Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant

2009 "Meet Darren. He's sixteen going on immortal."
5.8| 1h49m| PG-13| en| More Info
Released: 23 October 2009 Released
Producted By: Universal Pictures
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
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Darren Shan is a regular teenage kid. He and his friend Steve find out about a Freak Show coming to town and work hard at trying to find tickets. They do, and together they go to "Cirque du Freak" where they see many strange acts including a wolf-man and a bearded lady

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Director

Paul Weitz

Production Companies

Universal Pictures

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Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant Audience Reviews

Cubussoli Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!
VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.
Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.
Josephina Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.
Wuchak RELEASED IN 2009 and directed by Marco Brambilla, "Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant" is a fantasy/horror/comedy about a teen (Chris Massoglia) who is compelled to join a circus of freaks where he becomes (you guessed it) the assistant of a vampire (John C. Reilly) and learns of a war between two classes of vampires. Josh Hutcherson is on hand as his best friend while Michael Cerveris plays the mysterious Mr. Tiny. Ray Stevenson is formidable as a vampiric heavy.After the mega-hit of "Twilight" (2008), producers naturally thought that another young adult book series involving vampires might be profitable. As such, this movie is based on the opening trilogy of the 12-book series "Cirque du Freak: The Saga of Darren Shan" by Darren Shan (pen name of Darren O'Shaughnessy). It mostly focuses on the first book with uber-fans of the books complaining about deviations. In any case, the film wasn't a hit at the box office (costing $40 million and making back $39 million worldwide with $14 million of that made in North America). Regardless, I much prefer it to "Twilight."For some reason I always enjoy stories that center around life in circuses and carnivals. The excellent "Water for Elephants" (2011) is a good example. While that movie was decidedly realistic, "The Vampire's Assistant" is obviously rooted in fantasy.The first act is a low-key introduction to the two teen friends, their situation in life, and their intriguing visit to the Cirque Du Freak, which in English means The Freak Circus. The film improves in the second act with the excellent character of Larten Crepsley moving to the spotlight. Reilly is commanding and fascinating in the role. The third act is also really good, centering on the war between the vampires and the vampanese. The plot is involved enough without being too complex and the movie is impressively imaginative on practically every front.Salma Hayek stands out in the female department as one of the performers with a lame talent. But the creators don't really take advantage of her presence. In other words, don't expect anything like Salma's mind-blowing sequence in "From Dusk till Dawn" (1996). The striking Jane Krakowski is on hand, but her role is very small. Winsome Jessica Carlson plays Rebecca, a potential babe for the protagonist, I guess; she was only 15 during shooting and looks it.THE FILM RUNS 1 hour, 49 minutes and was shot in Louisiana (New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Folsom) and Los Angeles with studio work done in Universal City.GRADE: B
evitab-363-932048 Absolutely dreadful! Nothing like the books. This movie was all over the place. If you read any of the books, DO NOT watch this movie!!!!
TonyMontana96 (Originally seen many years ago) A teenage vampire film for idiots and ignorant cinema-goers. Considering the awfulness of this film, I must say I am surprised that some people actually liked this garbage. The picture has several character's, none interesting, none developed and plenty of atrocious acting, especially Josh Hutcherson, who play's a stuck up brat. I'm guessing the vampire genre is doomed as they can't even make a non twilight vampire film these days that's watchable. Cirque Du Crap: Vampire's Assistant is an abysmal mess and one of the worst film's of 2009. 0/10
cianisawesome00 Worst movie I have ever seen. Who the hell is Rebecca and whatever happened to Debby and Sam. I read the books loved them was all excited about the movie and it sucked the only reason i even have it one star is because u can't put in lower! Not darren Shan at all. It is like the writers tried to put in the twelve books but were to lazy and after 5 minutes threw this piece of crap together.Don't take anything away from the books though, The books were unreal and Darren Shan is a great author it was just poorly portrayed by lazy writers and bad actors, god a teddy bear would show more bloody expression than the actor who played Darren.What more can I say it was an absolute disaster one of the worst movies ever.Read the books.