Vampires and werewolves - staples of horror cinema for decades, from Max Shreck's creepy Nosferatu to the shoot 'em up thrills of last year's excellent Dog Soldiers. Now comes Underworld.

Vampire's lair - Kate Beckinsale as Selene in Underworld

The trick is to do something original rather than retread the familiar.

So what a great idea for a film to have a stand-off between the two hordes, a tribal tiff of epic proportions.

Set in a non-specific gothic metropolis where it always rains, Underworld pits fang against fang as the Vampires battle the Lycans (werewolves) in a centuries-old blood feud, with both sides bent on destroying the other.

Hotshot on the vampire assassination team is Selene (Kate Beckinsale), leader of the death dealers who roam the city exterminating werewolves.

Doing the rounds one night, she notices that two lycans she's after are homing in on a particular human.

After the dust-up, she tries to find out more about this human, Michael Corvin (Scott Speedman), against the express orders of Craven, acting head of Selene's particular vampire coven.

She finds that somehow this mild-mannered medical intern holds the key to the feud between the vamps and the wolves, prompting her to wake the leader of her coven, Victor (Bill Nighy).

Now though, Selene is having doubts about the feud and the legitimacy of her cause, as the politics and betrayal behind it become apparent.

To add to the complications, Lucian, the head of the wolf pack, has bitten Michael, so he'll turn canine at the next full moon. It's a bit of a problem, as Selene has fallen for him.

I'm not quite sure why Underworld has got such bad reviews. Sure, it's heavily stylised, a bit muddled and rather monotone but these seem like minor crimes after a summer of unrelenting blandness from Hollywood.

Visually, the obvious references would be The Crow, Blade, The Matrix and Batman.

The war takes place in a colour-drained perma-night which mixes the modern and the old-fashioned.

Both sides use mobile phones and automatic weapons (the vampires favouring silver nitrate bullets, the wolves loading up with 'liquid daylight'), yet a vampire delegation arrives by steam train.

The differences between the two tribes is interesting too, and a clue to the origins of the feud.

The vampires are louche, decadent aristocrats who live in a grand mansion, while the werewolves are rough and ready street fighters who live in underground tunnels.

For good-looking, kick-ass, trench-coated entertainment Underworld is extremely good fun, and an interesting addition to the vampire/werewolf movie cycle.

Published Monday October 13, 2003