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John C.Riley chews the screen in Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant

Vampires have become the newest in-vogue characters, both in the movies and television.  With The Vampire Diaries and and Tru Blood on the small screen and Twilight on the big one, we just can’t seem to escape those blood suckers.  The latest to take a crack at the genre is the teen fang story Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant.

The film starts with the funeral of Darren (Chris Massoglia).  Little does one know that Darren is very much alive in his coffin awaiting to be rescued by Larten (John C. Reilly).  Then we go back to the beginning.  Steve (Josh Hutcherson) and Darren are two kids just waiting for something in their teen life to change.  Then a green paper comes out of a purple car with the license plate Des-tiny.

The playbill advertises the show Cirque Du Freak.  The boys decide to sneak out to attend the performance.  In an old abandoned theater we see the show that is the Cirque.  There is the bearded woman Madame Truska (Selma Hayek), Evra the Snake Boy (Patrick Fugit) and thin man Alexander Ribs (Orlando Jones).  But the biggest performer is Larten Crepsley.  He is a spider charmer but Steve instantly recognized him as a vampire from an old book. 

The show is broken up by outside forces and Darren goes backstage to see the amazing spider owned by Larten.  In the dressing room, Darren discovers a secret of Larten.  There seems to be a war brewing between the vampires and the vampenezee, the latter being a group who kill their victims.  The vampires feast off the living but only take enough to survive, never enough to do damage to humans.  Then Steve breaks into the dressing room and demands that Larten turn the kid into a vampire, something he has been wishing for.  Larten dismissed him due to ‘bad blood’.

After all the vampires leave, Darren steals the spider.  The next day at school, the spider gets out and bites Steve.  Darren, in an effort to save his buddy Steve, agrees to become a half-vampire.  He will be the assistant who can travel in the day but not have all the true powers of the vampire.

So, Darren becomes what Steve wanted to be.  Darren enters a world of both side show freaks and vampires, learning that things are never truly what they seem.  Added to his mess is the war between the two different kind of bloodsuckers and the jealousy that brews inside of Steve.  We also have an interested neutral to all of the events, a Mr. Tiny (Michael Cerveris).

There are some interesting aspects to Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant starting with the casting of John C. Riley as the vampire.  In a world where Bela was the standard bearer of the role and Tom Cruise was the nadir, Riley comes across with something little seen in a blood feasting beast, compassion.  He doesn’t want the destruction of mankind but realizes that he must work with the lower order in order to survive.  In explaining how to feed, it is revealed that he was the person who came up with the idea of never destroying prey.  The though of being a humanitarian vampire is suggested Twilight but here it is logical and not guffaw inducing ‘vegetarian vampires’. 

Josh Hutcherson’s Steve was a strong reading full of bravado and depth.  His tortured soul makes for an interesting character.  All that is wrong about being a vampire is seen in his eyes.  Selma Hayek is still one of the most beautiful actresses in Hollywood but here she is given so little to do, other than look stunning even with a beard.

But there were parts that just didn’t work, starting with Chris Massoglia.  He was a whiner, not a kid who can change the balance between the vampires and the vampenezee.  It is like trying to believe that that wimp kid from Star Wars is going to become Darth Vader.  As the second lead, he was annoying.  His ending transformation into a stronger character just didn’t deliver. 

The film is crafted by Paul Weitz, the man who was a part of the failed start of The Golden Compass franchise.  This film is better than that one, but not by much.  It has some of the same problems, meaning that a giant grasp of the source materials is needed to understand all the nuances of the production.  He shoots all the action sequences too close, without giving the audience a view to what is being experienced by the players.  Only a strong opening weekend will save Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant from being another failed venture into franchise.

Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant is better than Twilight but I put Twilight on my list as the worst film of last year.  This little vampire flick has some fascinating elements but it is not going to live up to the hype. 

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