CHOCOLATE (Garris, 2005)

Not sure how I feel about Garris overall, but I actually thought this was pretty good and creepy. Henry Thomas (who apparently was the main kid from ET? WTF.) plays Jamie, a thirtysomething whose wife ditches him, taking the kid and leaving him in a big, empty apartment. He's depressed and doesn't go out much. Things get weird when he starts having visions of a beautiful young girl, Catherine, who is in danger and does some pretty stupid stuff. In a BEING JOHN MALKOVICH moment, he actually enters her body and sees what she sees, feels what she feels.

The joke of sorts is on him. Jamie thinks his life is empty and the only way to provide any meaning is by finding this girl, helping her get out of trouble, saving her. In the process, maybe she'll save him. It is a naive and stupid thing, of course, but Jamie is also slowly losing his mind. It's an interesting story, and I appreciate the double entrende there (whereas Jamie is empty, Catherine is full, what with having two people inside of her, ha ha ha), but ultimately, there just isn't that much there.

As is the problem with all of the MASTERS OF HORROR episodes, it could've benefitted from another half hour of exploration. Characters ultimately feel truncated and not as fleshed out as they otherwise could. Garris gets points for effort and for bringing the MASTERS series to the air, though.