Who Plays Sinners’ Main Villain Remmick?

The creatures of the night, what music they make — especially in Ryan Coogler’s haunting but hugely entertaining new vampire horror film, “Sinners.” The latest from the “Black Panther” director has Michael B. Jordan pulling double-duty as Smoke and Stack, twin brothers returning home to 1930s Mississippi to set up their own club, only to find some nightmarish outsiders trying to get on the guest list. The claret-covered terror leading this choir of monsters, Remmick, is played by Jack O’Connell, a British talent whose name is undoubtedly bigger on one side of the pond than the other … though that could — and should — be changing in the very near future.

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At 34, O’Connell has already collaborated with some impressively big names, including George Clooney, Colin Farrell, Angelina Jolie, and Ben Mendelsohn. He wouldn’t have gotten anywhere, however, without springing to stardom at a young age and delivering some career-defining roles in British television and movies. Indeed, one of his earliest noteworthy projects is “Skins,” a famously erotic British teen drama series that would make “Euphoria” blush and features an array of stars-in-the-making (including future “Black Panther” actor Daniel Kaluuya). O’Connell also made a brief appearance alongside “Adolescence” star and co-creator Stephen Graham in what is considered a classic but brutal English film, in addition to playing the villain in a film that made the cut in /Film’s rundown of horror movies that went too far.

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The early 2000s were a good time for O’Connell, even if he was often playing characters leading decidedly difficult lives. In 2006, he was part of the supporting cast of the British coming-of-age classic “This Is England,” which also stars Graham. Two years later, O’Connell appeared in “Eden Lake,” which is one of the best horror movies of that era. The film casts the actor as the leader of a group of teenagers who make life hell for a couple on a weekend vacation (as played by Michael Fassbender and “Yellowstone” star Kelly Reilly). It’s a harrowing watch, but also one that O’Connell carries as a truly disturbing delinquent with a murderous streak, leading to one truly unnerving finale.

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O’Connell wasn’t done playing youthful characters in bleak and distressing projects after that, either. In fact, he began his run on “Skins” not long after, joining the likes of Kaluuya, Nicholas Hoult, Dev Patel, and the many other big names who starred on that landmark series when they were younger. Shortly after the show ended, O’Connell went on to deliver what /Film deemed a star-making performance in the prison drama “Starred Up.” There, he appeared opposite Mendelsohn as a son and father who are forced to inhabit the same penitentiary. The film was directed by David Mackenzie, who would himself go on to direct the celebrated Taylor Sheridan-penned modern-day Western, “Hell or High Water.” It’s a testament to O’Connell that he kept finding himself running in circles of talent like this.

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2014 proved to be a busy period for O’Connell, who starred in films like “’71,” “300: Rise of an Empire,” and Angelina Jolie’s World War II drama “Unbroken” over the course of the year (and won the  BAFTA Rising Star Award for his efforts). He would go on to share the screen with Clooney in the Jodie Foster-directed thriller “Money Monster” in 2016 and, in 2021, join the cast of the chilling AMC limited series “The North Water.” The show saw O’Connell reuniting with Graham and facing off against a malicious and cruel whaler in 1859 (as played by Colin Farrell in one of his career highlights).

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As Henry Drax, Farrell is the stuff of nightmares, performing heinous acts aboard a vessel that’s on a voyage to the edge of the world. Still, it’s a testament to O’Connell that he’s able to hold his own against such a beast of a man as the ship’s surgeon, Patrick Sumner. “The North Water,” along with many of the other titles on his resume, prove O’Connell is made of sterner stuff as an artist.

Since then, O’Connell has gone on to star in Michael Mann’s “Ferrari,” the Amy Winehouse biopic “Back to Black,” and “SAS: Rogue Heroes,” the WWII action drama series created by “Peaky Blinders” showrunner Steven Knight (which you can catch on Epix). You can also expect to see him potentially rage-filled in the upcoming horror sequel “28 Years Later,” which just released a brand new trailer.

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“Sinners” is now playing in theaters.