Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant (Review)

America currently has a completely retarded obsession with vampires, what with Twilight annoying the hell out sane people and basically being responsible for the tiring influx of vampire television shows. The latest thing to come out of this fad is Cirque du Freak, based on the first three novels in a series of books by Darren Shan. The film follows Darren, standard "average teen", who finds a flyer for the "Cirque du Freak" sideshow. He attends the show with his best friend Steve and discovers that the show's star, Mr. Crepsley is actually a vampire. After a bizarre event occurs where Darren needs Crepsley's help to save Steve's life. He becomes Crepsley's assistant and is brought into the Cirque family where he is educated in the ways of the vampire.

Giving the movie's origins, I'm surprised that it ultimately came out to be pretty good. I'm not entirely sure how much of the books where incorporated into the film or what's been changed between the mediums, but adapting three books into an hour and a half film should have been a recipe for a disaster, but it's all put together into a moderately cohesive plot. The missteps in the movie come from it's tone and ending. The film spends most of its time as a comedy but tries to take a sharp turn in the last act for a more serious tone dealing with an ongoing war and families in danger. It's an interesting direction for the story to take, but it comes so late in the story that it almost feels like it was treated as an afterthought. Despite being based around three books, the film still has the audacity to end on a sort-of cliffhanger making the resolution seem cheap and hallow only for the propose of setting up a possible squeal.

The cast saves the film from most of its shortcomings with John Reilly stealing the show as Mr. Crepsley. The only movie I can recall seeing Reilly in prior to this was the bland comedy "Stepbrothers" and as a result I doubted his performance here, but he pulled through by deliver a ton of hilarious lines filled with cynicism and giving his character a sense of intrigue. Chris Massoglia does a good enough job as the straight man lead character, manages to be convincing when Darren struggles to find his place in the world. I'm not familiar with the rest of the cast but they do their parts well, especially the various members of Cirque du Freak. The time that Darren spends in the circus camp is really funny and the real highlight of the film. In fact, it's a real shame that the movie does spend enough time on the freaks and their world, instead focusing on the teen characters and the not as interesting impending vampire wars. As it stands, Cirque du Freak is a fun little movie even it tries too hard to set up a possible follow up.