Only tangentially related to DRACULA 2000, this sloppily scripted follow-up more closely resembles a Frankenstein picture than most vampire films. New Orleans becomes the battleground where international vampire hunter Father Uffizi (Jason Scott Lee) and wheelchair-bound scientist Professor Lowell (Craig Sheffer). Lowell's girlfriend, Elizabeth (Diane Neal), works part-time in a morgue with Lowell's medical students Luke (Jason London), Kenny (Khary Payton) and Tanya (Brande Roderick). One day, Luke checks in a burn fatality with an anomalous condition; the dead man's blood has all come from an outside source. British "collector" Eric (John Light) immediately phones in a $30,000,000 offer for the fried cadaver, whom we know as Dracula (Stephen Billington). Realizing the corpse's potential value to his own research, Lowell persuades his greedy disciples to transport the charred body to his private lab. Eric, the Dracula devotee, shows up and joins their research team, but Lowell's study plan is marred by two factors: Fearless Father Uffizi is closing in on these body snatchers and Lowell's initial testing in a plasma-filled bathtub resurrects the bloodsucker. Tanya is the first victim of his newfound friskiness, but Lowell believes he can use vampire blood to regenerate his own defective cells and continues his experiments. Elizabeth, who's having serious second thoughts, feels a sensual bond with Dracula and Lowell's true nature is revealed after he reaps the benefits of his vampiric tinkering. Now only Father Uffizi stands between the world and two very different monsters. As yet another misguided genius messes with Mother Nature, director and co-writer Patrick Lussier resorts to gore, camp and helter-skelter chase sequences to keep his unambitious movie afloat. --Robert Pardi
