Night Patrol is an ambitious but flawed take on police violence

The new thriller Night Patrol, streaming on Shudder this Friday, takes a bold stab at the cop genre, subverting expectations in an ambitious but uneven horror movie.

Night Patrol (dir. Ryan Prows) takes the very real history of gangs in the LAPD in a new direction, combining the real-life terror of violent policing with a supernatural cult. The movie follows LAPD cops Ethan (Justin Long) and Xavier (Jermaine Fowler, The Blackening), each of whom are desperate to join the Night Patrol, an elite task force that does its dirty work under the cover of darkness.

But not all aspiring LAPD thugs are created equal. Ethan is a Night Patrol nepo baby – his father was a member, and Ethan is motivated to join in part due to his suspicions that the task force was involved in his father’s death – and gets an early chance to prove himself by committing a shocking act of violence in the beginning of the film. Because we are introduced to Ethan through this act of violence, it completely reframes how we perceive him and his goals, successfully undercutting many similar stories about police who try to take down the system from within.

Meanwhile, Xavier is a former Crip who has used his former ties and knowledge from gang life to become a standout police officer, but it’s not enough to get him the recognition he feels he deserves. More than anything, he wants to join Night Patrol – sure, it’s an all-white, explicitly racist gang within the LAPD, but it’s also the ultimate marker of success within the department. It’s an interesting push and pull that works because of Fowler’s committed performance, and because of the easy-to-connect real world parallels of people from marginalized identities joining law enforcement organizations that directly target people in their own communities.

Ethan and Xavier’s desires come into conflict when, after Ethan’s initiation, Night Patrol begins targeting Xavier’s brother Wazi (RJ Cyler, The Harder They Fall), still an active member of the Crips. Along with mom Ayanda (Nicki Mechaux), a hardcore freedom fighter who practices Zulu mysticism, Wazi fights to survive the night under the gaze of the deadly elite unit. After spending a lot of time with Ethan and Xavier in an End of Watch-type gritty, ground-level cop movie, Wazi ends up being the protagonist – a decision foreshadowed by having the movie open with a flash forward of Wazi in a police interrogation room. That’s ultimately the right choice – Cyler steals the show as Wazi, bringing a desperation and pain to the character – but because Night Patrol spends so long feinting at the cop-led version of this movie, it feels like a lot of the more interesting ideas built with Ethan and Xavier just disappear, and that Wazi ends up underserved in the narrative.

Musicians Freddie Gibbs, YG, and Flying Lotus are another highlight, playing a trio of conspiracy theory-driven Bloods who form an unlikely alliance with the Crips against Night Patrol. Gibbs as Bornelius is a particular comedic standout – at one point he asks Wazi if lizard people are responsible for what’s been going on, and when Wazi impatiently repeats it’s the LAPD, Bornelius understands that to mean the LAPD are lizard people.

Night Patrol is worth seeing for how it tackles the cop genre as horror, if that sounds like your thing, and because it’s a stylish showcase for RJ Cyler as a star. Unfortunately, the whole thing doesn’t quite cohere: It pulls its punches with its lead characters after taking some big narrative swings, has an extremely overcrowded screenplay, and ultimately settles as an ambitious but flawed genre hybrid that literalizes the homicidal rot that runs rampant through our police system.

Night Patrol is streaming on Shudder Friday. It is also available to rent or purchase digitally.