When the taste of bitter BLOOD combined with SWEET chocolate . . (Blood And Chocolate (DVD))

Member Name: karimkha

Product:	Blood And Chocolate (DVD)
Date:	13/07/09 (218 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: New view of romance, good story and some breathtaking scenes!

Disadvantages: Low budget film, some silly scenes and lack of special effects

== Please note it's a film only review ==

One night . . . I wasn't able to sleep . . . it was exceedingly hot and clammy, the mosquitoes were sucking my blood cheerfully while I was itching and scratching like a cat contaminated with fleas!

Therefore, I looked for the remote control that was hidden by one of my little monkeys and I started to look through the TV channels looking for a decent film to watch and forget about my bruised skin from the bites!

Ah . . . a film had just started! The tile grabbed my attention so I tuned in and concentrated!

== Blood and Chocolate . . . or maybe death and love? ==

The first thing I saw was the name of the film . . . I thought how anomalous! It's not the best and attractive film title but when I watched the film . . . I got the hidden message behind the name . . .

== The storyline (based on a book) ==

Vivian Gandillon (Agnes Bruckner), a 19-year-old beautiful American young woman, witnessed the murder of her parents in front of her eyes ten years ago and she feels that it was all her fault!

The "hunters" must have followed her trails to her place and saw her and her parents then killed them with cold blood!

She survived by running as fast as she could in the woods and now she lives "safely" (or maybe not?) in Bucharest working in a small chocolate shop and living with her auntie Astrid (Katja Riemann).

The story seems rather normal until this point . . . Vivian appears to be a normal orphaned teenager who lives with a relative and works for her living . . . but Vivian is no ordinary girl! She has carrying a huge secret throughout her life! She was born with it; she is pretending to be an average girl but alas, she's not! She won't run away from the truth . . . she is harbouring another soul inside her . . . she is a 'loup-garoux' - more commonly known as A WEREWOLF! The Loup-garoux have survived for centuries from the hunters and managed to hide their real identity from the people.

Werewolves live together in groups called packs. The leader of the pack Gabriel (Olivier Martinez) a slightly older and extremely hot leader dressed in black all the time had his laws and rules that all werewolves must respect and obey. One of his rules was taking a new mate (partner) every seven years and young Vivian was the next female as Gabriel fancied her and according to their mythology . . . a female werewolf from leaders' blood will be their salvation and Vivian was the one in his eyes!

The poor girl struggles between her life as a woman who enjoys selling and eating chocolates and looking for love, and her other self as a werewolf who is longing for blood and human flesh!

She was living her life day by day as usual until she met a perfectly normal human Aiden (Hugh Dancy) who happen to break into a church secretly to explore (innocently and without any idea) the legends of werewolves and their power to change effortlessly into humans or werewolves. Aiden was very interested to know about the loup-garoux and unpredictably he met one of them face to face but he didn't know!

She fell for him the very first moment and so did he , after few chats and discussions about loup-garoux existence, he wanted to see her again so after few tries he managed to trace where she was and found her, then dated her!
Everything went by very fast and the pure innocent love had grown between the Human and the animal . . . the hunter and the prey . . . but who is the hunter and who is the prey?

She was torn between telling him the truth or hiding it; she thought she might manage to carry on without saying anything to him . . . until her cousin Rafe discovered her secret relationship and told Aiden the whole thing about his lover!
From that very moment the war between the pack and Aiden had started. The blood was everywhere. Aiden had to face Rafe first, and then the whole pack of werewolves because of his love for Vivian . . . the question is, "will he face them?" Or will he just withdraw and play it safe, jumping into the nearest train; forgetting
about everything including his love for Vivian?

Does he now believe that werewolves exist after he thought they were extinct? He knows that silver is their biggest threat . . . it can burn them . . . but how can he face them? They can eat him alive! He has to choose or is it too late? He knew their secret now so he is a threat. Will Vivian control the animal inside her? Or a blood hungry werewolf inside her will succeed?

== My opinion about the story. . . ==

Blood and chocolate is classified as a horror movie but I don't see any kind of dreadfulness or terror. I always mention in my comments and reviews that I hate horror movies and there's no way I can watch it but when I watched that film I didn't know that it was categorised as a horror movie, I only discovered that when I was doing the research to write my review. It had some bloody scenes and some extreme violence; it even had some heart-racing events and some shocking images, but these are nothing compared to the SAW films!

The certificate of this film is 13 PG which I found it odd in some way . . . how can a 13 year old child watch a horror film or at least a violent film packed with quite a lot of raw meat (human flesh), sex and nudity, some of which really seemed pointless and gratuitous.

In my opinion, I would pigeonhole this film as thriller-romantic; it has love, passion and makes me smile in some way (I know I was supposed to be scared) but I felt entertained instead of tense!

The extraordinary love story was moving and full of teenage emotions. Vivian was torn between her tradition (obeying her family and giving herself to Gabriel the pack leader, or following her true love to Aiden. She felt her humanity with him; well she always acted like a human trying to forget her wild side; she went with the pack every month when the moon was full for hunting (the prey normally a human, usually who had offended them in some way or whom they saw as a threat). She never hunted to live; she only goes because she enjoys running freely in the woods . . . her inner self was pure; she cares about the human race!

== The film has a new view about werewolves . . . it has changed some old beliefs about them! ==

The first thing comes to your mind when hearing the word 'werewolf' is the full moon and an ugly, hairy, half-human, half-wolf creature. In this film, the director has tried to change our views and ideas about werewolves and maybe make us feel sorry for them somehow!

Yes, the idea of full moon and man-hunting still exists but they only hunt the people who offend them. More importantly, they CAN change shape whenever they want, they can control themselves in any way however it's another story when seeing the BLOOD. Their shape changing is not only when the moon is full. They can control their emotions when and where to change.

Another 'myth' about werewolves was corrected by Aiden when he discussed (unknowingly) the werewolves' story with Vivian, a person can become a werewolf only if they're born as one but you can't be a werewolf when you bitten by one!

=== Some pros and cons : ===

=== Shooting the film (the setting) ===

The film looks incredibly cheap. It was filmed in Bucharest in some very poor parts in the city; small alleyways, washing hanging out over balconies and children playing in the alley and yet also some beautiful and attractively appealing panoramic views of this ancient and artistic city and some breathtaking views of the city from high. Some beautiful churches were filmed as well. Some other natural shots are taken in the woods and the river where the most thrilling action took place.

== Actors ==

The actors were "good" but there was nothing special about them
As I said, the low budget film means fewer actors. The really good actors in my opinion were less than a handful.

== Vivian ==

The least of what I can say that the main character Vivian ((Agnes Bruckner) was emotionless! I couldn't tell the difference, when she was angry, frightened, smiling or even kissing! The same look every time. She is very beautiful and the direction was successful when choosing her (perhaps to prove some irony here?) . . . how beautiful and angelic this girl looks but no one knows the "beast" she carried inside her. Her tone of voice hardly changed: she is very calm, speaks slowly. Sometimes she irritated me in some scenes when she was supposed to act differently; I guess this is a point against the actor.

== Aiden ==

Aiden (Hugh Dancy) was one of my favourites. Great actor, great personality amiable; and yes, he had emotions and feelings. I liked his charismatic smile. He played his role very well as a sensitive artist and comic writer; a very delicate man who rebelled against his father and was lost in the world, trying to hide from him by writing only his initials on his books. Hugh Dancy managed to shift this highly sensitive personality into the more aggressive, self-defending character successfully. I think Dancy was the best among them all.

== Gabriel (Olivier Martinez) ==

He is a sex bomb: very attractive! He completely fitted the role. He is the leader of the pack; he is the one who set the rules and laws and is sort of sex-obsessed! He changes his "mate" every seven years according to his law and Vivian was due to be next.

Sadly, his part wasn't much, as the main story was set about Aiden and Vivian, but he was the most entertaining in his few scenes.

He acted like a real leader, had the antagonistic forceful look but was still sexy; he loved his son Rafe and tried to help him to control his animal desires and prepare him to be the pack leader after himself. He showed some emotions well.

I loved his acting, the tall, dark and handsome actor fulfils his role very well, and the only point against him was his accent! All the other werewolves speak perfect English (with an American accent) while his French accent still strongly exists! This was nothing major, however.

== Rafe (Bryan Dick) and the five ==

I absolutely hated him! He acted like an animal, he was the nastiest beast, enjoyed hunting every full moon, and enjoying the taste of bitter blood in his mouth. Rafe and his gang of misbehaved "animals" who call themselves "the five" go to bars every night looking for their kind of "fun" with girls (if Rafe is refused by any girl . . . she will be his next feast!)

Maybe it was because he played his role very well that I hated him. It wasn't a chief role but his existence changed the actions and tied the storyline together and brought it to the end.

== And finally Astrid (Katja Riemann) ==

Her appearance didn't do much to the film; she is the owner of the chocolate shop, one of Gabriel's ex-mates and Rafe's mother. She put some sort of balance in the story. She did a couple of movements that helped the story to move on in a different direction but again no key role here.

== The film was directed by Katja von Garnier ==

I was surprised that this film was directed by a female director. The German director tried her best to work with such a low budget set to produce this thriller film. The director didn't use many special effects; the only thing she used was the transforming process from human to werewolves and it wasn't very convincing, for many reasons.

They jump in the air like frogs or rabbits, a bright white flash appeared and there you go . . . a werewolf is here! I was very disappointed by this transformation. There was No imagination, no excitement and it was definitely very lame! I have seen some films about werewolves where they show you the transformation slowly and more frighteningly; this one was like a joke, or they were simply mocking us!
The director here was brave enough to have used real wolves, no makeup or special effects, only real and trained ones. No one did that before, which made the story more realistic looking but it had some weak points which got me wondering . . .

After finishing their hunting and the fights, or after being killed, they changed into human beings again . . . ironically to come back completely naked! This made me think again each time . . . why did they jump into the air? Where did their clothes go when they changed into werewolves? Their clothes just disappeared! We don't see traces of the clothes on the werewolf body or on the floor. I think this was weakest point in the film and it raised lot of questions.

There were not many sex scenes or excessive kissing in the film but some good deal of nudity (due to the above!) There were some irritating blood and flesh views but not horrific.

The ending was very disappointing and very annoying . . . I didn't expect such an ending.

== My final thoughts ==

It's not the perfect horror-thrill-romantic-drama-fantasy film but it was worth watching. Quite a short film as well at 98 minutes, but again, with a low budget you can't do much.

My advice to you is, don't read the book before watching the film. I read the book after watching the film and found it completely different. Only a few major stories and incidents (and of course the characters names) are the same but the rest of the story and the characters' behaviours are something else!

I recommend seeing the film, if you are into romance but if you are looking for a bloodshed horror movie...it's not for you. Some people may have found a slight similarity between the Romeo and Juliet story: their pure impossible love and the family traditions, objections and hatred for each other's race.

The film left some traces inside me and I can definitely watch it again; maybe with better views and fewer expectations.

== I still have one question with no answer. ==

It was mentioned in the film by Aiden that you can't be a werewolf if you are bitten by one - you are only born as a werewolf . . . but what will happen if a human marries a werewolf? Will they then be half-human-half werewolf? But if they are already half-human, how could that be?

It was a Romantic film with a twist . . . or a horror film with a dash of romance!

DVD can be available online or on shops or you can simply rent it. Prices are varied from 0.99p-£16 depending on the condition and some other special offers.

Thanks for reading.

'''© Karimkha ~ ~ ~ July ~ ~ ~ 2009'''

This review was posted on ciao under the same username

Summary: Romantic-horror film!