You don’t even have to follow the news to know that there’s a crisis in this county in regard to police departments and their treatment of black and brown communities. More than not, many people of color find themselves on the wrong (and unjustified) end of a police officer who “was in fear” for their lives and killed an unarmed young person. While many people in those communities have known of this “new” phenomenon for generations, thanks to cell phones and the police using their mandated body cameras, now it’s a big part of the public lexicon. And because it’s a part of our collective consciousness, of course, Hollywood will try and do some interesting stories surrounding police shootings with Body Cam.
Fresh off a suspension for assaulting a citizen while processing the grief of her dead son, veteran police officer Renee (Mary J. Blige), comes back into the fold and is paired with a rookie cop Danny (Nat Wolff). While it seems to sort of start as some kind of Training Day situation, things take a left turn when they are called to assist a colleague during a traffic stop that ends horrifically for that person. After fining their fellow officer’s body freshly mangled, Renee checks the dashcam footage of her fellow officer’s car, and it is quickly revealed that some otherworldly thing has happened to him. Unfortunately, the footage quickly “shorts” out, so no one believes the fresh off of a suspension officer that some unseen specter killed her former partner.
Soon enough, there’s another attack on other police officers under bizarre circumstances, and even though the know nothing detectives think they caught the killers (two presumed gang members who also died during the encounter), Renee knows something is off and this situation is far from over. Renee discovers that a van and woman named Taneesha (Anika Noni Rose) is connected to everything, and she sets off on a path to try and figure out what exactly is going on. This makes the film (smartly) a mystery as much as it is a horror/thriller film. Every step she takes leads her closer to figure out who this monster hunting cops are, and why is this person doing it, which has a satisfying resolution.
Body Cam is currently available on VOD.