WARNING: This article contains SPOILERS for Sinners.Writer-director Ryan Coogler has helped reinvigorate the vampire genre with his film,Sinners, while at the same time sticking to traditional genre tropes. This came at a time when many vampire stories have tried to steer away from vampire conventions.
Since some stories have tried to tell fresh stories or modernize vampires, they have given their bloodsuckers new powers or removed some of their kind’s well-known weaknesses.
However, the2025 movieSinnersstays true to vampire folklore by retaining the many limitations these undead creatures have been presented with throughout history. While this could’ve come across as silly to some viewers,Sinners’s classical approach to vampire stories fits well with its overarching theme about human historyand the importance of one’s cultural beliefs and practices. Ironically, the waySinnersembraces traditional vampire lorehas helped make it one of the most unique horror movies in recent history.
Sinners Sticks With Pretty Much All Of The Classic Vampire Weaknesses
Sinners Stays True To Vampire Folklore With Its Villains
Like traditional vampire stories,Sinnersgives its vampires rulesto follow, such as weaknesses to garlic, wooden stakes, silver, and sunlight. These weaknesses make it easier for Smoke and his team to arm themselves for battle against Remmick and his army of the undead. The heroes also ingest garlic to verify none of them are vampires in disguise, similar to the blood test scene in John Carpenter’sThe Thing.
Likewise, the vampires inSinnersare required to be invited into a building in order to enter, as they request permission many times throughout the film. This makes it more challenging for Remmick and his gang to infiltrate Smoke and Stack’s party. It also helps create plenty of tension as the protagonists suspect their friends are vampires, who try to manipulate their targets in order get invited into the building.
Most Other Vampire Media Is Too Embarrassed To Keep All These Vampire Traits
Many Vampire Stories Try To Modernize Vampires By Steering Away From Tradition
While many well-known vampire weaknesses have been a part of folklore for generations, many of them don’t seem to work well with more modern audiences and creatives.Several vampire stories don’t make their monsters weak to garlic, and it seems too goofy for a demonic predator to be scared off by an ordinary herb.A Discovery of Witchesnotably defied vampire folklore by allowing vampires to eat any human food and even enter churches.
Some writers even work around vampires' weakness to sunlight, as it can limit the story if the main characters go outside during the daytime. This approach was also the case with the vampires inA Discovery of Witches. Even Gary Oldman’s Dracula went out in the daylight in his human form as he pursued Mina inBram Stoker’s Dracula, which was adapted from the book that popularized vampires. However, other recent films, likeNosferatuandAbigail,went back to basics by having their vampires be killed or averted by sunlight, garlic, or a stake through the heart.
Sinners Embraces Its Vampire Heritage And Succeeds As a Result
Image via Warner Bros.
Sinnersclearly has no problem invoking cultural traditions, as shown by its adherence to the rules of vampires found in ancient folklore. Overall, history is a significant theme in the film, withSammie’s music summoning the spiritsof his Black ancestors and descendants, who perform their own style of music with him. The film even shows the vampires singing and riverdancing outside the mill, as they all embrace the cultural heritage of their Irish leader and progenitor, Remmick.
As Smoke and his allies arm themselves with weapons said to be the vampire’s weaknesses, they are symbolically holding on to their culture as they attempt to avoid being forced to assimilate into Remmick’s way of life.
While some people may question another culture’s beliefs and traditions,Sinnersshows how such a culture is the foundation of a person’s identity. As Smoke and his allies arm themselves with weapons said to be the vampire’s weaknesses, they are symbolically holding on to their culture as they try to avoid being forced to assimilate into Remmick’s way of life. As the heroes fight to prevent being turned into more vampires, they fight to avoid losing their identities to Remmick’s demonic hive mind.
In the end, Ryan Coogler made a bold move following the conventional vampire rules when writingSinners. The film could’ve followed the crowd by steering away from the tropes that some people don’t particularly enjoy in the modern age. However, the way Coogler stuck with cultural tradition helped makeSinnersa suspenseful horror film with a powerful message about history and culture.
