Director: Ryan Prows
Year: 2026
Country: USA/United Kingdom
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Vampire
Plot:
In the middle of a vicious gang war, a police officer recounts how he got assigned to a special police unit designed to combat gang activity and rising urban violence in the area, but when he realizes that the task force is secretly vampires looking to instill chaos, he sets out to stop them.
Review:
Overall, this was a fairly solid and likable genre effort. Among the better factors within this one comes from the rather engaging central storyline that manages to hit on plenty of fun elements that are quite timely in society. The idea of a racist police task force trying to ensure that the hood is kept in order, but are secretly using their vampire powers to target and harass the community to the point of being far worse than the gang activity, and requiring the continued existence of the group to the public at large is a way to go about getting everything established in short order. The existence of the special squad and the appearance of conducting law and order in the community, but actually going about being the major cause of the disturbance in their lives, with the way they handle justice in their own manner, sets everything in motion with a fun way of getting the characters established and what the real purpose of the secret squad is all about.
As well, it also serves to get the highly enjoyable series of confrontations involving the squad inflicting their terror across the community and trying to trick them into fighting back so that their dark, supernatural powers can be brought to life. This comes about through a series of incidents and encounters that are initially treated as routine police calls or responses, but that turn into something far more imposing when the true nature of the operations the group is planning is revealed. This all leads into a series of attacks at the end where the vampiric nature of the police squad comes about and sets into motion the big confrontations in the community where the two sides are forced to engage in open warfare on the streets to get everything settled, bringing about the kind of gruesome, bloody combat that the type of conflict dictates as the vampires are shot up and dismembered while the humans are captured and held hostage, making for a solid encounter with a lot to like and giving the film some positive points.
There are some drawbacks here that hold this one down. The main detrimental issue with this one is the overall lack of attention given to the vampires, who are barely considered as such during the majority of the running time. This goes so far out of its way to keep their revelation a secret that it barely even acknowledges their possibility until the final assault, as the one lone encounter that potentially sets everything up is a brief moment of inviting the one cop into the ranks, which is the one sequence this has to announce the idea about what they really are. With them appearing in the daylight and not showing any normal signs of being shown off by other forms of vampire action, this has such a flimsy account of vampirism that it becomes difficult to get a handle on them in the film.
As well, there are some big problems here involving the introduction of the other mythology here that tries to paint the community as a guardian force that doesn't make much sense in the film. There's hints about some weird African form of spiritual protection mentioned sporadically throughout the film in the form of strange pamphlets visible in quick shots, but beyond that, nothing is brought up about what it all means, how it's supposed to work, or what this is supposed to mean to people so it's just some strangely underwhelming material that has little connection to anything. It gives this a comedically over-the-top style and tone here that carries over into the finale when it is finally brought back into play without that context, letting the action carry it more than anything. Combined with the cheap production look, these all end up bringing this one down.
Overview: ***/5
A watchable if overall problematic vampire effort, there's enough to like here that it's not a terrible watch, but it has enough flaws going for it that it manages to be a disappointing effort in the long run. Give it a shot if you're a fan of this kind of genre fare or aren't bothered by the issues on display, while most others out there might want to heed caution.
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