CIRQUE DU FREAK: THE VAMPIRE’S ASSISTANT (USA 2009) **1/2
Directed by Paul Weitz

Two parts to the film’s title, this latest foray into the teen romantic vampire genre is more of the first part than the second.  A boy leaves his family for the circus – in this case, the circus of freaks.  But this harmless horror flick turns out to be more like a date movie than anything else.  Catered towards a teen audience, director Weitz (ABOUT A BOY, AMERICAN PIE) moves his film fast – the speed of a video game.

The film opens with the protagonist Darren Shan (Chris Massoglia) lying in a coffin as if to arouse interest as to how he got there.  The film flashes back to tell his story which begins with his best friend, Steve (Josh Hutcherson) and his visit to CIRQUE DU FREAK, a travelling circus show.  Steven a vampire aficionado recognizes a performer, Larten Crepsley as one.  But when Darren, a spider aficionado steal’s Larten’s prize pet, he is coerced into being his assistant and hence the second part of the film’s title.  One thing leads to another with Darren becoming a half vampire, half human with a love interest in the form of a monkey girl.

There is nothing wrong with Weitz’s film considering that he knows his market audience and caters the action appropriately.  With little gore and violence – the vampires sip rather than suck blood; the escaped tarantula-looking spider creates more humour than scares, this somewhat similar outing to TWILIGHT has an ending ripe for a sequel as well.  One result is that the main plot of the film concerning an eternal fight between vampanezees and vampires fails to arouse much interest.  Still, sequel will not doubt be in the making.  The film is based on the first of the Vampire Blood Trilogy books.