'The Vampire's Assistant' hard to follow
Stephanie Pogue
Issue date: 10/29/09 Section: Arts & Entertainment
"Cirque du Freak: The Vampires Assistant" is perhaps the perfect Halloween movie. It has vampires, wolf men, man-eating spiders, a snake boy, and plenty of other ghoulish characters. The Vampire's Assistant is based off of Darren Shan's book series "Cirque du Freak."
The movie begins as Darren and his friend Steve sneak off to see a freak that has come to town. The boys are fascinated by the show. All the show's participants are real, not clever hoaxes. There is a man with two stomachs who swallows a tricycle, a wolf-man, Everett, the snake-boy with his pet snake, a woman who can re-grow her own severed limbs, and many other strange characters. Darren and Steve are most fascinated by Mr. Crepsley. He performs with a football-sized, deadly, poisonous spider, Madame Octa.
The show is ended abruptly when the police arrive to stop the show. Darren and Steve lose each other in the swarm of people. As he wanders through the theater looking for Steve, Darren accidentally finds himself in Mr. Crepsley's room. He sees Octa in her cage and decides to steal her. Darren takes Octa to school with him the next day. She escapes from her cage and runs through the hallways terrorizing people. Steve is bitten. He is taken to the hospital, but they have never seen venom like Octa's before. They do not know what to do. Darren goes to Mr. Crepsley.
Crepsley promises to cure Steve if Darren will be his assistant and become a half-vampire. Darren agrees to do it to save his friend. He has to fake his own death and leave his family. He might hurt them when he becomes a vampire. Crepsley and Darren go to the Cirque's winter campgrounds, but all is not well. A man named Mr. Tiny-who is roughly 400 pounds-wants Darren to join him and his evil forces. Crepsley and Darren have to escape him.
The Vampire's Assistant is hard to follow in parts of the movie. The plot tends to suddenly launch into sequences of events with little or no explanation. Mr. Tiny and his evil minions are not explained well. The viewer does not know why they are evil, or what they have done that makes them the bad guys. Some of the characters are pretty cheesy. Darren's love interest, Rebecca, is perfectly normal except for her monkey tail. The Cirque's winter camp is also inhabited by a bunch of creatures that look like gray versions of the Jawas from "Star Wars." They like to bite people. Although it is cheesy and hard to follow, Cirque du Freak still has enough monster attacks and ghoulish creatures for a few good Halloween screams.
The movie begins as Darren and his friend Steve sneak off to see a freak that has come to town. The boys are fascinated by the show. All the show's participants are real, not clever hoaxes. There is a man with two stomachs who swallows a tricycle, a wolf-man, Everett, the snake-boy with his pet snake, a woman who can re-grow her own severed limbs, and many other strange characters. Darren and Steve are most fascinated by Mr. Crepsley. He performs with a football-sized, deadly, poisonous spider, Madame Octa.
The show is ended abruptly when the police arrive to stop the show. Darren and Steve lose each other in the swarm of people. As he wanders through the theater looking for Steve, Darren accidentally finds himself in Mr. Crepsley's room. He sees Octa in her cage and decides to steal her. Darren takes Octa to school with him the next day. She escapes from her cage and runs through the hallways terrorizing people. Steve is bitten. He is taken to the hospital, but they have never seen venom like Octa's before. They do not know what to do. Darren goes to Mr. Crepsley.
Crepsley promises to cure Steve if Darren will be his assistant and become a half-vampire. Darren agrees to do it to save his friend. He has to fake his own death and leave his family. He might hurt them when he becomes a vampire. Crepsley and Darren go to the Cirque's winter campgrounds, but all is not well. A man named Mr. Tiny-who is roughly 400 pounds-wants Darren to join him and his evil forces. Crepsley and Darren have to escape him.
The Vampire's Assistant is hard to follow in parts of the movie. The plot tends to suddenly launch into sequences of events with little or no explanation. Mr. Tiny and his evil minions are not explained well. The viewer does not know why they are evil, or what they have done that makes them the bad guys. Some of the characters are pretty cheesy. Darren's love interest, Rebecca, is perfectly normal except for her monkey tail. The Cirque's winter camp is also inhabited by a bunch of creatures that look like gray versions of the Jawas from "Star Wars." They like to bite people. Although it is cheesy and hard to follow, Cirque du Freak still has enough monster attacks and ghoulish creatures for a few good Halloween screams.
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