Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant

Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant is a 2009 American dark fantasy film adaptation of the Vampire Blood trilogy of the book series The Saga of Darren Shan by author Darren Shan. The film received mixed reviews and was a commercial failure.

Plot
16-year-old Darren Shan and his best friend Steve Leonard visit the Cirque du Freak freak show. During the performance, Steve recognizes one of the troupe's members, Larten Crepsley, as a vampire, prompting him to try to find Crepsley after the show. Simultaneously, Darren, fascinated by Crepsley's spider, Madam Octa, impulsively steals her. Before he can leave, he is forced to hide as Crepsley returns to his room. Steve arrives, begging to be made into a vampire, but Crepsley refuses after tasting Steve's blood, which he says "tastes of evil". When Crepsley realizes that Madam Octa has been stolen, Darren flees from the theater with Crepsley hot on his trail. He gets away only when the mysterious Mr. Tiny arrives in his limousine, accompanied by the mad Vampeneze Murlough. The latter is unimpressed with Darren, dismissing him as a "bag of blood", but Tiny is greatly impressed, and promises to "be in touch" after dropping Darren off at home.

The next day, while at school Steve discovers Darren heard the conversation between Steve and Crepsley, forcing Darren to admit he overheard what Steve said to Crepsley. Steve makes Darren let him have a closer look at Madam Octa but the bell rings making Steve drop the cage allowing the spider to escape. After a brief struggle in the crowded hallway Madam Octa bites Steve and escapes, leaving Steve to slowly succumb to her deadly venom in the hospital. Becoming desperate, Darren returns to the theater and begs Crepsley for help. Initially annoyed and contemptuous, Crepsley agrees only if Darren becomes a half-vampire and Crepsley's personal assistant. Darren agrees, only to flee as soon as Crepsley administers an antidote to Steve. After nearly attacking his sister out of bloodlust soon after, however, Darren reluctantly agrees to leave with Crepsley, who arranges it so everyone believes Darren has killed himself.

After being buried, Darren is dug up by Crepsley, only for the both of them to be ambushed by Murlough. Crepsley fights him off and the two return to Cirque du Freak where Darren meets the snake boy, Evra Von, and Rebecca, the monkey girl. Meanwhile, Steve, contemplating suicide after losing his best friend, is stopped by Tiny who offers him a chance to become a Vampaneze, telling him that Darren has already achieved his dream of being a vampire, and wasn't the loyal friend Steve believed. Steve is turned into a half-Vampeneze, and after learning that Darren has been refusing to feed, Tiny has his family kidnapped, leaving a flyer for the Cirque du Freak at Darren's former home.

Darren arrives at the theater, where Murlough and Steve are waiting for him. They fight, but Darren is weak from not feeding. Crepsley arrives to fight Murlough. Rebecca frees herself, while Tiny watches from the balcony. Rebecca offers Darren some of her blood. He eventually agrees and fights with Steve using his new powers. Crepsley stabs Murlough and with his dying words Murlough declares that the truce between the two clans is broken. Steve and Darren continue to fight, but Tiny stops them and turns Murlough into a Little Person. Darren asks Steve to stay, but Steve refuses, saying "I have my destiny and you have yours." Steve then leaves with Tiny.

Darren's family are hypnotized to have forgotten what happened to them. Left by themselves, Rebecca and Darren then share a long heartfelt kiss before being interrupted by Crepsley. Crepsley gives Darren his own coffin, and Darren accepts his new life as a member of the Cirque du Freak.

Cast
Main article: (List of characters from The Saga of Darren Shan)

 Chris Massoglia as Darren Shan
 John C. Reilly as Larten Crepsley
 Josh Hutcherson as Steve "Leopard" Leonard 
 Ray Stevenson as Murlough
 Salma Hayek as Madame Truska
 Patrick Fugit as Evra Von
 Jessica Carlson as Rebecca (Monkey Girl)
 Michael Cerveris as Desmond Tiny (Mr. Destiny)
 Willem Dafoe as Gavner Purl
 Ken Watanabe as Hibernius Tall
 Jane Krakowski as Corma Limbs
 Kristen Schaal as Gertha Teeth
 Orlando Jones as Alexander Ribs
 Frankie Faison as Rhamus Twobellies
 Morgan Saylor as Annie Shan
 Don McManus as Dermot Shan
 Colleen Camp as Angela Shan
 Patrick Breen as Mr Kersey
 Jonathan Nosan as Hans Hands
 Tom Woodruff, Jr. as The Wolfman
 Blake Nelson Boyd as Mr. Afraid of the Ground Man

Production
Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant was shot between February 19-June 1, 2008 in New Orleans, and the villages of Folsom, Louisiana and Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Some of the characters required a great deal of prosthetics and makeup led by Steve Koch, Brian Sipe, and Mark Garbarino. Prosthetics did not quite add the height needed on certain shots for the character of Mr. Tall, played by Academy Award-nominated Ken Watanabe. Although Watanabe is six feet tall, a body double was cast for certain shots. Trevon Flores, a local basketball player who stands 6'10" tall and weighs 210 pounds, was used for certain shots to show the abnormal height of Mr. Tall. Additionally, Watanabe utilized dialogue coaches Kathleen S. Dunn and Francie Brown in pre-production and production to further enhance his performance as the circus barker. The filmmakers took advantage of computer-generated imagery to portray other fantasy elements.

John Marshall High School in Los Angeles was used to film some parts of the movie.Sophie B. Wright Charter School in New Orleans was also used to shoot scenes from the film.

The film began principal photography on February 8, 2008 in New Orleans and ended on June 3, 2008. The film was distributed by Universal Studios. A portion of The Vampire's Assistant was filmed on a set constructed within New Orleans City Park, approximately 1,000 feet off of the side of the road, along Harrison Avenue. In one of the manga additions of the saga, the director says that the character of Gavner Purl was a hint of the sequel he wanted to make.

Music
The score to The Vampire's Assistant was composed by Stephen Trask, marking his third feature film with director Paul Weitz. He recorded his score with an 86-piece ensemble of the Hollywood Studio Symphony at the Newman Scoring Stage at 20th Century Fox. The movie also features the songs "Something Is Not Right with Me" by Cold War Kids, "Chelsea Dagger" by The Fratellis, and "Red Right Hand" by Nick Cave. The trailer features the songs Asleep From Day by The Chemical Brothers, Bliss by Syntax, and Superhero by Immediate Music.

Release
The film was originally set for release on January 15, 2010, but was moved ahead to October 23, 2009.

Critical reception
Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes assigns the film a rating of 38% based on 139 critics with an average rating of 4.87/10. The site's critical consensus reads "This overstuffed, scattershot vampire flick suffers from poor characterization and an unwieldy mix of scares and chuckles." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 43 out of 100, based on 25 reviews, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Box office
The film opened in 2,754 theaters in the United States and made over $14 million, reaching #7 in the charts. In other countries, it made more than $25 million, giving it a worldwide box office total of more than $39 million. On DVD, sales in the United States made more than $5.5 million. Worldwide its chart placings included getting to #1 in Ukraine, #2 in Hungary, #2 in Russia, #2 in the United Arab Emirates, #3 in Mexico, #3 in Portugal, #4 in Egypt, #4 in Venezuela, #5 in Belgium, #5 in Peru, #5 in Singapore, #5 in the United Kingdom, #6 in Lebanon, #6 in the Philippines, #7 in Bulgaria, #7 in Japan, #8 in Chile, #8 in Colombia, #8 in the Netherlands, #9 in Austria, #9 in Romania, #11 in Germany, #11 in Malaysia, #11 in New Zealand.

Home media
The film debuted on DVD and Blu-ray Disc in Canada, the United Kingdom and United States at the end of February 2010. In Canada, at the end of its first week on sale and rent, it was #1 on the Rogers DVD bestselling chart and #2 on the Blockbuster Canada bestselling chart, and #6 on the rental charts of both. In the United States it was #2 on the Rentrak bestseller chart, and #6 on the Blockbuster, Home Media and IMDb rental charts. In the United Kingdom it reached #5 on the MyMovies bestsellers chart, and #6 on the Yahoo chart.

Cancelled sequels
In a Reddit AMA in March 2015, Darren Shan stated that three sequels to Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant had been in active development by Universal prior to the film's underperformance, as well as expressing interest in a potential future reboot of the series.

See also
 Vampire films

References

External links

 
 
 

Category:2009 films
Category:American films
Category:English-language films
Category:American fantasy adventure films
Category:2000s children's fantasy films
Category:Dark fantasy films
Category:Circus films
Category:Films about sideshow performers
Category:Films based on fantasy novels
Category:Films based on Irish novels
Category:Films directed by Paul Weitz
Category:Films produced by Lauren Shuler Donner
Category:Films with screenplays by Brian Helgeland
Category:Films shot in New Orleans
Category:Relativity Media films
Category:Universal Pictures films
Category:Films with screenplays by Paul Weitz
Category:Vampires in film
Category:Films scored by Stephen Trask
Category:2000s fantasy adventure films

ja:ダレン・シャン (小説)#映画版