They are around us all the time - two races of sophisticated Vampires and feral Lycans - but they take care that we never see them. And they look just like us. Nearly.

So if you thought Robert Kilroy-Silk looked just a little too anaemic or Antony Worrall Thompson slightly too fond of his red meat, now you know why.

For centuries cohorts of Robert and Anthony have been quietly engaged in a secret blood feud ...but now the whole thing looks set to erupt into all-out war.

Ahead of an all-too-public ruck in a subway station, Selene (Beckinsale) has clocked that her werewolves opponents are tracking human doctor Michael (Speedman).

Heading back to the vampire's lair - a gloomy stately home crossing a fetish dungeon with the Naughty Hellfire Club (with a couple of the more effete members of Duran Duran thrown in) - she reports to Kraven (Shane Brolly).

However, he dismisses the Lycan (werewolves to you and me) as mere street thugs and no threat to the, let it be said, rather snooty blood-suckers.

Undeterred, Selene heads off into the night to find Michael and what it is that's proving such an animal attraction to the werewolves. What she discovers would make you spit. Blood.

Set in a rain-lashed city resembling Tim Burton's Gotham City (it's actually filmed in Budapest), this is above-par horror hokum.

Vampires have evolved since the passé days of a wooden stake - now they manufacture synthetic plasma and blast away at the Lycans with bullets topped up with silver nitrate.

Beckinsale's role sees her escaping stereotypical casting by breaking away from rom-com (Serendipity) and blockbuster action (Pearl Harbor) - although this is grounded in reality about as much as the latter.

As is the way with these things, it's the pedestrian dialogue which often undermines the sterling effort put into creating a gorily gothic world by the special effects people.

SFX supremo Patrick Tatopoulos, who worked on Godzilla, has fashioned some splendid creations, including slavering Lycans who look as if they've OD'd on Bob Martin Condition Tablets.

Of its type, it's a perfectly adequate effort. It does go on a bit but is worth a peek just to see Bill Nighy emerging from the tomb after 1,000 years to complain, "What's this ruckus?"

Tim Evans