Paul Bettany, with his rather distinguishing 'mark,' as the vampire killer Priest.

MANILA, Philippines – There’s a new vampire movie in town, and no, there’s hardly anything romantic about this.

Forget beautiful, pale undead beings that shimmer under the sun, who spend a good amount of time romancing high school girls. Thank God vampires are vampires again, Paul Bettany had noted on his “Conan” guest appearance. And the vampires here look pretty gnarly, indeed.

Bettany, of course, plays the title role in “Priest,” described as a “post-apocalyptic action horror film” directed by Scott Stewart. The inspiration for the movie comes from Korean artist and writer Min-Woo Hyung’s critically acclaimed 16-volume manwha series, also titled “Priest,” published in the United States by leading graphic novel publisher TokyoPop.

“‘Priest’ is a combination of western and Asian comic style,” says Stuart Levy, TokyoPop publisher and one of the film’s producers. “Because Min-Woo Hyung is extremely interested in film, his work tends to be very cinematic.” It is also pretty bold, which lends to a stunning movie that “combines gothic horror and nuclear devastation with ‘gun fu’ fighting to create a world both instantly familiar and wholly original.”

More so, the filmmakers want to return to the idea of vampires being terrifying. “Our vampires are a sister species that are more bat-like than human,” producer Michael De Luca says.

In this world, centuries-old brutal warfare has allowed humankind to defeat the vampire hordes.  The remaining undead are relegated to isolated reservations, while most humans are safely living in walled cities ruled by the Church. However, the priests in these places might be trained deadly combatants during the wars, but now they are simply doing menial labor, live in isolation as well, and shunned by their neighbors. They also bear distinctive tattoos that belie who they really are.

But when an 18-year-old girl was abducted by vampires, his uncle—a priest and veteran of the wars—asks the ruling monsignors for permission to try and save her. Their refusal forces him to break his sacred vows, defy their orders and sets out to find her—joined on his crusade by his niece’s boyfriend Hicks (Cam Gigandet, familiar to fans of the romantic vampire lore as the vampire James in “Twilight”), a trigger-fingered young wasteland lawman, and a former Warrior Priestess (Maggie Q) who possesses “otherworldly fighting skills.”

“There’s something so frightening and titillating about vampires,” says Bettany. “The idea of everlasting life is quite enthralling. But these vampires are a new thing altogether.”

Bettany may be remembered from his roles in “A Beautiful Mind” (where he met Jennifer Connelly, who is now his wife) and “The Da Vinci Code” but it was his role as the archangel Michael in “Legion” (incidentally the film directorial debut of Stewart, who now directs “Priest) that earned him the reputation that he could pull off an action role.

“‘Legion was about forgiveness. ‘Priest’ is about revenge and fury. The story is classic. It’s like a Greek tragedy,” describes Bettany. “[The movie] is beautifully designed, it has a gripping story and the dialogue scenes are really full. You add amazing visual effects and stunt choreography, then throw vampires into the mix and it is quite a fun adventure to go on.”

In fact, Bettany insisted on doing most of his stunts himself. “I was on a motorbike alongside the train and I had to stand up and jump onto it,” he recalls. “And I did think, what on earth am I doing? But I trained for nine months to get physically fit enough for the job. I really wanted to do as much of the action as I could. When you’re up on wires, it’s like being a kid again. I would be lying if I said that that wasn’t one of the reasons I became an actor.”

Aside from Bettany, Gigandet and Maggie Q, “Priest” also stars Karl Urban (“The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King”) as the Priest’s nemesis Black Hat, who wants the Priest to join forces with him; Stephen Moyer (HBO’s vampire series “True Blood”) as Owen, the Priest’s brother; and legendary actor Christopher Plummer (“A Beautiful Mind,” and the classic “The Sound of Music”) as the Monsignor, whom Plummer describes as “a horrible priest gone wrong—a lovely, stylish villain.”

For graphic novel fans, on the other hand, “Priest” creator Min-Woo Hyung and TokyoPop created a graphic novel series called “Priest Purgatory” that shows the origins of the world in the film, and take readers back to the vampire wars and its origin, as well as show Priest and his peers in their younger days.

“Priests” goes on a vampire offensive as it opens on local theaters on May 11.