Any horror fan will tell you that Dracula and his minions never go out of style. From the earliest classics like Nosferatu to Lugosi's traditional portrayal of the Prince of Darkness to the hipness of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, vampires are part of our collective cultural experience. They're both terrifying and seductive, embodying evil and ultimate power. What's not to like? And now, with Dracula 2000, we have yet another rendering of the bloodlusting immortal. Satisfying but not nearly as dynamic as it could have been, this film doesn't really add any new layers to the overall mythology, but it does manage to reinvent Dracula himself, offering up a plausible and unique take on the king vamp's genesis.

In terms of the basic premise, it's all familiar territory. Van Helsing (Christopher Plummer) is still around in present day England, having managed to keep himself alive by using Dracula's blood filtered through leeches. This is one of the more intriguing elements of the story - the bond between Van Helsing and Dracula -- one that could have stood a little more exploration. After all, this is the man who has sacrificed his life to keep the world safe from Dracula's clutches, the man who has imprisoned Dracula (Gerard Butler, competent but showing predictably ghoulish sex appeal) in an impenetrable dungeon, far from humanity's warm, fresh blood. Of course, as fate would have it, some greedy thieves break into said dungeon and steel Dracula's coffin, commandeering a plane and rather inexplicably heading for a New Orleans straight out of an Anne Rice novel. While the location works, it feels a bit trite; the filmmakers would have been better off sticking with Gothic London.

But, as the story goes, this is exactly where Dracula wants to be for it is in New Orleans that Van Helsing's daughter Mary (Justine Waddell), the Mina substitute in this version, lives. Having been born of a man who has used Dracula's blood, Mary is destined to be a vampire and Dracula wants to claim her as one born to a life of darkness, not created from his bite. (It's another intriguing idea that never quite takes off.) Mary has more than a little trouble believing all this until she meets Van Helsing's assistant Simon (Jonny Lee Miller) and is cornered by the three brides of Dracula, one of whom is her friend Lucy (Colleen Fitzpatrick), the others being a sexy newscaster (Jeri Ryan, for "Voyager" fans) and one of the original thieves (Jennifer Esposito).

The subject of Dracula's brides brings up one of the film's weaker points. Point blank, there just isn't enough sexuality here. In fact, except for one brief interrogation scene between the cops and Espositio that gets pretty freakish and steamy, the seduction quotient is almost forgotten. Granted, Dracula seems to melt every woman who sees him and Mary herself turns to butter in his hands, but all this is obvious and expected. What's missing is a more provocative quality, much like the sensibility that pervaded Francis Coppola's Dracula.

This shying away from sexuality is rather odd, considering the direction the story takes in the last act. Veering into rather dangerous religious territory, writer Joel Soisson takes a bit of a risk by bringing the Bible into the story, but the choice is a good one, turning the vampire mythology inside out for a change. No longer is Dracula simply pure evil, he is pure evil created from something that once was born of goodness. Unfortunately, some of the more interesting historical and intellectual elements get short shrift here, as you'd expect given that this is primarily an action/horror film for a hipster audience.

The bottom line is that Buffy fans don't want philosophy, they want to have fun. And, in that regard, Dracula 2000 satisfies, at least on a basic level. It has its share of Matrix-inspired action and fight scenes as well as plenty of suspense, at least in the first half of the film, which is notably better than the second hour. Overall, director Patrick Lussier and writer Soisson capture the brooding atmosphere of a classic myth well, offering up an energetic if not completely original portrayal of one of the world's greatest horror creations. Given the mistakes that could have been made and the cheesiness that could have ensued, Dracula 2000 holds its own in a realm packed with competitors.