Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant

Ostensibly Cirque du Freak has an air of inevitability about it, tapping into the recent splurge of tween vamp flicks in timely fashion. As an adaptation of the first three books in Irish writer Darren Shan’s acclaimed 12-part series (which precedes the Twilight saga), however, it might have bucked the trend rather than pander to a preteen phenomenon. Sadly it is all too obvious where loyalties lie here – this is a cash-in, and a hurried one at that, sucking the last drops of life from a steadily staling subgenre.

Quickly abandoning its source, the story begins in familiar circumstances. Small town everykid Darren (Chris Massoglia) and his inwardly resentful best bud Steve (John Hutcherson) are different from the rest of their classmates. Fitting in is not the problem though, as the pair are driven (albeit for conflicting reasons) by a self-determined destiny that manifests when a mysterious traveling freak show comes to town. After unwittingly betraying Steve, Darren leaves his whitebread world behind and takes to life on the road as assistant to the vampire overlord Larten Crepsley (John C Reilly). As he soon discovers, however, not even immortality can save him from the anguishes of adolescence.

In a refreshingly deadpan turn Reilly capes up rather convincingly, dryly delivering some darkly comic spurts of dialogue as Darren’s malevolent mentor. Elsewhere, however, the cast is far less fleshed out and aside from a brilliant cameo from a caricatured Willem Dafoe, there is a sense of restraint culminating in a closing scene that lays wake for a succession of sequels. As a forewarning to any assumed follow up it is ominous that this first stab loses pace so easily, reverting to the teenage trials since discarded after the film’s opening sequence.

All this newbie neck noshing might be harmless enough, but as any true horror hound will concur, this lack of new blood is leaving adult audiences cold to an otherwise revered movie monster mainstay. Moreover the film never fully finds its audience, so while well executed FX and a macabre milieu add a density that will appeal to more accustomed cineastes, such lucid toning is likely to exceed the attentions of any teenybopper.

This is a young person’s film, make no mistake, but one which holds back on completely adhering to the fang frenzy youngsters have been going bat shit for recently, consequently sealing its own fate. Absence of an alt-rock soundtrack and pin-up prom cast aside, Cirque du Freak fails to raise the stakes, leaving it in dire need of a creative transfusion if sequels are ever to see the light of day.

Adam Woodward

Anticipation:

The bloodsucker brood continues to boom.

Enjoyment:

At least it’s not Twilight.

In Retrospect:

Stick a nail in the coffin. This franchise is done!