Geser, Lord of Light, and Zavulon, Lord of Darkness, have come to an understanding. Their armies are equally matched, and their continued fighting would only lead to their mutual destruction. In their pact they’ve chosen to set up a supernatural bureaucracy, of sorts (fitting, if you consider the locale), where the two side keep an eye on one another, so the balance isn’t swayed in either direction. Night Watch, those on the side of Light, monitor the Dark. Day Watch, the Dark side, watches the Light in kind.

Others, as the beings on both sides are collectively known, consist of warlocks, vampires, witches, psychics, et al; supernatural creatures, not quite human. They feed off our energy. Light Others are benevolent, for the most part, but the Dark Others, well… you can imagine.

Anton, the film’s hero, is an officer of the Night Watch. He’s a seer with a troubled past, and not the cleanest cop in town. He means will, no doubt, but his willingness to bend the rules certainly clouds his moral authority. His current assignment is to find a pair of rogue vampires attempting to perform an illegal and unlicensed bloodletting on an innocent boy. This requires Anton to drink blood and hone in on the vampires’ telepathic signals. If all goes as planned, Anton will follow the boy, live bait that he is, and arrest the vampires.

But things don’t go as planned.

Good vs. Evil

Two things happen. First, Anton (Konstantin Khabensky) mistakes a woman on the subway for a vampire. (It turns out she’s something else entirely; more on her later.) And second, the sting operation doesn’t go down clean. One of the vampires escapes and the other ends up dead. Anton is accused of excessive force for snuffing out a Dark Other without just cause.

The Light Others work, appropriately enough, for the city’s power company. The Dark Others seem to be involved in the music industry. Is it any surprise that the Russian equivalent of the Spice Girls are Dark agents?

The boy, Yegor, the vampires were going to bleed is more than he seems. And the Dark Others need him. So they enlist the fugitive vampire to capture him by exploiting her psychic link to him. Anton and his new partner Olga rush to protect him, but are interrupted by a very serious development.

A vortex of pain and misery is descending on Moscow. But it isn’t the Dark ones who’ve brought it down. No, the woman from the subway, a young doctor, has been cursed, and like a black hole it is threatening to implode and take half the city with it. Worse still, the curse portends the beginning of the final battle between Light and Dark. If the curse can be broken, maybe the battle can be diverted.

Not that fate can be turned. The battle must be fought, and as prophecy dictates, the outcome will hinge upon the introduction of a new Other, the Great One. If this other chooses to join the Light, they will prevail. But if he joins the Dark, that side will be triumphant. Wise men place their money on the Dark.

Light against Dark

Do I need to tell you which side the Great One chooses?

Night Watch is firmly planted in its own mythos, and creates a whole world unto itself. There is much here that goes unexplained, yet the director is willing to let us fill in the blanks; he assumes we’re smart enough to follow along without having every little thing explained along the way. He is wholly confident to set up a story he knows he will not resolve until the sequel. It takes a fair amount of guts to put together a film that is purely foundation, counting instead on sheer momentum to draw viewers back to the next installment.

Visually, the film is stunning. It’s everything flashy American enterprises like Underworld or Van Helsing want to be. Except this film has a story to it (confounding as it may be), and uses the flash as a icing on the cake. Sure, the story of Good vs. Evil isn’t new, but unlike its Western counterparts, this one takes old ideas about vampires and shapeshifters and puts a fresh spin on them.

The question is, will the sequel deliver the goods? The first installment is a wonderful introduction, a great set up and story, with interesting characters, and some truly amazing special effects.