Being a fan of werewolf movies, I was quite looking forward to this release of Blood & Chocolate on Blu-ray.

The film centers on Vivian (Agnes Bruckner), who works at a chocolate shop, but she also has a craving for something else. She’s part of a pack of werewolves, living in Bucharest, who gather once a month when the moon is full to find humans and tear them to shreds after they all transform into wolves. Any human who makes it to the river at the edge of the woods will be spared, but so far, no o…e has ever made it. All Vivian really enjoys is the running part. In fact, she’d like to separate herself completely from the wolf shapeshifters, or loup garoux but instead is relegated to becoming the next new bride of their leader Gabriel (Olivier Martinez). Things are about to change, however. While lounging around in an old abandoned church, she meets Aiden (Hugh Dancy), a talented graphic artist and researcher obsessed with her kind. She tries to avoid him, he tries to forget her, but their paths inevitably cross too many times to ignore. He finds her at the chocolate shop, and they end up having a secret romance. And when Aiden becomes the next contestant in the werewolf run, Vivian is helpless to stop it.

Video

For this transfer Sony went with a Blu-ray 25 GB disc (BD25) and an MPEG2 2.35:1 encode averaging around 22- 25 Mbps. This transfer is actually quite solid and does an exceptional job with dark scene (which there are many in this film). Flesh tones seemed to be spot-on and this transfer lacked any film debris or noise to my eye. This film does have a fair amount of grain. After doing some research this grain was the Director?s intent. It in no way takes from the over-all strong picture quality of this release.

Audio

Audio is an additional area where this Blu-ray transfer does quite well. I watched this film using the PCM 5.1 sound format at a bit rate of 1.5 Mbps. The overall sound of the film is very clear, powerful and encompassing. Dialog can be heard very well with details you may have missed at the theater and this transfer makes good use of the LFE channel and the surrounds. During an early scene with an explosion it was one of the best LFE I have heard on any HD format to date.

Special Features

This new release of Blood & Chocolate is sparse of extras. Here is a glimpse of what is included:

• Deleted Scenes
• Commentary With Director Katja Von Garnier And Oliver Martinez

Final Thoughts

I am very happy with the picture and audio quality of this release, however the storyline did very little for me. I guess I am not one for werewolf love stories, just not my cup of tea. However, if you do like this combination or if you have already seen this film and enjoyed it, I can definitely recommend the purchase on Blu-ray as there is a lot of eye candy.

Special Features List

• Deleted Scenes
• Commentary With Director Katja Von Garnier And Oliver Martinez