Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant 2009
Adaptation of the First 3 Books of The Saga of Darren Shan
Oct 29, 2009
The Vampire’s Assistant is a film adaptation that draws inspiration from The Saga of Darren Shan books written by Darren Shan. The screenwriters take some of the ideas from the books and write a film with similar themes and ideas. This means that The Vampire’s Assistant is not one of those adaptations in which the audience really needs to have read the books in order to know what is going on.
An Ordinary Life That Becomes Extraordinary
Darren (Chris Massoglia) and his best friend Steve (Josh Hutcherson) are two typical 16-year old boys. They go to school, lead essentially dull lives, and long for something more. Darren has an obsession with spiders and Steve is obsessed with vampires. Darren has the better life; he tends to get good grades and generally keeps out of trouble. Steve, on the other hand is seen by teachers and Darren’s parents, as being disruptive and generally a bad influence.
A leaflet for a freak show (literally) drops in front of them, courtesy of the mysterious and dangerous Mr Tiny (Michael Cerveris), and they decide to attend. During the show Steve recognises one of the performers from a vampire book. The vampire is Larten Crepsley (John C. Reilly), and his act involves doing tricks with a beautiful but deadly spider named Madam Octa. After the show Darren tries to steal Octa, but is interrupted and hides in the cupboard. There he witnesses Crepsley refusing to turn Steve into a vampire because the boy has bad blood. After Steve storms out, Darren escapes from Crepsley with the spider, due to the timely intervention of Mr Tiny.
Later Octa bites Steve forcing Darren to go to Crepsley for an antidote, Crepsley agrees to save Steve but only if Darren becomes his half-vampire assistant. Darren has no choice but to agree. He is forced to fake his death and joins Crepsley as he returns to the Cirque.
Meanwhile Steve, feeling lost and rejected, is approached by Desmond Tiny who seeks to break the truce between the peaceful vampires and the killer vampaneze.
A Film with the Gist of the Books
Twilight and Harry Potter are prime examples of films that have been essentially lifted from the pages of the book and put on the screen. The Vampire’s Assistant draws on ideas from the first 3 books to give the audience something that features the colourful world that Darren Shan created but doesn’t make the book essential reading.
The two male leads Chris Massoglia and Josh Hutcherson do not give Oscar worthy performances; however, it is obvious that both are trying hard to make their characters seem three-dimensional. The rest of the cast features some well known faces including Selma Hayek, Orlando Jones, and Ken Watanabe. The members of the Cirque are varied and imaginative, with most of them being people wearing make-up, only the Little People are computer generated.
The real strength of The Vampire’s Assistant is that it is a tongue-in-cheek film that does not seem to be taking itself too seriously. John C. Reilly’s portrayal of Larten Crepsley is a definite highlight, especially as he gives the character an edge of sarcasm, and dry humour.
It is also a welcome change to see a vampire that is not a) gorgeous or b) brooding. Crepsley is with the Cirque because he has shunned his own kind and the truce with the vampaneze. He also does not spend the film struggling with forbidden love or bloodlust. Crepsley is a vampire that can be around blood without losing himself, he requires blood to survive, but he does not become a savage whenever there is an open wound nearby.
Fans of the book will undoubtedly enjoy the film adaptation. There are a number of differences between the two, but the basic themes cross from the pages to the screen. One of the main differences is the fight sequences between Crepsley and the vampaneze Murlough (Ray Stevenson). In the book Crepsley dispatches Murlough by sticking his hands in his stomach and gutting him, Darren tells the reader that people always imagine massive fights between immortals, but in reality this doesn’t happen. Instead of having the anti-climatic (but gory) fight happening in the film, what screenwriters Paul Weitz and Brian Helgeland do is include several fast paced fight sequences which are never so fast that the audience can’t see what is going on (unless they are not supposed to), and are good fun to watch. The cleverly choreographed fight sequences give director Paul Weitz an opportunity to show the audience the speed and strength of the immortal characters.
8/10
All in all, The Vampire’s Assistant is a good fun film that doesn’t concern itself with brooding immortals, or forbidden love and instead focuses on having a bit of fun with the vampire genre.
