Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Just perfect...

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

While I was watching "Chocolate", I couldn't help thinking it looked a lot like Stephen King's horror novels, so I wasn't surprised when I learned it was written by Mick Garris, a die hard King fan.It's not the stereotypical horror story with lots of blood and/or monsters from hell, and focuses on psychological horror, just like in the best Stephen King's novels. It's really worth a watch and if you like good horror stories you can't miss this one.The acting is fairly good and the story is easy to understand and follow, with a very nice twist at the end. The only bad thing I see in it is that it is a bit short and the story has a few holes that could have been filled if it had been made into a full length movie and not just a TV series chapter. I really do think the script deserved a movie.

I have become a big fan of the "Masters Of Horror" series, which any fan of the Horror genre should give a try. The series, which, among others contains episodes directed by Dario Argento, John Carpenter and Takashi Miike, was created by Mick Garris, who had the idea for this great show. "Chocolate", the fifth episode of the first season, and Garris' first contribution to the series as a director, however, sadly disappoints. The only reason to call Garris a 'Master Of Horror' is his idea for the MoH series anyway, since he has never written nor directed any essential Horror film. It is understandable that the man who had the idea for the entire series would also want to direct an episode, however. And "Chocolate" is not necessarily bad, but it is by far my least favorite episode of the MoH series so far, just too little Horror and too much boredom and beating around the bush, as far as I am considered.Possible Minor SPOILERS! Jamie (Henry Thomas), a recently divorced guy who works in a laboratory developing flavors for the food industry, suddenly starts having strange visions. At first he thinks it's the chemicals at work, but he soon suspects he's seeing through somebody else's eyes sometimes. He find's out that his visions show him the life of a beautiful young woman he has never met before, he becomes obsessed with her..."Chocolate" has some interesting moments, but over all it is more of a Drama then it is horror - and it is not a good Drama. The episode is almost suspense-less, and apart from the beautiful female cast and a (little) bit of weirdness in a few parts, it is not really worthwhile. The acting is not bad, and Jamie's visions have some style and originality, but over all the episode disappoints. Still worth watching if you plan to see the entire series (such as I do), but out of all the episodes I've seen so far (about 15, some from the first season, some from the second) "Chocolate" is the least interesting.

Masters of Horror: Chocolate starts as recently the divorced Jamie (Henry Thomas) wakes up one morning with the taste of chocolate in his mouth for no apparent reason, then shortly after his own hearing goes & finally his sight which are replaced with those from a mysterious woman whom he falls in love with. However this psychic connection isn't all good as while 'inside her' he witnesses her commit a murder, Jamie is now determined to track her down & get to the bottom of everything...This Canadian American co-production was episode 5 from season 1 of the hit-and-miss Masters of Horror TV series, the first of two episodes so far to be directed by the show's creator & regular producer Mick Garris this particular story didn't do much for me. The script by Garris based on his own short story could be described as When Harry Met Sally... (1989) crossed with Eyes of Laura Mars (1978) & as far as I'm concerned it's not a match made in heaven. I will concede that the basic story is quite good but I found it rather slow going, I was disappointed by the lack of horror & supernatural elements as it plays more like a straight thriller & overall Chocolate never really drew me in. The mystery side of things are OK but the viewer knows who committed the murder so in that regard it's not exactly a mystery & I felt the ending is rather abrupt & unsatisfactory. Still, at least it's not as bad as The Screwfly Solution from season 2.Director Garris does a good job, it looks nice enough although it's not the most visually stylish 60 odd minutes ever committed to film/video. There is a distinct lack of exploitation in Chocolate despite an amusing scene where Catherine is sexually pleasing herself in the bath with the shower head & Jamie can feel her orgasm, there's the usual female nudity & sex but gore wise all we get is a knife slicing a stomach open & a shot of a spear going through someone's hand. Since Chocolate doesn't really play like a conventional horror film there's no scares or tangible atmosphere.Technically Chocolate is very good, it has nice production values & as usual for Masters of Horror it looks better than most made-for-TV stuff. The acting is alright although Matt Frewer dressed as a punk rocker complete with Mohawk hairdo looks a tad silly.Chocolate isn't the worst Masters of Horror I've seen but yet again it just disappoints as being average at best & boring nonsense at worst, in truth it's maybe somewhere between the two in my opinion. Worth a watch if your a fan of the series but others may want to give it a miss.

From the man that brought you...uh...well...nothing really notable honestly - comes CHOCOLATE, another pretty good MASTERS OF HORROR short film. A few parts were a bit drawn out and weak, but overall I'd say this one was pretty solid...Elliott from E.T. starts having strange hallucinations where he experiences things from the "viewpoint" of a woman he's never met. These experiences include getting boned, masturbating with a shower nozzle, and killing her abusive boyfriend. Elliott tracks the woman down in Canada and confronts her on their "psychic-link". Of course she thinks he's a whack-job, but starts playin' along once she realizes that he knows about the murder and the cops are lookin' for her. This plays into the "dramatic" end that pretty much ties it all up...Some good things to note - a good bit of hot chick tits for a short feature, and a decent storyline to boot. Nothing super-original or "great" - but interesting and entertaining enough. As for the down-side - this could have been cut by another 10-15 minutes and still been just as (if not more...) effective. And old-ass Matt Frewer (Max Headroom, anyone???) as an aging faux-mohawked guitarist for a lame metal band was a bad casting call as well. Regardless - I don't think I would have wanted to see this as a feature-length film - but for a 50-ish minute short film from a hack director, I was entertained enough...7/10