Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant

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Obviously intended as an introductory piece to a much larger franchise, Cirque Du Freak has moments of genuine enjoyment, but not one of the many characters is expanded upon enough to really work. John C Reilly's Crepsley is the most interesting human, or vampire, we meet, but his motivations for sparking the shenanigans of the core story are never really addressed, which in turn makes the whole set-up feel like it was based on a whim.

Darren Shan is your typical 16 year old. He gets good grades, is a good big brother and son, and almost never gets in trouble. His best pal Steve on the other hand is a bit of a wrong 'un; coming from a broken home with an alcoholic mother, he's obsessed with vampires. When the lads hear of a freak show coming to town, they both sneak along; ready to have their teenage minds blown. But after Darren goes backstage to have a closer look, he inadvertently hears a conversation that sets into a motion a chain of events that cumulates with him having no choice other than to become a vampire. Alas, that was always Steve's dream; so naturally, friction ensues as they both end up on opposites in a quirky, but often dangerous, underworld.

There's nothing more frustrating that a film that has potential but never fulfils it. Reilly's Crepsley is obviously the core character here, but apart from a couple of throwaway lines from other characters we learn nothing about his past. The always reliable Reilly is clearly out to have some fun with him, and he does, but the audience never really knows where he's coming from, or why he's doing what he is. Hayek's character mention's that he's "lonely"; which really doesn't explain why he'd 'turn' a random kid. While peripheral characters are merely introduced so that Darren has someone to miss when he goes vampire. I'm assuming all of this would be expanded upon in the planned sequel, if indeed it does go ahead.

With book adaptations you're always gonna lose something in translation; but while Cirque du Freak is well made for the most part, the script needed more work and a clearer focus before cameras rolled. There should, however, still be enough here to distract fang seeking teens until New Moon comes out.