The Night Boyz – review

Director: BonVida

Release date: 2023

Contains spoilers

It is not a rule, as such, but often the adding of a ‘z’ to a film title indicates not only that the film is going to be a modern urban (often gangland) setting, but also that the film is going to be of a lower quality. Look, I’m sorry, but that really does seem to be the case.

So I went into this with low expectations, however, as I started watching it my hopes raised, the actual photography seemed accomplished for a start. In truth the film does have issues, but it is a cut above where I thought it would be and has some interesting ideas within.

eyes light up

It starts in the past and Yashua (Leslie A. Jones) as voudon (style) drums are heard with women dancing. Yashua is eventually caught by slavers, a decision is made that he is native rather than African but they then lynch him anyway. Meanwhile a mob come to what looks like a church. The man who comes out is able to mesmerise the crowd (whilst inflicting them with very poor poetry) and cause them to drop their makeshift weapons. The significance of this was lost on me. A hooded woman comes to the hanging Yashua and bites him. She vanishes and his eyes light up.

Brian Fernandez as Joshua

We cut to present day. Joshua (Brian Fernandez) has moved to LA after his parents were killed. He is chilling when there is an insistent ringing of his doorbell. It is his cousin Mike (BonVida) who drags him out. They end up sat in the concrete canal of LA river, talking. Mike gives him a protective ankh pendant. They are going to smoke but Mike drops the spliff so they head to a store. In the store, Joshua is at the counter when he spots a girl, Lily (Brooke 'Little' Dugan), he steps back and bumps into T (Jorge Meneses) – evidentially there is existing beef. It is when T grabs the ankh and rips it off Josuah that the fight starts – next thing we see them all rounded up by sheriff Martin (Manny Casimir) who gives them all a talking to and sends them on their way, with the exception of Joshua who he keeps back for some extra disappointment talk.

Leslie A. Jones as Yashua

T later gets hold of Joshua and cuts his face with a box cutter... Joshua and Mike are with Red (Manner Washington III), who seems to run a crew. Joshua wants in, but he isn’t deemed ready – later we will discover that Red is a werewolf and I’ll get back to that – but they go out and T is shot. Dying on the street, he is approached by a snazzily dressed Yashua, who offers T eternal life and holds out a hand that T takes… Joshua then meets Lily on a beach, there is talking, an attempt to hold hands (and she has very cold hands) and make out – she bites him and then regrets it. In the morning Mike picks him up, but he is very ill. He awakens At Auntie’s house, his cheek cut has gone and Lily is there. He is told she is a half vampire (she hasn’t killed anyone) and so is he. They must get sacred wood from a tree older than Yashua to kill him and become human, and stop his plans to build an army and bring chaos to the city.

a zombie

So vampires, werewolves and half vampires… actually, Lily is a dhampir though she doesn’t know it and the daughter of Yashua. In flashback we have seen that he was a slave and lynched, we also see him losing his mortal wife (and daughter he assumes) following a police raid and being taken for experimentation and torture to release the secrets of eternal life to an old, white man. For some reason everyone refers to him as Head Vampire. We also get bums that he has turned into ghouls or zombies (the credit calls them both). I could have lived without the werewolf, aspect, it was minor and the sfx comparatively rubbish – I will say I loved the fang set they did for Yashua. Half-vampires are irritated by sunlight where full vampires burn, ordinary stakes are fine for killing most vampires, beheading kills and vampires fear symbols such as the ankh and police badges (tied to Yashua’s lynching as the slavers wore deputy stars). In a strange piece of lore, certain music (I think EBM) will cause vampires to be mesmerised, swaying on the spot.

werewolf

Beyond the poor werewolf, it felt like the film could have lost half an hour of its running time. There were moments that had no build before we get there. Whilst not a poor performance, Brian Fernandez was missing a certain something and struggled to carry the film – whereas BonVida had that something in spades but was sidelined, killed and brought back as a supernatural assassin with no scope to flex the presence he showed earlier in the film. There are some moments that, given the running time, could have been pre-established (such as turncoat cops). Yet, overall the film was well shot and had plenty of potential. 5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.