Night Patrol

"Night Patrol" is a familiar concept with a cluttered story that defangs this vampire flick. On the surface, the idea of as a mystery should work. Regrettably, the film ends up tangling itself in knots. There are a multitude of story threads and characters, which prevent me from caring about the overall trajectory. In a year when horror has been ascendant, especially in multipronged vampire stories, a film like Night Patrol should have been right up my alley. Vampires are cool when appropriately used in a story. Here, they’re dangled in favor of less interesting story threads; it all feels rather pointless. And this is the problem with the film. It boasts an interesting hook: a ring of corrupt LAPD cops who are actually vampires, targeting residents of a housing project. And yet, this crucial and exciting story prospect arrives too late for us to care. Forget putting a stake in it, this film is already DOA. Now, I’ll concede that it is unfair to evoke Sinners. This film is not aiming to reach those heights, but at the same time, it is no excuse for a story that ties itself into knots and tosses the vampire element as almost a last hurrah. Sinners is committed to telling a single story, and its aims are clear. Night Patrol wants to be a social commentary, a redemption, and a vampire movie all wrapped in one bloody bow. In the film, we find Officer Ethan Hawkins (Justin Long), a recent inductee into the secretly corrupt PD’s night patrol task force. He shows himself to be bendable to the higher-ups, and this comes into play when Dermot Mulroney’s character enters the picture. At the same time, Officer Xavier Carr (Jermaine Fowler) finds himself investigating a brewing crisis at the housing project where he grew up. There, his mother and brother still live. Carr’s younger brother, Wazi (RJ Cyler), works with his older brother and their mother to defend their home and neighbors as the night patrol converges on the community for a bloody and grisly showdown. A note of praise is worthy of the film’s chaotic energy. When the vampire turns up in the final half of the movie, the story remembers its aims. It commits fully to being a bloody spectacle. Now, conversely, this runs counter to the otherwise semi-serious commentary on corrupt cops and racial policing that dominates the film’s first parts. Yet, through the gritty cinematography and carnivorous vampire action, there is at least something to enjoy. There is a story somewhere in all this chaos, particularly one that speaks to police corruption and racial discrimination. The travesty is that the film never realizes its identity. Is this a straightforward monster movie? Some elements suggest it is embracing that mantra. Or is it a social commentary, a la elevated horror, because the film wears those markers as well? Going back to Sinners one more time, several elements are at play in that story; however, the focus is on the characters and their respective arcs. Here, we get a band of survivors in a housing project community fighting off advancing vampire cops, yet the stakes never feel high enough to make us care about the characters or the overall story. "Night Patrol" boasts a handful of main characters. Yet there is an impossibility, at least for me, to find anyone with an arc worth caring about. Even the revelation that vampires are the forces behind the corrupt cops comes across as passive. It reads almost like a to-do list. Characters explain vampire lore because the script calls for it. If you’re going to be a vampire movie, then be a vampire movie. If you’re going to make corrupt cops, actually vampires, then commit fully to the idea, rather than waxing poetic in the final act.

Night Patrol (2025) A Complete Mess (12,340 – 19 Mar 2026 – Claudio Carvalho) In L.A., the Crip Wazi (RJ Cyler) and his girlfriend Primo (Zuri Reed) belong to rival gangs and date hidden in a remote area. Out of the blue, the LA Night Patrol arrives and officer Ethan Hawkins (Justin Long) kills her, but Wazi escapes leaving his bicycle stamped “Cripboi” behind. On the next morning, Ethan and his partner Xavier Carr (Jermaine Fowler) patrol and Ethan asks him if he knows “Cripboi”, who is his brother, since he is from The Courts. Ethan is accepted to be part of the Night Patrol. Wazi goes to the rival gang and tells them that Primo was murdered by the Night Patrol and when he shows her body, it is ****. Meanwhile Ethan learns that the Night Patrol is composed by bloodthirsty vampires. “Night Patrol” (2025) is a messy action movie by Ryan Prows. The plot has a promising beginning, but the twists showing the police officers vampires destroy the story. The gore is intense but the story is poor. My vote is three. Title (Brazil): “Patrulha Noturna” (“Night Patrol”) My Blog: ****/