Movie Review: Night Patrol (2026)

Night Patrol is the second horror film about corrupt police officers to hit Shudder in recent weeks. The other, Bodycam, is a found footage flick about two officers who encounter supernatural evil in the inner city. Night Patrol is broadly similar in theme and content, but it is traditionally filmed.

I had some issues with Bodycam, but Night Patrol made me appreciate it more. This movie just doesn’t click. I rarely find myself bored watching horror movies, even bad ones, but this film is dreadfully dull. That’s too bad because there’s plenty of potential here.

One of the major issues is a lack of focus and scope. Night Patrol can’t decide on a central storyline or even a main protagonist. It’s all over the place, veering around its Los Angeles hellscape with little rhyme or reason. It has obvious themes – racism and police corruption – that are handled in a mostly cartoonish and superficial way.

The cast is good, which makes this film’s lack of effectiveness all the more disappointing. Justin Long plays Ethan Hawkins, a newcomer to the Night Patrol, an elite LAPD gang task force. These cops are corrupt, racist, and act with impunity. They routinely go around shooting Black people.

Ethan is a terrible cop and an awful human being, but he is slightly less sociopathic than the other Night Patrol officers. His occasional glimmers of conscience are the closest thing Night Patrol has to character development.

Early in the film, Long delivers an interesting little monologue about how cops are portrayed differently in film today after often being featured as heroes in the movies of the past. This is true. Flicks like Lethal Weapon and Dirty Harry now feel dated in some respects. Unfortunately, this is the first and only salient point this movie makes about, well, anything.

Ethan begins the movie partnered with Xavier Carr (Jermaine Fowler), a Black officer and former gang member who is not part of the Night Patrol. I thought Xavier would become the hero of the story, but the plot doesn’t do as much with him as I expected.

Xavier’s brother, Wazi (RJ Cyler), is still a gang member. He and his girlfriend are targeted by the Night Patrol. He seeks to unite the L.A. gangs together to fight against them.

The most formidable Night Patrol member is played by pro wrestler Phil Brooks, who is best known as his WWE character, CM Punk. Brooks delivers a decent performance, and he’s certainly physically imposing enough for the role, but the character is written as one-dimensional. He’s just mean and angry. There’s nothing more to him than that.

What follows is barely a spoiler, since it’s so obvious in the film, but read no further if you don’t want to know any more plot details.

It turns out that the Night Patrol officers are (yawn) vampires. I have nothing against vampires, but they are done to death these days. The ones featured here have nothing to distinguish themselves. They are not compelling in the least.

Other than Bodycam, another obvious comparison is Sinners. Obviously, Sinners is a vastly superior film. It’s not fair to equate the two. Sinners had the backing of a major studio, a huge budget, and superstars in front of and behind the camera.

There’s no way a low budget film like this is going to complete with that. Unfortunately, Night Patrol looks cheap. Many shoestring budget movies are clever at getting around their limitations. This one? Not so much.

The special effects look like they’re from a 16-bit ’90s videogame and the grainy, bland cinematography is made-for-TV caliber. The whole thing looks and feels low rent. It prevented me from ever connecting with the story.