Monsters are subject to the same evolutionary principles as other creatures: The fit survive, and the unfit die out over time. There's nothing more objectively scary about werewolves or ghosts than, say, one of the flying monkeys from The Wizard Of Oz. But where those monkeys work brilliantly as henchbeasts for one particular witch, it's the more familiar idea of a witch that endures. Everyone has had uncanny women in their lives, just as everyone has felt the beast within trying to break out. Metaphorical value is what keeps the wolf alive.
So why didn't anyone tell the filmmakers behind Blood & Chocolate? Loosely based on an award-winning young-adult novel, it treats a society of werewolves with a somber matter-of-factness that acknowledges no deeper levels. Sometimes a werewolf is just a werewolf. Talented, out-of-place Agnes Bruckner plays a particularly thoughtful werewolf, an American transplant living in Bucharest, where she doesn't cotton to her folks' people-killing ways. Complicating things is a romance with a nice human graphic novelist (Hugh Dancy) and the romantic overtures of head werewolf Olivier Martinez (turning up the Euro-sleaze to near-toxic levels).
A romantic triangle between werewolves and humans doesn't sound dull, but director Katja von Garnier seems to determined to drain the life out of it. Bruckner has little to do but pout and look on disapprovingly, and it's never clear what the rules of werewolf-dom are. Early on, Martinez is seen leading his pack in hunting down a drug dealer, but there's no vampire-like compulsion driving them. In fact, little apart from meanness seems to keep the wolves separated from human society. Nothing makes much sense, and the film doesn't provide much incentive to figure it all out. Worst of all, rather than monsters, Garnier has opted to use real wolves, making all the fight scenes look more like animal abuse than like battles royal. Is that why, instead of the standard American Humane Association "no animals were harmed" disclaimer, the credits opt for a more wishy-washy statement that animals were treated with the "greatest concern"? Chances are, the wolves were fine, but there's some peace of mind in knowing that formal restrictions are in place to keep animals out of harm's way on set, especially with films as crappy as this one.