Horror fans have a brand-new vampire movie to look forward to: Night Patrol. The film, starring Justin Long and Jermaine Fowler, follows an LA cop working to uncover a task force harboring a dark secret that could put the residents of the local housing projects in grave danger.
Night Patrol director Ryan Prows and star RJ Cyler sat down with The Direct at Fantastic Fest 2025, where the film premiered. They talked about telling a cop-centric story in today’s world and making a film that is both simple and thematically deep.
“It's like, you ain't got to read too deep,” Cyler proclaimed, stating that they “simply made a fun ass vampire movie.”
Prows elaborated that “If you want to dive into [the deeper parallels], and the thematics of all that [is] there, but you know, the other side of it, just the surface level fun and popcorn sort of thrill ride.”
More quotes can be read below, alongside the full video interview. Shudder’s Night Patrol will be released in theaters on January 16, 2026. At Fantastic Fest 2025, Shudder also brought Mother of Flies, a film about a young woman looking for a cure to her illness in unexpected places.
On Telling a Police-Focused Narrative In 2025, With a Vampire Twist
"The Goal For Me Is to Make Something That You Can Kind of Revisit and Peel Back."
- The Direct: "I don't think it's a controversial take, obviously, to say that a narrative focused on cops in today's climate is a hard sell for some. So, for this film, and you guys can both answer this, how do you feel like it'll click with audiences despite that?"
RJ Cyler: I think just the fact that it's a fun vampire movie. It's like, you ain't got to read too deep. And luckily, Ryan wasn't trying to make the police look bad. He was just making a fun movie. So it's like that keeps it refreshing. You feel me. It's just a fun movie. You have cops in this movie that are favorite characters you feel me like, and they also just look cool as hell. So when you don't overthink it, right? It's just such a refreshing movie. Yeah? Because it's fun, we literally simply made a fun ass vampire movie.
Ryan Prows: The fun of vampire movies, of the horror genre in general, is just like, make a thrill ride with it. And then, obviously, there are a lot of, like, you said, everything going on today, this touches on that. If you want to dive into that, and the thematics of all that [is] there, but you know, the other side of it, just the surface level fun and popcorn sort of thrill ride of it is there too. So that was from the jump. The design of it is to be thrilling and fun, and say something and everything in between.
- The Direct: "Digging a little deeper, I think the way the movie utilizes the horror genre and vampires in such an awesome way to comment on these kind of serious, real-life issues. Stuff like corruption and generational trauma. Can you talk about bringing those heavy themes to audiences through the lens of fun vampire horror? Being like, there is stuff to look deeper if you want to, or you can just have a fun vampire."
Ryan Prows: The goal for me is to make something lasting and something that you can kind of revisit and peel back, and the layering is there. But, again, that is like the fun of horror and the fun of genre, and in particular, is that there's always, deeper themes that you're playing with, and stuff I'm sure that's probably obviously in there that like we didn't even intend on like, that is just like for smarter critics to to figure out and peel and talk about, you know, than I could do.
But that's why we wanted to make a horror film, is like they're always steeped in themes and talking about something deeper. And then, with that, it's still the sugar with the medicine of having the fun with it.
The Tricky Morality of Night Patrol's Characters
Moral Ambiguity Is Central to This Vampire Romp
- The Direct: "The morality of these characters was so interesting. I'll start with you first, Ryan. So many of these characters are very ambiguous in their moral values. They're not one thing. One of the characters basically starts off doing something [heinous], but then the movie's still like, but wait a second, he has potentially this moral goal. What is your approach in anchoring these characters, in creating the stories, and balancing how you want audiences to connect with them?"
Ryan Prows: Our initial goal was like, let's make a movie where the heroes, quote, unquote heroes of it are like, from people in a community that never get spotlighted. They're never the hero of these movies. And then, yeah, the moral ambiguity of that is like bringing the humanity to it and bringing the character to it, and RJ and Jermaine Fowler and Justin Long, like digging into these really sort of multi-sided, multi-faceted characters.
That's what excites me about movie making and storytelling, is just like how you can watch these characters go from doing something awful to you're laughing with them next. You know, that's life.
The Direct: "RJ, your character is obviously not innocent, but he is positioned as the protagonist, someone who gets thrown into some things. Can you talk to me about making him relatable to audiences, but staying true to what you know Ryan wrote, and not necessarily being the best person?"
RJ Cyler: Yeah, he's just a good depiction of humanity in general. Like we don't—All of us have that warrior in us, but it's not a mask that we have to put on every single day, because we're not faced with confrontation, maybe everyday. But it's always in there. But we scared of it.
Sometimes ourselves, like Wozzie, I feel he really is kind of like a RJ, you know, we not innocent, you feel me, but we have the greatest intentions for all of our interactions. You know, like Wozzie wanted better. That's why the things that he was kind of surrounded around, it didn't really resonate with him too much until further on in him, kind of letting go of his own ego or fears, in a way, and kind of taking his mom's advice on this, or listening to what Mama said the end of the day, is like that, even just that lesson, as long as you kind of keep up with the adolescent him... It's like the little brother that you want to grow up, but he never gonna grow up.
Prows: I can speak to that a little bit too, like, and again, RJ, and on the other side of the spectrum, Justin [Long], it is this, like, it's so interesting to me, of watching them sort of dance with, again, these hard actions or awful actions, or being surrounded, or sort of mired in that. But then also, that not turning you off or they're still so relatable, and they're still so like, you know, like, grab your attention, grab the screen, that it's magic, what they're able to do and take you on this emotional roller coaster.
The full interview can be seen below:
Night Patrol isn't the only film Justin Long starred in at Fantastic Fest 2025; he also had to contend with killer coyotes.
