`Innocent Blood' Can't Fight Free Of The Vampire Past

----------------------------------------------------------- XX "Innocent Blood," with Anne Parillaud, Anthony LaPaglia, Robert Loggia, Don Rickles. Directed by John Landis, from a script by Michael Wolk. Aurora, Grand Cinemas Alderwood, John Danz, Newmark, Parkway Plaza, Seatac Mall, Valley drive-in. "R" - Restricted, due to violence, nudity, language. -----------------------------------------------------------

While Francis Coppola is putting the finishing touches on a $40 million production of "Dracula" that opens Nov. 13, Buffy is still slaying vampires in mall multiplexes and another fangs-in-cheek spoof is opening.

"Innocent Blood," directed by John Landis ("An American Werewolf in London") from a script by first-time screenwriter Michael Wolk, may lack the valley-girl humor of "Buffy." But it valiantly tries to make up for it with a series of running gags about a semi-civilized female vampire who spares good guys while dining on the most vicious members of Pittsburgh's mob.

"What about Italian?" she says as she surveys a series of headlines about criminals who only kill each other. Deciding not to sample the neck of one young innocent, she announces that she never plays with her food. The police accept her latest meal as a mob murder, and she's proud of her skill in covering up the real circumstances: "This is the first time my food made the front page."

Played by Anne Parillaud, who was the sleek assassin in last year's French hit, "La Femme Nikita," this creature is especially fond of men with "sad eyes," like the undercover cop, played by Anthony LaPaglia, who falls for her, shoves his scruples aside and beds her.

But she's ruthless when she's hungry for monsters, and she nearly meets her match when she takes on Robert Loggia, playing a mob leader who won't stay dead even after she's made a meal of him. Indeed, his new status as one of the undead just refines his recruiting techniques.

In the tradition of his current television series, "Dream On," Landis fills up much of this two-hour movie with film clips: "The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms," "Konga," the Bela Lugosi and Christopher Lee versions of "Dracula." Most of the characters obsessively watch commercial television, even security guards who are supposed to be checking up on other monitors, and almost everything that turns up on the tube is a classic horror film. Or Dan Quayle, who appears just long enough to get a laugh.

Sam Raimi, the director of the "Evil Dead" movies, makes a brief appearance in a meat locker where Loggia hides out, and there are cameos by Frank Oz, who directed the musical version of "Little Shop of Horrors," and even Alfred Hitchcock, whose bit in "Strangers on a Train" is on the tube.

"Innocent Blood" is so full of homages to the past that it never really gets started as a narrative. The love story between Parillaud and LaPaglia, and its resolution, are particularly lame. But Loggia gives it a jolt of energy whenever he's on screen, and some of the gags are cute.