DVD Review: Blood & Chocolate

By Jeff Swindoll Jun 15, 2007, 18:03 GMT

As a young girl living in the remote mountains of Colorado, Vivian (Bruckner) watched helplessly as her family was murdered by a pack of angry men for the secret they carried in their blood.  Vivian survived the attack by running into the woods and changing into a wolf. Ten years later, Vivian is living a relatively safe and normal life in Bucharest, Romania.  Vivian spends her days working in a ...more

Based on the young adult novel of the same name, Blood & Chocolate tells the story of a pack of loup-garous (aka werewolves) that has an American cousin return to their ranks.  She falls in love with a visiting graphic novelist and soon the pack is in turmoil. 

What the back of the box says:
“A werewolf tale from the producers of Underworld, Blood & Chocolate tells the tale of Vivian (Agnes Bruckner), a young teenage girl who must choose between her love for a young artist and loyalty to her werewolf lineage. Others may have secrets, but none as extraordinary as Vivian.

One of the last of her kind, she comes from a line of loup-garoux, shape shifters able to transform into the form of both human and wolf at will. When Vivian's affections for a visiting artist threaten to reveal her family's secret society, she must decide whether to follow her heart or betray the secret vows of her family.”

I’m not familiar with the young adult book that the film is based on but if you cruise over to Wikipedia, some dedicated fan of it has gone into all of the differences between the novel and the film and there are quite a few.  The main difference of note is that the novel takes place in America and in the film they’ve shifted the story to Romania to no doubt save on production costs (which should give you some idea of where this review is going since money matters seemed to take precedent over plot). 

The werewolves are called loup-garous, which at first I had to say “what?”  Now the usual money shot in a werewolf movies are the transformation scenes but this one really fails on that count.  The actors jump into the air rather like acrobats, a vague glow forms around them, and they turn into a wolf…not some hirsute, drooling, muscle-bound beast but an actual wolf.  To make it more amusing, they’re clothed when they change but are PG-13 nude when they return to human form. 

What happened to their clothes?  Did they disintegrate or did they go to the land of lost socks?  They must spend a bundle on clothes.  It’s rather ineffective for a film that “comes from the producers of Underworld” as the front of the box has emblazed on it since the action nowhere near equals what happens in Underworld.  The Romeo and Juliet type plot is overly familiar as he falls for a girl that’s more likely to have a litter if he mates with her. 

The actors are also of a mixed breed since they appear to have been taken from around the globe – Olivier Martinez (French), Hugh Dancy and Bryan Dick (English), Katja Riemann (German) and Agnes Bruckner (American).  There also seemed to be some thought that a film series would follow but the poor box office of the film seemed to put an end to all those thoughts.  

Blood & Chocolate is presented in fullscreen and anamorphic widescreen (2.35:1) enhanced for 16x9 televisions.  Special features include a commentary with director Katja von Garnier and head loup-garoux Olivier Martinez.  There are also 11 minutes of deleted scenes and previews of other Sony DVDs. 

Blood & Chocolate tries hard but never really succeeds.  The placement of “from the producers of Underworld” makes the viewer think that they’re in for a different kind of ride and they get more of a young adult/Romeo and Juliet style story.  From the sound of things the book sounded much better, but this movie is sunk by silly performances and special effects. 

Blood & Chocolate is now available at Amazon. It is available for pre-order at AmazonUK for a June 25th release. Visit the DVD database for more information.