Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Well, this isn’t really about bats and blood now, is it? Most of us sensed it from the first time we saw Dracula do his thing or Buffy or Brad Pitt. But there’s certainly no doubt by the end of tonight’s sleekly cool, steamingly heated study "Night Bites" that the vampire genre boils down to one exceedingly powerful human drive. Let’s just say it’s not the "violence" half of that infamous duo of corrupting media content.

But the vampire portrayals we’ve come to know and love don’t usually spell out those three taboo little letters or nakedly show the act either. "It’s seduction and a dance, and it’s all about power and submission, and there’s a relationship thing going on," says John Landis, director of "An American Werewolf in London," Michael Jackson’s "Thriller" and the more relevant "Innocent Blood." In other words, the thrill is more than skin deep. Reaching well beyond the physicality of sex, vampire desire is about being yearned for, being prized highly, being, in the words of TV’s "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" producer Marti Noxon, "young and beautiful and loved forever."

And getting away with it. The genre’s underlying psychology is the true focus of this surprisingly serious and sensual hour from director-editor Inbal B. Lessner, who showcases today’s real-life vampire "lifestylists" alongside myth-making clips ranging from 1922’s silent pioneer "Nosferatu," through the 1931, 1979 and 1992 "Dracula" films, up to 1994’s "Interview With the Vampire" and TV’s just-ended "Buffy" series. Experts in subconscious thought, relationships and erotic cinema detail the genre’s metaphors - surrender, bodily connection, control, climax, transformation - along with the crucial way in which its voluntary/involuntary nature makes its female victims willing yet overpowered and therefore absolved of responsibility in the forbidden act’s progression.

"Night Bites" palpably balances the cerebral with the stimulating. Goth chicks dissect the appeal of the costumes and the role-playing. Pointy fang teeth get made for the ultra-immersed. Vampire fantasies are confessed by ordinary women, who stirringly admit to real-life bites. "Interview" author Anne Rice, "Blade" scripter David Goyer and "Angel" actress Stephanie Romanov discuss their devotion. And Lessner assembles film clips to keep things steamy - the juiciest of which turns out to involve no women at all but a very close "Interview" clinch between Pitt and Antonio Banderas. Its gender-bending invites a whole ’nother special. We’d happily get bitten by that one, too.

TV REVIEW

NIGHT BITES: WOMEN AND THEIR VAMPIRES. Stylish and sensual exploration of the genre’s seductive appeal. Hour documentary premieres tonight at 10 on WE.