Mick Garris had an idea.  This idea was brought about by several gatherings of some of horror film's finest; including Romero, Carpenter, Hooper and Argento.  Whether it was for dinner, a few drinks, or a group showing at a premiere; this group of horror "masters" always had a blast and thoroughly enjoyed talking shop and bouncing ideas off one another.  But Garris saw things a bit different; what if he could bring all of these fantastic and genre defining horror directors to a showcase where THEY were the stars...more so then their films, the stories or the acting talent.

This would mean total free reign.  No MPAA ratings board to hack apart a director's vision.  No studios to tear apart a story, demand rewrites or replace a director outright.  No motivations other than making the best damn piece of horror that they can make...period.  Alright, maybe a little bit of competition between directors to show one another up, or at least rise to the level of their peers, but overall...just vision, talent and storytelling.  Having always referred to their group, tongue-in-cheek of course, as the "Masters Of Horror", this would become the perfect name for a project of such scope and importance to the genre.

When the series was picked up by Showtime in a "one-hour each" format, it became very important to Garris that these installments feel like cinematic releases.  In his own words, "You don't think your watching television, and your not...your watching one hour movies. These are movies, they're not episodes of a TV series".  Ironically, Garris's own film, Chocolate, feels more like a television episode than any of the other "Masters Of Horror" films released to DVD thus far.  In fact it feels VERY much like an episode of "The Twilight Zone" or "The Outer Limits" and has precious little "horror" within its hour run time at all.

The story of Chocolate was written by Mick Garris years and years ago, but was shelved for a variety of reasons until it seemingly fit this format perfectly.  In it, Jamie (Henry Thomas) has just suffered through a bad divorce and is currently in a limbo that involves very little more than his empty apartment and his stale job at a food flavorings laboratory.  While his senses are heightened to the point where he can isolated smells and ingredients from across a room, he has a complete inability to recognize the fact that his life is on the fast track to no where at all.  Something his compatriots and friends try in vain to tell him.

One night, alone in his bed, he awakens to the smell and taste of chocolate in his nose and mouth...with no explanation.  Slowly over the next several days, these invasions of sensations continue at random and expand to include sight and feelings of touch.  At random moments, Jamie feels that his body is someone else's, that he is seeing through someone else's eyes, feeling what someone else's body feels.  And then the emotions set in...love, pain, pleasure, lust...all of them piped directly into Jamie as though through a funnel.

Eventually, he discovers that these sensations and emotions are all coming from one single person, and that his body is being taken over by an unknown woman.  Is she trying to communicate?  Is she crying out for help? Attention?  Is she even aware of these transmissions?  Maybe she is receiving transmissions back from Jamie...  All unanswered questions, all intriguing, and all quite impossible to ignore.  Soon Jamie is on a mission to discover the identity of this woman; a woman whom he is now sure that he is in love with.  Having felt her from the inside, he holds an awareness of her entire being that no other man could hope to achieve; and he is all too willing to sacrifice his friends, family, personal and professional life to look further.

What Jamie finds is not perhaps what he (or the viewer) expected, and there is a very real danger that Jamie will be destroyed both physically and mentally by this obsession.  When his visions turn bloody and violent he is spurned on ever faster; but towards what?  The climax of this tale is one that is at the same time rewarding and horrifying for all of those in this world who have dreamed that someone out there is the "one" for you; or alternatively have dreams of finding that one person who understands you more than any other.

The very nature of the tale is one that "feels" like a sci-fi thriller.  This episode of "Masters Of Horror" practically SCREAMS to be opened by Rod Serling.  This in and of itself is not such a bad thing...in fact, the story is quite good.  But it does not deserve to be included in any programming line which has the words "masters" and "horror" together in its title.  What Mick has put together with this series of films is absolutely amazing and deserves praise and admiration...but what he has put together here in this film, Chocolate, is what I would have expected from someone who is a tad bit over-obsessed with the works of Stephen King.

Stephen King's work plays SO well across a piece of paper...as letters and words.  But the fact remains that VERY few, if any, of the on-screen adaptations of his works have done any form of justice to his works (regardless, I believe, of whether King himself endorses or condemns them).  Mr. Garris has directed some of the most successful of these attempts ("The Stand" miniseries, "The Shining" miniseries) but I believe that he picked up too much of King's habits along the way...i.e. it's scary on paper and not on the screen; cerebral horror some call it. 

Before you go thinking that I am way out of line here and that I am discounting the whole side of horror that doesn't need blood and guts to be great, hear it out in Garris's own words from a conversation he had with Moviehole.net: "The real horror fans hated mine, because it wasn't horrific."  Umm.  Well, yeah.  I guess the point of making a movie for Masters Of Horror would be to make it horrific.  He went on to say: "There were no monsters, and it was about grown-ups."  Well, well.  So apparently, Mr. Garris doesn't know that the "real" horror fans are NOT the ones who like movies about teenagers; just one more way to show that he is out of touch with the demographic he is trying to reach with his films.  He did nail one thing on the head though: "I tell you though; they'll love the others...".

The simple truth is that there just isn't much horror here.  Maybe a little suspense.  Maybe a little tension.  Maybe a little blood and guts (operative word..."little"); but no "horror".  I want to be fair, and in so doing, I must tell you that this story is finely crafted, has wonderful characters and was MADE to be shown on television as an entry into a ongoing series.  However, just not this particular genre.

The acting in Chocolate is actually pretty damn good too.  Henry Thomas (Gangs Of New York, Dead Birds) turns out a character with Jamie who is neither in touch with reality, nor entirely outside of it.  He nails this confusion dead center.  He also pulls off what has to be the most difficult role imaginable for an actor, when he gets caught up in the throes of an emotional transmission...this particular transmission is his psychically connected female friend being made love to.  He feels it, experiences it, and REACTS to it, all as if he were actually right there.  Only, he isn't; he is in bed with a new lady friend!  And that is just the beginning...

 Matt Frewer will ALWAYS be Max Headroom to me...always.  Here, he provides some of that ageless charisma and actually manages to spice this film up in just the right places.  But a newer face to most fans also helped add a little something to this story; that of Lucie Laurie.  I'm sure that baring her body so often onscreen in this film didn't hurt anything either, but it is her ability to keep the audience guessing as to her motivations and intents that really seals her performance here as a skilled one. 
 

As stated before, there is a decent  showing of the red stuff, but far shy of what I have come to expect from this series.  There just needs to be more of...well, something...and if it isn't going to be dread, atmosphere or terror, it needs to be the ole blood and guts!  Takashi Miike's entry, for example, was so bloody and shocking that Showtime has chosen not to air it!  Miike had this to say: "Through the experience of directing this episode, I have discovered that while humor can have its limits, fear has no limits. I could not suppress the volume of terror that this film conveys.”  Spoken like a TRUE Master Of Horror!

There is a pile of attractive extra features on this disc (over three hours worth in fact!), and for this release I would say they are the best reason to pick it up.  For the horror aficionado who simply wants a peek into the minds of multiple horror talents, the astonishing array of bonus material will make these Masters Of Horror discs too inviting to pass up.  But be prepared here...a great deal of the material covered here borders on repetitive.  We KNOW that Mick Garris has a great relationship with Stephen King...we know.  Pound for pound, though, even this disc's bonuses outweighs anything that Hollywood passes off on us...by FAR.

I am having a hard time being too critical of Mick Garris's contribution to the series, because he obviously has respect for the horror genre and it's finest directors...I just do not believe that he is at the same level as they are when it comes to putting together a quality fright flick.  If you are looking for some genre defining horror, then this is about as far as you can get; but if you will be content with a well written tale that would feel right at home in "The Night Gallery", Chocolate is the entry in this series for you.

-aaron-