13 Mar 2007

Blood and Chocolate

Director: Katja von Garnier

Starring: Agnes Bruckner, Hugh Dancy, Olivier Martinez, Katja Riemann, Bryan Dick, Chris Geere, Tom Harper, John Kerr, Jack Wilson, Vitalie Ursu, Bogdan Voda, Kata Dob, Rodica Mandache, Lia Bugnar, Mihai Calin

Release: 2007-03-13

Here is yet another unsatisfying B-grade horror film.

This time, it involves a Romanian werewolf girl (Agnes Bruckner) who falls in love with a human boy (Hugh Dancy). Things couldn't be worse since Agnes is considered to be the best candidate to be the mate for the Prince Werewolf (Olivier Martinez, aka Kylie's ex-bf). So before anyone can say "full moon", the scene is set for a confrontation between the humans and the hirsute horrors...

Filmed on location in Romania, this werewolf film has a wonderful Gothic sensibility, which one can hardly find in today's horror films. Unfortunately it's not just its mood and atmosphere that harks back to earlier horror films. The special effects also look very 1980s and that's way too outdated to please the CGI-spoilt audiences of today.

Based on a young adult novel by Annette Curtis Klause, the film is unlikely to impress anyone not even the novel's small fan-base.