Underworld: Blood Wars trailer amps up action and turns down lights

Following the second teaser they released in October, Sony Pictures has unveiled a third preview of fantasy horror Underworld: Blood Wars, starring Kate Beckinsale as leather-clad vampire Selene.

And while you may need to turn your device's brightness all the way up to see what's actually going on in the clip, it certainly looks like the film will deliver exactly what fans of the genre are after: epic action scenes and lots of bloodsucker vs lycan rivalry.

As evidenced in the latest trailer, Beckinsale isn't the only existing cast member reprising her role for movie number five. Divergent's Theo James is also stepping back into the shoes – or more accurately biker boots – of vampire warrior David after his character's introduction in previous instalment Underworld: Awakening, while Charles Dance (Game of Thrones) will also be reappearing as David's father and vampire elder, Thomas.

"They want the blood of Selene," David can be heard saying about his werewolf-esque humanly enemies during the dramatic sneak-peek. "If they use it, the lycan's power will be limitless." Later on, another character, played by Clementine Nicholson, tells Selene: "If you want to win this war, you will need to go further than even a warrior of your renown has ever ventured before."

Those ominous statements, combined with the idea that Selene might have to make "the ultimate sacrifice" as the film's IMDb synopsis suggests she might not make it until the end of this film – not entirely as she is, anyway. As the trailer draws to a close, that theory seems all the more possible as Selene seemingly becomes an ultra-fast, dip-dyed super-warrior, which, if the fur coat and moon/eye imagery is anything to go by, is neither vampire nor lycan, but something in between – or perhaps, something different altogether.

Directed by cinematographer-turned-filmmaker Anna Foerster (White House Down) and written by The Last Witch Hunter's Cory Goodman, the fifth instalment is based on characters originally drawn up by Kevin Grevioux, Len Wiseman and Danny McBride.

Also starring James Faulkner, Bradley James, Sherlock's Lara Pulver as vampire baddie Semira and The Night Manager's Tobias Menzies as new lycan leader and antagonist Marius, Underworld: Blood Wars is set to reach US cinemas on 6 January 2017 and UK screens on 3 February.

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