Reel Horror

Blood & Chocolate asin: B000OCY7TY

Blood and Chocolate; not necessarily a werewolf movie, not necessarily a romance, just a movie straddling the fence to appeal to as many people as possible. This never really works, but this movie had its moments.

The movie, originally a young adult novel written by Annette Curtis Klause, follows a young girl named Vivien (The Woods' Agnes Bruckner) who was born a shape-shifter into a tribe called the loup garoux. Ten years before, in the mountains of Colorado, Vivien witnessed the brutal murder of her family by a pack of hunters. She escaped, but for her future safety the loup garoux's pack leader, Gabriel (Taking Lives Olivier Martinez) relocated her to Bucharest to be with her "family".

Now Vivien is living amongst her pack in relative safety, following strict pack rule set up by Gabriel. One rule is that members of the pack must never hunt alone, a rule that Vivien's cousin Rafe (Bryan Dick), and next and line does not follow, and another rule, in order for the survival of the dwindling loup garoux clan, is that Gabriel takes on a new bride every seven years. Vivien is next. However, when her affections for a visiting American graphic novelist, Aiden, (Basic Instinct's Hugh Dancy) threatens to expose her family's secret society, she must choose between her love for a human and betraying the secret vows of her family.

The marketing for this film, from the preview all the way down to the website, was touting Blood and Chocolate as a modern day love story resembling Romeo and Juliet, the world of the loup garoux, or werewolf, versus the world of the human. I think marketing it this way was a decision made early on, as Blood and Chocolate was produced by Lakeshore Entertainment, the same producers behind the very successful Underworld movies. Underworld truly did manage to capture the story of the star-crossed lovers trapped on opposing sides, but Blood and Chocolate did not. It never gave you the opportunity. You got to know the inner workings of the loup garoux pack on an intimate level, which were some of the best parts of the movie, but the few human characters shown are rather unlikable or one-demential. There's the red-dressed, vixen temptress who gets it in the beginning, and she totally deserved it. There's the drug dealer bailed out of jail only to be chased down and eaten because he was selling drugs to children. You didn't mind him dying either. Then there's Aiden the human love interest. You do like him, but he's a bad boy with a dark past. The movie even begins with Vivien's parents being gunned down by the hunters. With all of those examples, are we supposed to like humans at all? There is no equal ground between these two worlds. The humans are unruly because of their lack of order, something that the loup garoux spent 2,000 years perfecting, and Vivien is about to screw it all up.

Actually it wasn't that I wanted these two kids to be together because I felt that there really can be a just world with a place for all all types of love, but more because Gabriel and all of his followers kept telling Vivien that she couldn't be with a human. Then my anti-authority, "you can't tell her what to do" side of my personality got ruffled and wanted the lovers to piss on everyone's rules, and they do.

I've read online that some die hard werewolf fans couldn't be bothered with the way they presented the werewolves, much less the romance, but I quite liked it. Aiden, who I affectionately call "exposition man" lays it all out for us. The loup garoux aren't the werewolves that people know from literature. There is no curse or mark of the beast causing painful changes of the full moon creating dangerous creatures that can only be hunted down in order to save themselves and everyone around them. No, they are born werewolves, not made. They can change at will almost transcendentally, and they weren't all hunted down because they weren't dangerous, they were actually worshipped and adored. And with that, "exposition man" managed to piss off the majority of the audience, the werewolf fans who bought their tickets because they thought that they were going to see a werewolf movie worthy of a tormented Lon Chaney Jr.; but as I said before, I quite like the change.

I loved that Blood and Chocolate took a different approach with the werewolves, that they weren't the worst of wolves and the worst of humans, creating bloodthirsty killing machines, but that they were instead the best qualities of both, shape-shifting into something better, transcendental. I loved that pack order was thoroughly delved into showing the hierarchy and structure and the break down of structure, reminding me of furry version of the royal family. And I loved that they actually used real wolves in the changes. No masks or body suits here. The best part of the movie though, was where the director Katja von Garnier (Bandits) seemed to take the most time exploring, "the hunt". All of the loup garoux gather together in their sacred circle to hunt the wicked drug dealer mentioned earlier and to feast upon him if he can't reach the safe zone in time. This chase was absolutely beautiful. The drug dealer running for his life, plodded along clumsily, sweating, like an oaf, but the loup garoux chasing him seemed to float along effortlessly out of time, in a sort of ballet choreographed to a very interesting piece of music combining middle-eastern rhythms and instrumentation with a techno back-beat. They, like the music, were the perfect combination of old world and the new, wolf and human. Then they would change into a beautiful ball of silver light, coming out as wolves on the other side. It was hypnotic.

So, don't see this movie if you are expecting the greatest star-crossed lovers to ever appear on the screen, and don't see this movie if you are hoping to see a traditional, rip-your-throat-out werewolf movie. Do see this movie, however, if you would like to see a romance only worthy of the CW, taking place in a political world where to be a loup garoux is pretty kick ass, maybe even wonderful, if only the pack can keep the next generation in line.