Night Patrol is the type of movie where I saw the trailer and I immediately thought I would love it. A vampire film about LAPD officers who use that power to put down and brutalize people. Add into it an officer at the heart of the story and some other questions about how to wield power and listening to your elders. All of it should have coalesced into something that was Carpenter-esque, right? Well, not so much.
Night Patrol comes from director Ryan Prows and writers Tim Cairo, Jake Gibson, Shaye Ogbonna, and Prows. It stars Justin Long, Dermot Mulroney, Jermaine Fowler, CM Punk, Flying Lotus, RJ Cyler, Nicki Micheaux, Mike Ferguson, and Kim Yarbrough. This is a story that branches across multiple characters and you might think it has multiple protagonists, but it really boils down to the story of Justin Long’s character Hawkins, Wazi (RJ Cyler), and Carr (Jermaine Fowler).
The movie opens with an audacious scene with Hawkins being introduced to the Night Patrol, a brutal shift and group of the LAPD that operate in the middle of the LA night. They pull over Wazi and his girlfriend and Hawkins is instructed to shoot her in the head, he complies, and that sets the tone for the rest of the film. It does, in fact, go there when it comes to violence, racial commentary, and shocking the audience.
Hawkins gets placed with Carr, who is a good, by the book, officer. He also happens to be Wazi’s brother, which causes plenty of tension with his family being assaulted by the Night Patrol. Their mom (played by Nicki Micheaux) still lives in the Courts, and preaches the protection of her ancestors, using Zulu themes and imagery to protect and ward off evil. She’s a target of the Night Patrol, because these protections actually work against their evil Vampire state.
Hawkins learns quickly about what Night Patrol really is, and the brutal way they go about business, led by CM Punk’s character. It all turns out that Hawkins has a connection to their leader, who is a vampire. Yeah, it goes there.
That leads to the final half of the film, which is all out gang warfare with vampires and a union between two rival gangs. It’s a bloodbath, and completely awesome. However, the plots all converge, and the time we’ve spent with the trio of main characters is kind of muddled. Long turns in a great performance that combines a victim, the victimizer, and everything in between. His turn into a monster is something to behold.
The film is full of grand ideas, and even a section where someone basically turns into a Green Lantern-like Zulu warrior, but it’s messy. The ideas end up as half-baked and never fully fleshed out beyond the great introductory premise. A lot of the action becomes sloppy and I had a hard time keeping track of characters, what was going on, and who was surviving. It’s ambitious, and some might get better mileage than I did, but Night Patrol doesn’t hold up through the entire runtime for me.
There are some good performances here, including Justin Long, CM Punk, and Jermaine Fowler. The effects here are also awesome, the scenes where Justin Long is halfway between human and the vampire “frame of mind” have a nice look to them. There are also some very shocking scenes with characters biting the dust and other brutality. Dermot Mulroney goes a bit against type here with his turn and his character is the least explained and most interesting in the film.
Something that looks like End of Watch crossed with Near Dark should have been awesome, but that’s not what Night Patrol is. Still, there’s some to like here for fans of violence and gore.
Night Patrol releases in theaters on January 16th, 2026.
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