Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant (2009)
By: Paul Weitz (director, screenplay), Brian Helgeland (screenplay), Darren Shan (novels)
Starring: John C. Reilly, Chris Massoglia, Josh Hutcherson, Jessica Carlson, Michael Cerveris, Ray Stevenson, Patrick Fugit, Ken Watanabe, Salma Hayek, Orlando Jones, Frankie Faison
A young boy named Darren Shan meets a mysterious man at a freak show who turns out to be a Vampire. After a series of events Darren must leave his normal life and go on the road with the Cirque Du Freak and become a Vampire.
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant is one of those films that has the potential to be either really innovative and addictive, or just a lot of teen media fodder. I watched the film without any knowledge of the book series it’s based on, although the previews and title had made me a little dubious. Since Harry Potter became the rage, it seems like so many young adult book series are being made into movies, and most of them aren’t worth watching.
The Vampire’s Assistant is a bit like Harry Potter meets A Series of Unfortunate Events meets True Blood, but without being nearly as well executed as any of those. This is a real shame, as the concept alone has the potential to be incredibly intriguing, and despite the film falling short, I can easily see why this is a popular book series.
Too much matierial was tried to fit into the movie, to the sacrifice of character development. I wanted to find out more about the characters, but was never afforded the opportunity to really know them. The pacing was choppy and the direction sloppy. Some of the acting was just plain bad, and there is no excuse for that with this cast. More than anything, this felt like a purely commercial vehicle, which detracted from any charm the original concept might have brought to the project. It isn’t a wholly bad movie, but it falls very far from the gem it could have been in the right hands.
That said, I might try the books now, so I suppose that’s something.
