Masters of Horror - Mick Garris - Chocolate (2005)

When a young man named Jamie starts experiencing glimpses of life through the eyes of a stranger he is both startled and intrigued. The more he learns about the woman who's reaching out to him the more infatuated and frightened he becomes.System Requirements:Running Time 60 Mins.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: HORROR Rating: NR UPC: 013131446395 Manufacturer No: DV14463 Product Description

Possibly the worst episode of Masters of Horror

Mick Garris created Masters of Horror, and since the horror anthology's inception, it has had it's share of good and bad. Garris himself, who also directed the TV adaptations of Stephen King's The Shining, The Stand, Desperation, and Riding the Bullet, makes his MOH directorial debut with Chocolate, and as a previous reviewer so excellently stated, the taste in your mouth that Chocolate leaves doesn't live up to it's namesake. Henry Thomas plays a man who begins to experience the sensations of a woman (Stacy Grant) in Canada, and he looks to track her down. What follows is much less an exercise in horror and instead pure boredom with zilch in the way of any thrills. Now I admire what Garris has done with Masters of Horror and many of the directors (John Carpenter, Don Coscarelli, Tobe Hooper, Joe Dante, John Landis, Lucky McKee, Larry Cohen, Takishi Miike, and more) he has enlisted, but as a screenwriter and director, he frequently fumbles. Chocolate is no different, and it is an ultimate failure on every level, and may very well be the worst episode of Masters of Horror to see the light of day. Avoid, no matter how much you love horror or the series. November 7, 2007

...And the disappointments keep coming

Jamie (Henry Thomas) begins experiencing the physical sensations of another person, some of which are quite shocking. After he manages to trace them to a young woman living in Canada (Stacy Grant), he decides to meet her with tragic results.

I've about had it with this series. What wasted potential! Of the several episodes I've seen so far, only Tobe Hooper's "Dance of the Dead" has delivered. This episode isn't really horror. It's more of a psychological thriller without any thrills. It begins intriguingly enough (I always come to these episodes with a lot of goodwill because I really want to like them), but it soon becomes apparent that we have nothing but a random hodgepodge of psychic phenomena and betrayed lovers, none of which is tied together very well.

Don't misunderstand me. I don't always need everything explained and wrapped up in a tidy package for me, but there are two kinds of ambiguity. One leaves with the impression that somewhere beneath the surface of events is a coherent explanation for what we have seen if we could just uncover it. The other reveals a director and/or screenwriter who doesn't know how to conclude the story. This film has the latter.
September 1, 2007

Fell Short

This one attempts to be a hefty psycho/charater study piece, but when all is said and done comes up pretty shallow. While I admire Garris for coming up with the Masters of Horror series (which I say overall has been great), I don't think anything he's done makes him a 'Master of Horror.'

Chocolate is watchable, and sort of equates to an okay but forgettable Twilght Zone episode. The main character played by Henry Thomas in no way solicits sympathy nor any strong emotional attachment for that matter. The film leaves questions unanswered and offers up little in the way of brain candy, excitement or character development.

Certainly one of the weaker installments, but again, if you have the time and desire then know what you're getting into. May 31, 2007

Chocolate is an acquired taste

The MASTERS OF HORROR series was created by Mick Garris, so his entry would have to be pretty great, huh? Well, to some, his entry, 'Chocolate', is probably a mind trip and very good. To others, it's a different brown entity besides chocolate.
I am somewhere in the middle. I found it interesting, and definitely different. The other directors in the series opted for psychological or flat-out physical terror. 'Chocolate', on the other hand, is not meant to scare as much as it is meant to intrigue or cause mild quivers. It has many sexual undertones as well, enough so to make teenage boys interested in this entry. Nudity, guys, nudity.
Anyway, nudity aside, 'Chocolate' is about a man played by Henry Thomas who is a divorcee and really has nothing going on in his life. His job is to basically study different tastes, which becomes more than just an occupation when he begins to taste chocolate, someone else's chocolate (oooh, or is it ew?). Then he sees, hears, and feels like someone else, a young woman to be exact, and this becomes both a blessing and a curse (a blessing as it finally gives him the feelings he sorely lacks, a curse as sometimes he sees and feels things he doesn't want to). He decides to track the woman down after murder comes into the equation, and the plot thickens...
So 'Chocolate' is not a bad entry, just not the best. So if you're a MASTERS OF HORROR fan and haven't seen this one, give it a shot. I mean, the guy created the series. May 27, 2007

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the supporting characters are interesting but the main character is a complete bore and his supernatural sensory experiences are too. most scenes could have been edited down to half their length without losing any dialogue or action. the newspaper dude saying "wanna buy yer own" was funny though. he had a stupid voice. i thought this would be the dullest of the series and so far it has been. May 4, 2007

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