Review: ‘Blood & Chocolate’ on DVD

Blood & Chocolate was directed by Katja von Garnier (Bandits). Aside from the really bad title (although it does make sense once you’ve seen the movie), it isn’t a complete failure. The one decent thing it has going for it is an attempted twist on the werewolf story, which on its own was intriguing, but not enough to carry this mostly unexciting and slow-moving drama. I really wouldn’t call it much of a horror film, as its rated PG-13 and understandably so. There is very little blood, or even violence, and the special effects left me wanting on a highly disappointing level.

The SFX used to show the transformation of the loup-garoux (as the Romanian folklore refers to these werewolves, revered as “chosen ones”) are pretty lame, consisting of some simple computer light & morph FX. In this story, the loup-garoux due not change from humans into massive, savage and scary murdering machines, but instead into actual wolves. They also are not limited to changing during a full moon, but instead shape-shift at will. About the only “traditional” werewolf trait the loup-garoux maintain is that they are highly vulnerable to silver.

The story of Blood & Chocolate centers on Vivian (Agnus Bruckner), a young female loup-garoux who is promised to Gabriel (Olivier Martinez), the “pack leader” of the loup-garoux. Vivian has her reservations about marrying Gabriel, which only increase after meeting Aiden (Hugh Dancy), an American graphic novelist in visiting Romania. Vivian finds herself falling in love with Aiden, but must way that love against the danger it presents to both of them. Really, this movie is mostly a romance story with an extremely watered down werewolf undercurrent used to add some depth to the story. I’m not going to call Blood & Chocolate a complete waste of time, however I’m also not necessarily recommending it either.

[rating:2/5]

DVD Features:

• Commentary with Olivier Martinez and Director Katja von Garnier
• Deleted Scenes
• Previews