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Today I had a two way 50 minute each train ride to take care of some IT business at a distant location in the city so I had time to burn, time to thread, to snap and why not watch a movie, so I decided to watch a movie that I knew wouldnt matter to me if I pause once I arrive to the place and then resume or not. Night Patrol from Shudder and RLJE Films, after watching this movie Im kinda piss at it because the movie builds the story of an LAPD officer who goes back to his old neighborhood only to find this sick secret about an elite task force, this squad of white dudes is basically hunting black people at night like it is some kind of twisted sport and there is this vampire element to the whole thing that feels dope on paper but the way the movie handles the tone is all over the place, it keeps switching from a serious drama about police brutality to some goofy comedy with old school movie flashbacks that made me roll my eyes more than twice, and while the practical effects for the blood and gore are the best way to go they throw in some cheap looking CGI organs that look crappy, I really wanted to love this because the idea of using horror to talk about real world problems is usually a great move but at the end it all felt like wasted potential, and I cannot see myself ever watching this again because it feels hollow when it should have been hitting way harder, I get it the gore and comedy probably made it for some people but unless its very over the top one way or the other you got to pick a side.
- IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8637438/
- Platform: PRIME VIDEO
Justin Long takes the main spot light in this because he goes full crazy and you can tell he is having a blast being the most unhinged person on screen and Jermaine Fowler is fun to watch as the lead officer dealing with all this supernatural shit while trying to keep his soul intact, but the writing is so thin that I never really felt connected to anyone in a meaningful way, RJ Cyler is probably the only guy you actually root for since he is caught in the middle of this mess but the story never gives him enough to do besides being the moral guide for the rest of the movie and the rest of the task force feels like cheap carbon copies of every racist cop you have ever seen in a movie before, which makes the social commentary feel a bit surface level and sugar coated instead of digging into the meat of the issue, it is a shame because the actors are doing their best with what they got but the script just keeps letting them down with clunky dialogue and weird jokes that do not land at all, and I kept waiting for someone to have a real moment that was not just a horror movie cliche.
The action starts to get hype as the movie ramps up to an end that actually has some energy and blood pumping through it specifically when Xavier and Wazi finally unite the rival gangs at Colonial Courts to take on a supernatural war against the LAPD’s vampire task force, just as the Zulu magic and high caliber weapons clash in what should be the movies master moment of action and gore, the movie literally rolls to credits mid sequence like they just throw a brick at you and leaves you hanging in the most frustrating way possible. I mean, who does that when you are finally starting to enjoy the ride and things are actually popping off? by cutting to black before the inevitable showdown with Sarge, it felt like they ran out of money or just did not know how to finish the scene, so they just cut it short and hoped we would accept it. I just feel disappointed because they had such an interesting idea with the vampire task force, but they did not pull back on the eccentric, goofy comedy of the first half enough to make the late game horror feel dangerous or the drama feel real. Even the visual polish is inconsistent; the practical blood bag effects were actually looking so good and messy, but the CGI was aweful and totally ruining the immersion right when the tension is supposed to be highest.
There is this huge contrast between the gritty streets of the old neighborhood and the slick high tech world of the task force that could have been used to show how divided is the city but it just feels like different movies smashed together without a plan and the vampire stuff is never really explained enough to make the rules of the world clear so you are just left wondering why these dudes are doing what they are doing besides being evil, its like zombies without a purpose, I love a good slow burn but this was just slow and then fast and then over before anything really happened and it reminds me of those late night cable movies that you watch when nothing else is on and you forget about them five minutes later, it is not a complete trash fire because there are some cool visuals and the lead performances keep it from being a total letdown but it is definitely not the banger and honestly I was not expecting it to be, reason why I choose to watch it while I was on the train and not bother to pause and I think most people online are going to be just as confused by the ending as I was.
Truth is that there is not much to explain about the movie if not I would be spoiling the whole thing, basically if you are bored and want to see Justin Long chew the screen then you might get a something out of this for an hour but do not expect a masterpiece that stays with you once done, I am giving it a 6 /10 because it is watchable but ultimately forgettable and messy in a way that feels like it needed a few more rewrites to really find some ground. Yes it got some cool fights and the vampires were cool too but it is a weird one because the biggest issue for a lot of people is that Night Patrol basically takes the "Vampire Rulebook," sets it on fire, and then tries to fix it with some confusing duct tape. Instead of the classic Dracula vibe where you’ve got coffins, capes, and an allergy to sunlight, this movie pivots to the Obayifo a West African creature but then doesn't really commit to those rules either. It feels "lawless" because the vampires here look like regular LAPD dudes who just happened to buy some flashy silver grillz. When your big bad supernatural threat needs to put on jewelry to actually bite someone, it stops feeling like a horror movie and starts feeling like a weird fashion choice and finally the constant tonal shifts are so jarring that it is hard to stay in the mood for either the scares or the laughs, so maybe skip this one and find something that actually knows what it wants to be because Night Patrol is just a collection of cool ideas that they try to fit in and see if any of them were the one that really landed and lead the way but never quite come together into a functional movie, so yeah I wouldnt even consider this a cool one time watch because it doesnt fully respect the laws of how vampire works.
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