Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant makes impression on its audience

by Casandra Haynes

When I first heard of Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant, I was not impressed. Over the last few weeks, I saw the trailer for the movie several times; it has the potential to be the typical corny Halloween movie.

The film is based on the second novel in Darren Shan's series The Saga of Darren Shan titled The Vampire's Assistant. It begins with main character Darren (Chris Massoglia) in a coffin. While people are at his funeral, he’s playing video games on a cell phone. His story goes something like this: While Darren is popular boy with good grades and great parents, his friend Steve (Josh Hutcherson) is the opposite. He doesn’t know where his dad is, and his mom is an alcoholic. Both of the boys get themselves into trouble and the story unfolds: Steve's dream is to become a vampire and once he is denied that privilege, you can see the evil take over him. After seeing the Cirque Du Freak show, Darren steals the spider that belongs to a vampire named Larten Crepsley (John C. Reilly). To repay him and save his best friend, Crepsley makes a deal with Darren and he is forced to become half vampire.

This movie is definitely geared more toward teenagers, specifically boys, and the confusion they go through at a young age. Although it was a little predictable, the film was actually very good and every minute of it is enjoyable. It was entertaining, dramatic, and humorous. The film looked professional (not corny like I'd thought), though it wasn’t scary at all. The graphics and “freaks” looked totally believable.

But prepare yourself for the ending; it seemed like they didn’t take the time to really finish the film. Perhaps the filmmakers can redeem this shortcoming with a sequel -- or maybe it just seemed hastily done to me. This shouldn't be enough to deter audiences, though; this thriller is a good spook for anyone.