Sinners Explained: Remmick, Irish Folk Demon Mythology, and Coogler's Vampire Lore | BgRemovit
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Sinners Explained: Remmick, Irish Folk Demon Mythology, and Coogler's Vampire Lore
Discover the hidden remmick irish folk demon mythology in Ryan Coogler's Sinners. We trace the vampire's origins to the Abhartach, Sluagh, and Dearg-due.
When unpacking the dense thematic layers of Ryan Coogler's 1932-set horror masterpiece Sinners, one question dominates the discourse: what exactly is the remmick irish folk demon mythology? The answer lies far across the Atlantic. Jack O'Connell's charismatic, terrifying vampire isn't just a generic cinematic bloodsucker wearing a sharp Depression-era suit. He is a walking contradiction—a victim of historical erasure who weaponizes his whiteness to consume Black art.
Coogler explicitly draws from Gaelic lore to construct a monster whose origins in British colonial violence perfectly mirror the Jim Crow-era oppression he inflicts on the Mississippi Delta. By tracing Remmick's on-screen behaviors to specific Celtic nightmares, we can decode the true nature of the threat facing Smoke, Stack, and the patrons of Club Juke.
The Abhartach: The Foundation of the Remmick Irish Folk Demon Mythology
To decode the monster, we have to map his folklore DNA. Coogler builds Remmick primarily on the chassis of the Abhartach, an early Irish legend of a tyrannical chieftain. The mythological influence breaks down roughly as Abhartach 65% / Sluagh 25% / Dearg-due 10%. The original Abhartach demanded a brutal blood tribute from his subjects and, when slain, returned from a standing burial to terrorize them again.
Remmick replicates this through his hive mind cult, demanding absolute fealty from those he turns. In the film, Remmick pitches his vampirism not as a curse, but as a twisted form of salvation. "I am your way out," he tells the survivors. "This world already left you for dead. Won't let you build. Won't let you fellowship. We will do just that. Together. Forever." This is the Abhartach's blood tribute modernized—offering protection from systemic white supremacy in exchange for eternal subservience to an immortal white master.
His colonial trauma at the hands of the British Empire twisted him, leading inevitably to the sun defeat at the hands of Smoke. Remmick views himself as a savior, failing to realize he has simply become a new colonizer. He extracts the resources—in this case, the blood and musical genius of Black Americans—to build the empire that was stolen from him in Ireland.
The Sluagh: Hive-Mind Horrors in the Remmick Irish Folk Demon Mythology
The attack on Club Juke in the 1932 Mississippi Delta isn't just a standard Hollywood vampire siege; it is a direct invocation of the Sluagh. In Celtic lore, the Sluagh are the unforgiven dead—restless spirits that fly from the west to snatch the souls of the dying. They operate as a flock, a mindless swarm driven by collective hunger.
Remmick’s vampires operate as a collective memory network, a swarm that overwhelms its prey with synchronized precision. This arrival from the west mirrors the historical movement of colonizers, turning a spiritual myth into a literal physical threat. When Remmick's "family" descends on the juke joint, they move with a terrifying hive-mind coordination. They share memories, tactics, and sensory inputs.
Decoding a vampire's behavior requires understanding their cyclical nature. Much like learning what Six Star Astrology is to map human vulnerability, tracing Remmick's timeline reveals predictable patterns of violence. His actions are bound by the 12-year fortune cycle of his own making—a rhythmic return to feeding whenever his cultural isolation becomes unbearable. For the residents of the Jim Crow South, his arrival marks the beginning of the Daisakkai / Great Calamity Period—a window where protective forces wane and ancient evils take root.
The Dearg-Due: Vengeance and the Remmick Irish Folk Demon Mythology
While the Abhartach provides the mechanics of Remmick's rule, the Dearg-due provides his psychological motivation. The Dearg-due (often translated as the "Red Bloodsucker") is a tragic figure in Irish myth—a young woman forced into an abusive marriage by a greedy father. After dying by suicide, she rises from the grave to drain the men who wronged her, transforming her victimhood into monstrous vengeance.
Remmick's backstory is steeped in a similar transformation. Driven from his homeland by the violent Christianization and colonization of Ireland (whether in the 1500s or his later 1911 displacement), Remmick knows what it feels like to have his land seized and his culture eradicated. He empathizes with the Black residents of the Delta because he recognizes their pain. Yet, like the Dearg-due, his trauma does not make him righteous; it makes him ravenous.
He encounters the Choctaw tribe in 1932, and later the Black community, and instead of building genuine solidarity, he weaponizes his whiteness. He forces his way of life onto them, deciding that the only way to survive a predatory world is to become the apex predator.
Comparing the Folklore to the Film
To fully grasp Coogler's synthesis of these myths, we can map the ancient entities directly to Remmick's on-screen actions:
Folklore Entity
Mythological Trait
Remmick's Movie Equivalent
Abhartach
Demands blood from subjects' wrists
Demands absolute loyalty and blood from his "family"
Sluagh
Swarm of unforgiven dead
Hive-mind assault on Club Juke and shared consciousness
Dearg-due
Vengeance born from abuse
Weaponizing colonial trauma against marginalized people
The Bardic Tradition: Why the Vampire Wants Sammie Moore
Remmick's obsession with Sammie Moore isn't just about bloodlust; it is an attempt to hijack the Irish bardic tradition using Delta blues. In ancient Celtic society, the fili (poets/bards) were considered magical conduits capable of altering reality and summoning the ancestors through song. Remmick has lost his people, his language, and his bards.
When he hears Sammie's transcendental guitar playing, he doesn't just hear music—he hears a spiritual frequency capable of bridging the gap between the living and the dead. Remmick intends to turn Sammie and force him to play, using Black American art to conjure his lost Irish ancestors. It is the ultimate metaphor for cultural appropriation: a white entity draining the lifeblood of a Black artist to enrich his own legacy.
Sunrise and Wood: Breaking the Cycle
Folklore is highly specific about how to put a monster in the ground for good. The Abhartach must be pierced with a sword of yew wood, buried upside down, and covered with ash branches. In 1932, Smoke doesn't have a druid's toolkit. Instead, Smoke improvises a wooden stake to pierce the chest of the ancient immigrant.
The finality of the kill isn't just about the wood; it requires the sunrise over the Mississippi Delta, burning away the colonial rot once and for all. Michael B. Jordan's character doesn't just kill a vampire—he breaks a cycle of historical exploitation. By driving the stake through Remmick as the sun crests the horizon, Smoke reclaims the autonomy of his community, ensuring that their music, their blood, and their future remain their own.
(If you want to map the hidden cycles governing your own timeline—hopefully minus the vampiric threat—generate your Six Star Destiny Chart today.)
FAQ: Unpacking the Lore
Why is Remmick Irish in Sinners?
Director Ryan Coogler made Remmick Irish to draw a parallel between the historical oppression of the Irish by the British Empire and the oppression of Black Americans in the Jim Crow South. It creates a complex villain who understands systemic trauma but chooses to become an oppressor anyway.
How does the Abhartach differ from Dracula?
The Abhartach is a much older myth than Bram Stoker's Dracula. Unlike the suave Transylvanian count, the Abhartach was a dwarfish, tyrannical chieftain who demanded blood from the wrists of his living subjects and had to be killed multiple times and buried upside down to stop his reign of terror.
What is the meaning of the vampires in Sinners?
The vampires represent cultural appropriation, systemic exploitation, and the "monoculture." They consume the unique art, music, and lifeblood of marginalized communities, offering a false promise of equality in exchange for eternal subservience and the erasure of individual identity.
Sources
Joyce, P.W. The Origin and History of Irish Names of Places. (Historical accounts of the Abhartach).
Coogler, Ryan. Sinners (2025). Warner Bros. Pictures.
Interviews with Jack O'Connell on the portrayal of Remmick and his Gaelic roots.
Celtic Routes folklore archives on the Dearg-due and Sluagh mythology.
