Sammie’s wishes and their cherishing of music and human memories shows that they are not completely soulless. In a way, Stack and Mary did find the freedom they sought, as they were able to live agelessly to a time with much less racial prejudice. By living to an age of prolific information, they are also able to enjoy the past and present of the music they enjoy without having to violently transform musically gifted individuals into vampires. Stack and Mary are an image of what Remmick could have been if he had pursued his goals through less bloodthirsty means and not sacrificed his human side to his thirst for supernatural power.

What Remmick Represents

In conclusion, Remmick is a tragic and compelling antagonist who is able to lead others because he is deceptive, persuasive, and knows what to say to entice others to join his side, even if his methods involve indiscriminate bloodshed. Through depicting his futile quest to capture Sammie’s power for his own benefit, Sinners provides social commentary on colonial violence being used to subjugate the cultures of others. Through Remmick’s admission that religion was also foisted onto him as a young child, the film portrays colonialism as a perpetuating cycle. But through Stack and Mary, who find peace and musical appreciation in a freer future, the film imagines an end to parasitic appropriation—a transition toward true cultural respect.