Blood and Chocolate

Not so much groundbreaking as AstroTurf-mussing, this supernatural teen soaper effectively plumbs themes of ethnic disenfranchisement via the werewolf genre. Relocating Annette Curtis Klause’s source YA novel from dreary suburban Maryland to drearier Romania,the film concerns a pack of lycanthropes struggling to preserve their heritage while remaining on the down low; toothsome she-wolf Vivian (Bruckner) nearly queers things when she falls for a hunky “meat-boy” (Dancy). Cheap special effects and banal dialogue rule, but Blood and Chocolate nevertheless feels like a labor of love. (Now playing; Click here for venues.) — Mark Holcomb