VAMPIRES SPEAKING RUSSIAN? IT'S A FOREIGN CONCEPT.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

YOU SEE, 1,000 years ago, the forces of light and the forces of darkness fought to a standstill, decided to call a truce, and have been keeping each other in check ever since for the benefit of us puny mortals.

That makes ``Night Watch'' sound like yet another reductive fantasy movie concept. Which it is, but with two crucial differences that make it slightly more sophisticated than your usual swords, elves and Jesus lion epics.

First, the picture's definitions of good and evil are mighty amorphous; both sides act pretty abominably in pursuit of their goals, and of power. And that's irrevocably tied to the other thing that makes ``Night Watch'' distinctive: It's utterly, complicatedly Russian.

A big hit in the Motherland, where it's already spawned the even more popular sequel ``Day Watch,'' the film is based on Sergei Lukyanenko's novel about vampires, witches, were-whatevers and other magical types fussing with each other in contemporary, crumbling-down Moscow.

Our hero (but is he, really?) is Anton (Konstantin Khabensky), a young Night Watch enforcer who comes down on the wickeder bloodsuckers around town when they get out of line. His strong-arm tactics threaten the age-old truce, however. Anton has also got some extreme parenting issues to work out, not to mention his own taste for the red stuff to suppress.

Plus, there's some kind of apocalyptic prophecy that's about to come home to roost, complete with Category 11 tornadoes and more symbolic vortexes of squawking crows. As if that weren't enough, all kinds of shape-shifters and vengeful-lover ghouls are on the loose. Add that to typically chaotic Moscow traffic, and you've got a nonstop fright fest.

Or you would have if the movie wasn't bogging down every couple of scenes to explain reams of arcane exposition. To his credit, director Timur Bekmambetov twists the screen in knots trying to make this stuff interesting (even the English subtitles take to floating about in eye-catching patterns). Relating the Legend of the Cursed Virgin during a particularly gruesome bit of triage may not make for the most watchable experience, but you can't call it tedious.

Anyway, it seems kind of pointless to try to follow the Byzantine ins-and-outs of what's happening when you can just surrender to Bekmambetov's super-stylish blend of Slavic mayhem, which combines classic Soviet montage principles with loony CG effects and a gritty urban grunge aesthetic. And only a society that was savaged and saved by Stalin could possibly come up with as murky a parable for the struggle between right and wrong as ``Night Watch'' turns out to be.

Of course, if Anton and his ilk were speaking English, they may have sounded just as stupid as Kate Beckinsale does these days. But they're not, so we can wallow in the illusion that ``Night Watch'' might have something to do with art.

Bob Strauss, [phone]

bob.strauss(at)dailynews.com

NIGHT WATCH - Three stars

(R: violence, language, nudity, children in jeopardy)

Starring: Konstantin Khabensky, Vladimir Menshov, Valery Zolotukhin, Maria Poroshina.

Director: Timur Bekmambetov.

Running time: 1 hr. 56 min.

Playing: Landmark's Nuart, West Los Angeles.

In a nutshell: If this convoluted vampire fantasy epic wasn't in Russian, it might be just as dumb as those ``Underworld'' movies. But since it is in Russian, it at least seems a lot cooler. With English subtitles.

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When Anton (Konstantin Khabensky), a young enforcer, tries strong-arm tactics on the vampires he encounters, the results are predictably bloody in ``Night Watch.''