The grimmest of reapers is loose and mankind's only hope is the most unholy of alliances.
Vampire hunter Blade (Wesley Snipes) must join forces with the very creatures he has sworn to destroy.
The battle waged in Blade II, opening in local theatres today, is a stomach-churning gore fest played for maximum thrills and maximum winces.
This is not a movie for the squeamish.
The new breed of vampire, known as Reapers, don't just sink their fangs into a victim's neck. They chomp right through the neck or, if they're really, really hungry enough, devour the head with neck still attached.
These mutated undead have jaws which open sideways to reveal an alien-style appendage that is a ravenous creature in itself.
The sequel to Blade from 1998, Blade II is more a hybrid of Alien and The Matrix than it is a Dracula movie, although Damaskinos the vampire lord (Thomas Kretschmann) does look a bit like Willem Dafoe in Shadow of the Vampire.
Damaskinos lives in a vault-like castle that would make any Bond villain envious. He even employs humans to help run his vast financial empire.
Damaskinos summons Blade to help him ward off an attack by the Reapers, who currently favour vampire flesh and blood over human. He even offers Blade the assistance of his elite team of ninja vampire warriors known as the Bloodpack.
Their leader Reinhardt (Ron Perlman) warns Blade that once their collaboration has rid the world of Reapers, he's personally going to terminate Blade.
It's not all martial arts battles.
The blood of Damaskinos's daughter Nyssa (Lenor Varela) runs warmer every time she's near Blade and he's not exactly cooled off by her presence.
Snipes tries to bring more depth to Blade, especially when he agonizes over his love for Nyssa and his reliance on the special serum that allows him to walk in sunlight as long as he wears special garb and glasses.
Blade's mentor, Whistler (Kris Kristofferson), was turned into a vampire at the end of the first film but Blade rescues him and administers the serum, thus saving him from the darker side.
Not a moment too soon because Whistler's replacement Scud (Norman Reedus) is a self-important, hot-headed druggie. Blade II is never really scary, just gross but it does have real momentum.
Director Guillermo de Toro, who cut his teeth on the Mexican vampire flick Cronus, has a remarkable sense of pacing.
It's a good thing, because he's working with a laughable script that elicits groans instead of chuckles and guffaws instead of gasps or screams.
The original Blade has a much better villain in Stephen Dorff's Deacon Frost than this one does in Luke Gross's Nomak, who has a personal stake in wanting to destroy Damaskinos and his clan.
Blade II is slick, high-tech mayhem that will appeal more to comic book and video games fans than it will to horror aficionados.
(More on: Blade 2: Bloodhunt).
(This film is rated R)
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