The Breed (2001) dir. Michael Oblowitz
It is the “near future” and the United States of America has become an openly authoritarian state with a vaguely East European vibe. Despite this, there are still more or less regular cops. When a young woman is kidnapped, police detective Steven Grant (Bokeem Woodbine) and his partner track down the culprit. The victim is already dead from blood loss, and the killer, only seen as a dark profile, murders Steve’s partner, demonstrating superhuman abilities as he leaves the crime scene.
Steve’s superiors at the National Security Agency are surprisingly receptive to his wild tale of a bloodsucking monster. It turns out this is actually the sixth killing with the same M.O., and vampires are real. They age very slowly, are superhumanly strong and fast, are inconvenienced by sunlight and silver, but don’t have a problem with religion, and have deliberately kept their numbers down to avoid detection. In fact, decades ago they created a blood substitute so they could avoid killing humans. Recently, they revealed their existence to the government in an attempt to not have to hide any more.
Not all the vampires agreed, and this killer is presumably a renegade sending a message. To facilitate the investigation, Steve is partnered up with vampire security expert Aaron Gray (Adrian Paul). They don’t get along at all, but they will have to work together to crack this case and prevent a threat to vampire and human alike. Along the way they encounter vampire scientist and pro-integrationist Dr. Cross (Peter Halasz) and the seductive Lucy Westenra (Bai Ling) as well as several more hostile vampires and humans.
This 2001 made for cable movie was shot in Budapest, which explains a lot of the European vibe. It’s somewhere on the line between horror and buddy cop movie. Vintage cars and hairstyles help with the noir atmosphere while simultaneously undercutting the “future” setting.
Woodbine puts in a decent performance as a cop who’s in way over his head and has to deal with his preconceived notions about vampires. (Including a moment when Aaron accuses him of racism and Steve is absolutely baffled by this. Mind, Aaron is a Polish Jew and at the time he was turned, he wasn’t considered “white” at all.) It does not help that a lot of the vampires, despite supposedly being peaceful, really lean into the “scary person of the night with fangs” routine.
Some bit characters are pretty funny, and the name references are cute.
Lucy just doesn’t work for me, but if your idea of seductive outfits is “Lady Gaga concert” then you might like her more.
There’s also some cringy moments where the vampire community is shot in a way to evoke Jewish refugees when it’s not being Eurotrash. The fact that the government is bonkers authoritarian and Steve is just kind of okay with this until the inevitable “you’ve gone too far” moment is disturbing.
It’s pretty obvious who the killer is, but the motivation involved has enough twists to keep you guessing for a while.
Content note: Some gore and violence (vampire movie!), nudity, R-rated sex, harm to children.
Overall: It doesn’t quite fit together right, but this movie is a watchable mess. Bring some friends and popcorn to enjoy a night of not good but not terrible movie.
