Director: Ryan Prows
Writers: Tim Cairo, Jake Gibson, Shaye Ogbonna, Ryan Prows
Stars: Dermot Mulroney, Justin Long, CM Punk
Synopsis: An L.A. cop discovers a local task force is hiding a secret that puts the residents of his childhood neighborhood in danger.
It’s no secret that my favorite genre of movies is Horror. I love most of the subgenres that came from it, the stories that are being told and being on the edge of my seat with what goes on onscreen. It’s a new year and that means there are going to be a lot of ways for filmmakers to challenge us as audiences and see how far they can go with their stories. Unfortunately, I wasn’t challenged by this new horror/action/fantasy film Night Patrol. You know when people say, “January movie releases are trash” and you want to ignore them because a specific movie looks really cool? Going in with only seeing the teaser trailer took away a little bit of the pain of not really enjoying it that much.
The movie begins with Wazi (RJ Cyler) in an interrogation room. He’s badly wounded on his stomach. The captain enters the room and he gives Wazi documents to sign. The documents are basically telling them that he was responsible for something that recently happened. The movie takes a time jump to just a few days ago. Wazi goes to meet up with his girl, Primo (Zuri Reed). They converse in her car until the red and blue lights begin to shine in their rear view. For no reason whatsoever, they ask Primo to step out of the car. We’re introduced to Officer Hawkins (Justin Long). He walks up to said car and shoots Primo, execution style. Wazi flees the scene and evades the cops. Soon after, he’s approached by one of the cops that they were stopped by. A ring on Wazi’s finger starts to glow green, the cop’s bewildered by what he’s seen and he runs away. The beginning of this movie really showed promise and I was anticipating what the rest of the movie was going to be like.
In a lot of movies today, we’re given the privilege to have them broken into different chapters. Our three groups of characters are the Zulu Crips, the Piru Bloods, and, of course, the LAPD. Not too long after our intro we’re taken on a ride along with officer Hawkins and officer Carr (Jermaine Fowler). Carr used to be a member of the Crips as a youth but he decided to really make a difference in his community and join the force. The trope of a former hood nut turned authority figure isn’t given any new elements from the writers. They try to give the audience an End of Watch kind of vibe but the two actors are let down because of the underdeveloped script. They’re supposed to have been partners for a while but it feels like they were just put together a week ago. We get drops of details about the officers that include info about their dead fathers, life in the service, etc.
We’re introduced to some members of the Bloods such as Bornelius (Freddie Gibbs), Tripp (YG), and Three Deuce (Flying Lotus). We only see them for about 25 minutes of the movie because they’re only there to press Wazi for information about Bornelius’ sister, joining the Crips in a battle against the members of the Night Patrol, and trying to make sense of the absurd things that are going on. Carr has issues with his mother, Ayanda (Nicki Micheaux), over how his father died. Ayanda is the head of the Crips and the neighborhood wacko to everyone in the neighborhood. She’s also the only person that knows anything about their Zulu roots, the vampires, and she’s given the honor of being head in charge of exposition as well. Hawkins tries to destroy the Night Patrol from the inside but he’s welcomed by his father who’s supposed to be dead. He’s revealed to be the actual head of the vampires and that he needs his son to join them in battle. He gives Hawkins his blood and he begins his transformation into a vampire.
Director Ryan Prows takes us on a journey that is underdeveloped and doesn’t live up to its premise. It was good to see this cast of Black actors, but I wish it was in a better movie. At times, the action was so cartoonish that I had to shake my head. In the pre battle montage, the Zulu Crips put up their crosses and artifacts around their housing complex. There was no reason for them to do that when the vampires burst in there with no hesitation. I had so many questions such as, “What have the vampires been up to before the battle with the Crips and Bloods began?” and “Why don’t the vampires have regular fangs instead of corny grills in their mouths?” Topics like police brutality, gang culture, and why cops act the way they are are touched on but are never fully explored. It’s like the writers said, “This is the way things are in this movie. Come to your own conclusions.” It’s very ambitious but the four writers couldn’t really make sense of it all. I enjoyed some of the camera techniques and the story between the Zulu Crips and the vampires. At the end we’re left with decent performances from the actors, ok effects, cartoonishly funny action, and an underdeveloped script. Not too bad for a Shudder January release, don’t you think?
