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"Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant" borrows a little bit from "Harry Potter" with a teen being exposed to a magical world he never knew existed and a tad from "Twilight" with its teen vamp angst. But mostly, the film is a very pleasant surprise that proves there is still some bite left in the crowded vampire genre.

"The Vampire's Assistant" is an adaptation of "Vampire Blood," the first trilogy in a 12-part young adult fiction series by Darren Shan, who also gives his name to the lead character in his books and this adaptation.

In the film's opening monologue, Darren (played by Chris Massoglia, "The Hole") describes himself as a regular 16-year-old. The one thing that's not perfect in his life is his best friend Steve (Josh Hutcherson, "Journey to the Center of the Earth"), who serves as a constant bad influence, encouraging Darren to ditch class, vandalize school property and sneak out of the house late at night.

The boys visit a circus freak show that is filled with amazing characters, such as Evra, a boy with snake-like skin (Patrick Fugit, "Wristcutters: A Love Story"); Rhamus Twobellies, a man with two stomachs (Frankie Faison, "Order of Redemption") and a Madame Truska, a bearded woman (Salma Hayek, "30 Rock"). But it is the musical talent of Crepsley (John C. Reilly, "Step Brothers") and his dancing spider, Madame Octa, which fascinate them.

Steve loves anything to do with vampires — he admits to having a whole collection of "vampire books" — and he suspects that Crepsley is one he's extensively read about. If Crepsley does turn out to be a vampire, Steve hopes to convince him to turn him into one, as well, to add some significance to his life.

Similarly, Darren is fascinated with spiders, so he steals the dancing spider, hoping to get her to do tricks himself. But the only trick it pulls off is to poison Steve, and to save his friend, Darren must make a deal with Crepsley to become a half-vampire and serve as his assistant.

Reilly isn't the obvious choice for a movie vampire, as they are normally portrayed onscreen as seductive, mysterious creatures with perfect skin and expertly kept hair (most recently with the Cullen family in the "Twilight" film phenomenon). But the change works for this film, because Reilly has the ideal deadpan delivery to get big laughs with the script's dark comedy elements. Some of the biggest come when he's dispelling Darren's naÔve beliefs about vampires, such as them turning into bats.

Soon, Darren comes to enjoy life with the freak show, as he and Crepsley return to the campgrounds where the circus stays for the winter off-season. But the devious Mr. Tiny (Michael Cerveris, "Fringe") plots to use the friendship between Darren and Steve as his tool to start a war.

Similar to his work in "American Dreamz" and "About a Boy," Paul Weitz, who also directs the film, easily handles the more laid-back, character development scenes like Crepsley trying to explain to Truska why he helped Darren or Tiny manipulating Steve.

Weitz and co-screenwriter Brian Helgeland ("Man on Fire") do an admirable job detailing the history of the 100-year-truce between the more peaceful vampires, who take just enough blood from humans to survive, and the murderous Vampaneze, who kill to eat. They also adeptly introduce the audience to the circus of freaks and their various friendships and relationships — such as Crepsley's romance with Madame Truska — without overwhelming viewers with too much information.

Plus, Weitz and Helgeland also successfully use Darren as a gateway for the audience to learn enough of this back story without bogging the film's momentum as they build to a much larger saga. There's a sense here that the audience arrives just as the story's about to get good, and with nine more of Shan's books to work through, there's plenty of future material.

But Weitz's inexperience in directing more action-oriented films shows as he keeps the camera too close to the combatants during fights, making it hard to tell what is happening. Another negative comes in displaying the vampires' super-speed abilities — Weitz opts to shoot them as a stream of colors rapidly moving across the screen, an effect that would work on a lower-budget TV show, but looks cheap for a theatrical release.

Improving action scenes is something that comes with a larger budget, though, not the $70 million budget Weitz had to work with. By comparison, the first Harry Potter film, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," had a budget of $125 million in 2001 and this year's "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" had a massive $250 million budget.

The next vampire installment should have a bigger budget, and Weitz can fine-tune that one lacking element in the meantime. Until then, though, his excellent work in establishing this vampire universe will definitely have audiences looking forward to the sequel.

Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant

PG-13, Fantasy,

105 minutes

Director:

Paul Weitz

Cast: John C. Reilly, Chris

Massoglia, Josh Hutcherson,

Jessica Carlson, Michael Cerveris, Ray Stevenson, Ken Watanabe, Salma Hayek and Orlando Jones

Rating:

4 out of 5 stars