Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant

Vampires are in vogue right now. Fact. Find yourself a series of novels that speak to the tween masses, coral yourself a Weitz brother and you'll almost certainly have yourself a hit. But wait. We're not talking about Chris Weitz's "Twilight" follow-up "New Moon" here. This one's a different beast altogether as Paul Weitz (that other "American Pie" alum) brings Darran Shan's "Cirque Du Freak" franchise to the big screen starting with "The Vampire's Assistant".

Granted, Shan's books spoke almost exclusively to 12-14 year olds but, unlike Stephanie Meyer's headline-nabbing "Twilight" series, "Cirque Du Freak" poked less at the latent libido and more towards that other pre-pubescent trait - directionless angst and the 'uck' factor.

"The Vampire's Assistant", as the name might suggest, sees one young man fall foul of a narky vamp. When a freak show comes rolling into town best buds Darran (Chris Massoglia) and Steve (Josh Hutcherson) decide to check things out - and this is where the 'ucks' come in. You've got all manner of freakish delights here including the bearded lady (Salma Hayek - you'd definitely forgive the facial fur), a hunger addict (Orlando Jones), the snake boy (Patrick Fugit), the ringmaster Mr. Tall (Ken Watanabe) and, of course, Crepsley - the resident vampire. It's the bedraggled and raven-haired Crepsley (played rather brilliantly by John C. Reilly) who 'bloods' Darran - much to the chagrin of BFF Steve who's nutso about all things vampire.

Despite the goth glam of it all, there are plenty of drawbacks to being a newly-minted member of the undead - not least an age old blood feud between the vege Vampires and the bloodthirsty Vampanese (led by our very own Ray Stevenson). In fact there are some startling fight scenes and plenty of lurid, vampish misdeeds that will hold young boys in thrall. Darran starts off as a wuss but having tricked his parents and faked his own death (a troubling scene truth be told), he starts to get the hang of things whilst bedding in with the local freaks of the travelling show.

Weitz has got in there early and delivered an enjoyable little adventure. It's all angst-driven wish-fulfilment and the tween boys, more so than the Twi-Hard girls, will eat this stuff up! A full-blooded effort!