Sex, blood, bullets and crowd-pleasing special effects fill the screen from beginning to end in Underworld: Evolution, the second film in a planned trilogy about a war between vampires and werewolves, who are known in the Underworld mythos as Lycans.

Fans of the original Underworld will be pleased to discover that this song remains the same, with the intensity turned up a notch. There are sexier costumes, bloodier deaths, and a generally higher decibel level as Selene the Death Dealer hurtles violently toward another cataclysmic showdown with a vampiric Elder, this time with the newly hybrid Marcus.

Famed actor Sir Derek Jacobi, he formerly of the Royal Shakespeare Company, joins fellow British actors Kate Beckinsale and Bill Nighy to play Corvinus, the sire of two preternatural races, the Vampire and the Lycan. The vampires Viktor and Kraven also appear early on in the story. Unfortunately missing is the vampire Erika played by Sophia Myles, the actress currently starring in Ridley Scott's Tristan and Isolde.

Evolution begins splendidly in a flashback to centuries past, with the lordly vampires Viktor and Amelia clad in armor astride Friesian war horses, leading the battle against the Lycans, who are particularly vicious and feral in the early stages of their bloodline.

After a brief review in voiceover as Selene recounts the events of the previous film, Evolution takes up the story immediately following the deaths of Viktor and Lucian. The traitorous Kraven returns to deal with Marcus, who still sleeps in his sunken chamber in the vampires' mansion. Selene and Michael have fled, hiding in the woods of Eastern Europe, a step ahead of pursuing forces.

In a rare moment of respite, Selene finally strips out of her skin-tight cat-suit for a sexual interlude with Michael. Her nakedness gives her a shocking vulnerability and an uncharacteristic humanity that's diametrically opposed to her heretofore icy personna.

Selene soon discovers that she possesses a long forgotten secret, hidden in her blood-memory, a secret forgotten to her, but accessible to the vampire Marcus if he should drink from her veins. So begins a new journey to find the progenitors of the Immortals, and to uncover new layers of truth behind their centuries of conflict.

The story of that conflict is increasingly convoluted, often illogical and somewhat silly, but it's all presented with deadly seriousness by actors who bring an irresistible intensity to their performances. That intensity is the delicious lure of Underworld, where the beauties are exquisite, the betrayals are neverending, and the clothes are to die for.