Directed By Ryan Prows

Starring – Jermaine Fowler, Justin Long, RJ Cyler

The Plot – An L.A. cop (Fowler) discovers a local task force is hiding a secret that puts the residents of his childhood neighborhood in danger.

Rated R for strong bloody violence, gore, adult language, sexual references, and some drug use.

Night Patrol | Official Trailer | Shudder

POSITIVES

With the recent critical and commercial success of “Sinners”, it was only a matter of time before filmmakers imbedded their own brand of social commentary to the vampire subgenre, and while “Night Patrol” is far from the soaring heights of that predecessor, it still injects its own originality to leave a lasting impression to the overall concept, beginning with the lore and world-building of such an elaborately layered underworld. As to where the depicted rivalry of police officers and African-Americans could easily be a much documented story within itself, adding the supernatural underlining to the former really takes the racially fueled tension and prejudice to another level, counteracted in the latter by their own richly lived-in cultural heritage of fighting such blood suckers that effectively conveys that this rivalry far transcends the realities within its own American soil. While the passed down legend is just one of many beats that this tethered script concerns itself with, it’s easily the single most fascinating element of a horror movie that somehow would’ve worked without it, but feels even deeper consciously because of it, resulting in some major reveals during the third act that not only capitalize on one valuable plot device breezed over effortlessly in the opening act, but also a balancing of the war fought between sides, considering these vampires don’t abide by the same laws of vulnerability and mortality that most vampire movies do. On top of this, Ryan Prows clearly proves the man for the job, with regards to eliciting the gritty and dangerous atmospheric environments of the established setting, allowing his film to feel like a direct descendent of late 80’s and early 90’s thrillers that do enact some surprising stylistic impulses, despite being so evidentially limited by a minimized budget. Prows decision to shoot on film really gives the visuals a grainy texture that feeds especially well to the seediness of this nightly dominated landscape, featuring some drone initiated establishing shots that conveys the magnitude of the vampires impact, as well as some night vision captivity towards the film’s third act offering an immersive essence to the entities that can be felt, even when not entirely seen, and it’s all a prime example of effective filmmaking at its most experimentally ambitious, with Prows edginess for environment never withering away in the depths of a tonal consistency that feels noticeably erratic at times. On top of this, the film is littered with a solid cast eliciting memorable performances aplenty, but particularly the charisma and resiliency of Jermaine Fowler, Justin Long, and RJ Cyler taking some wildly energetic swings with their respective portrayals. Cyler in particular maintains a lot of the movie’s emotionality in the palm of his hands, taking his character through some very dark and helpless avenues of isolation, and Long, while digging darker and surprisingly more unrestrained than we’ve ever seen him, renders a transformation that should help to break the one-note dimensionality of his typical typecasting. Even Phil Brooks, A.K.A wrestling’s C.M Punk shows a lot of presence and unflinching intimidation, despite working against so much underwhelming dialogue, solidifying an ensemble piece where everybody is committed to giving something endearing to this project.

NEGATIVES

Just when you thought it was safe to go back to the movies in January, after a surprisingly splendid month for cinema, “Night Patrol” comes along with its continuously convoluted storytelling and minimized thrills, leaving this one for the disappointing pile, especially considering the talent that is assembled towards its cause. On the side of inferiority, the script is a tonally jumbled and creatively erratic exploration that definitely feels the effects of four writers combining their efforts, an aspect that can be felt in the ever-switching perspective of never finding a stable and consistent lead protagonist to capably follow. While I previously outlined this film as an ensemble piece, I think it still requires that centralized figure to ground the exploration within the consciousness of somebody living through all of the devastation, and though it feels like Cyler during the opening act, until he disappears during the second, and then feels like Fowler, until he disappears during the third, it’s made even more problematic considering the script focuses so repeatedly on the antagonistic side of the L.A.P.D, robbing them not only of their maintained mystique, but also underwriting our protagonists in ways that kept me from settling in with their unique perspectives. The dialogue certainly doesn’t help matters, as between every other word involving the N-word, and the transparency of the conversations giving away twisting plot points long before they’ve ever materialized, the film comes across as more naggingly annoying than it ever does compellingly engaging, weighing heavily like a wet blanket on the integrity of the performances, even with some stunning work from the aforementioned ensemble attempting to help its cause. There’s certainly a feeling of the movie’s ambition reaching for far too much within a 99-minute runtime, particularly this underutilized historical aspect to the Zulu tribe that drives the opposition factor against the zombies, but there’s just as much adversity during the third act with the many editing techniques that the production attempts at conjuring mental insight to character feelings, enacting the kind of voraciously rampant intrusions on the forefront of the storytelling for these horrendous visuals borrowed from 2016’s “Suicide Squad”, and in turn resulting in headaches and motion sickness that took me directly out of the engagement, each time they attempted them. Beyond the storytelling’s instability, the movie’s gore is also compromised by a sparsity of budget that keeps it from capably expressing itself to a horror hungry audience, resulting in a bit too much dependency on C.G developed blood deposits and lacerations that were truly laughable to say the least. If the movie succeeded in its comedically campy consistency, then these unfortunate aspects could’ve easily been forgiven, however the tone constantly deviates in ways that dramatically and comedically want to have its cake and eat it too, and as a result these coldly cheap effects work don’t attain any semblance of believability or resounding impact, leaving the production limited by the insatiable thirst for showing off the viscerally violent side of their vitriolic vampires, in these sparingly sparse outputs. Finally, while this is obviously a movie that builds towards the stakes of its confrontational climax, the ending of the film drowns under the weight of its execution, with too many characters, dynamics, and plot threads to constantly maintain, even into the film’s final half hour. Despite my curiosity for the mythic side of this historical conflict, the lack of attention paid to it previously left it feeling undercooked and ultimately unsatisfying, with Prows throwing plenty against the wall, without anything sticking emotionally or entertainingly. It leads to a cutaway of an ending that immediately drains what little momentum that the resolution of the conflict had going for it, requiring more interpretation to fill in the blanks of skepticism, before the kind of abrupt credits scroll that elicits nothing but groans from an ambitiously expecting audience.

OVERALL
“Night Patrol” is an undercooked and often overstuffed vampire thriller without a soul to its social commentary, resulting in a creatively scatterbrained scavenge that bites in the worst kinds of ways. Despite committed performances from a charismatic ensemble, and unintentionally hilarious special effects that intrusively reach for humor, the script is a tone-deaf blunder of a brainstorming session that rampantly overthinks itself to the point of tedious convolution, requiring audiences to burn the night oil to remain invested or even stay awake.

My Grade: 4.8 or D-