In Ryan Prows’s total mess Night Patrol, a new LAPD cop tries to join the eponymous elite, racist vampire squad targeting minorities, especially one who witnessed a murder they committed.
There’s a good film somewhere with Ryan Prows’s Night Patrol, but it’s lost, buried under everything that goes wrong trying to dig it out. The idea is solid: a specific group of LAPD cops, known as Night Patrol, are racist hotheads who target minorities: End of Watch meets Near Dark. But they’re also vampires! In this set-up, by Tim Cairo, Jake Gibson, Shaye Ogbonna, and Ryan Prows, Night Patrol tries to cover too much ground, including but not limited to: cops vs gangs, vampires vs mysticism, bloods vs. crips, family betrayals and conflict of self within, and simply and generally Black v White. There’s more. All of it is simply far more than a 103-minute film can fit. This leaves suplots and characters dropped, weird sequences and scripting, underdeveloped ideas and themes, and just a general mess of a film.
It’s a bad movie, and I’m sad that it is. There are real discussions that could be made from any of these. Films have covered the issues of underprivileged Black neighborhoods against powerful White people by using supernatural means. Vampires Vs The Bronx, while a comedy following kids, is one such example. But by trying to do it all, nothing is achieved. Violent police gangs are groups that truly, and sadly, exist. There are extreme task forces whose nasty work is slid under the rug. I’m not debating that, but the specifics within this film and how it is supposed to work within a narrative are messy, inconsistent, and often nonsensical.
Night Patrol has three main stories, although whole setup sections of each are dropped without resolution or ignored in various ways. Justin Long’s Hayworth is a fairly fresh young cop, coming back from war, and trying to get into Night Patrol, an enigmatic bunch of assholes led by CM Punk. His father was a cop and died after joining the group; Long is convinced Night Patrol was behind it. Xavier Carr, played by Jermaine Fowler, is another young cop and Long’s partner. He’s struggling with joining the police after leaving the Crips, of which all his family are members, trying to reconcile the two worlds. Additionally, he says he’s a better cop and is confused why he’s passed over for Night Watch for Long (this side plot of racial inequality in job opportunities comes and goes with this sentence). The said family is the last part: younger brother Wazi, played by RJ Cyler, is obstinately the main character, watches his Blood girlfriend gunned down by Night Patrol, but survives due to a ring that glowed when he was attacked, stolen from his mystic mother, Nickie Micheaux, who leans into ancestral Zulu practices. As the survivor and witness of the attack, Night Patrol is set to descend on their neighborhood to cover up. It’s a lot. Focusing on any one of these could have been a solid flick; focusing on all of them, along with the asides, creates an odd concoction.
Thus, Night Patrol is a film awkwardly put together, like a mismatched Frankenstein Monster. Characters have long conversations loaded with exposition and information that should have long before in the movie. Doubly frustrating in other details should have been shared; you know something important here, and just say the freaking sentence that will make it make sense. We, the audience, saw it, you know it, tell this other character. Often, especially in the climax, danger vanishes during these long stretches of exposition. If I were at home, I’d have been yelling, “VAMPIRE COPS ARE KILLING YOUR NEIGHBORS RIGHT OVER THERE, WHY ARE YOU TALKING THIS LONG! It seems some is supposed to be comical but falls on its face. Shame when moments supposed to be wowing or serious are unintentionally hilarious. More than once did I think, “Where did ALL THOSE people come from?” “Where did that character get that wound [3 minutes later they get it] um… okay” and “I need to know the logistics to the vampire division; this doesn’t add up at all.” I was particularly annoyed by an interior sequence lit by an external fire that was not yet set off. Sloppy.
Maybe it could work if other aspects landed, like say the acting. Every performance is awkward, weirdly paced, and oddly read. Every. Single. One. Mostly by established performers I’ve seen and enjoyed elsewhere. I know they can do the work. Jermaine Fowler, so good in Terrestrial, doesn’t know what to do with himself. Same with the usually dependable Justin Long, of Barbarian, Coyotes, and so many others. Not only is he terribly miscast (I do not buy him as a badass Navy Seal), but the film also has no idea what to do with his character. The first time we see him, he performs an unforgivable and unconscionable act, but he’s supposed to be a hero? I don’t know what the hell Scream VI’s Dermont Mulrony was up to. I’m convinced the audio of his performance was pieced together from clips sourced from other films in post.
There are hints that this is meant to be slightly comic, perhaps cheesy, especially with Blood’s scenes when they throw every conspiracy against the wall. Maybe so, but far more indication of a serious tone. None of it meshes; you can do multiple tones, but it’s a skill not seen in Prows’s work. As a horror film, there is a decent amount of bloodletting. Some intestine ripping, lots of biting, and shooting. Nothing too special in this way. As it falls flat in every way, there is no tension to anything meant to be horrific, just frustration.
Night Patrol is a lacking film, one that could have been much better with a greater focus on the script stage, which likely would have tightened the rest. As it is, Ryan Prows’s Night Patrol is a mess with one issue after another compiling into a wholly unenjoyable film.