Review of Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant (2009) by Chads. — 23 Oct 2009

While repeating his parents' warning against having a friend like Steve(Josh Hutcherson), a bad influence by their own estimation, "Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant" makes an allusion to bohemianism, the rejection of ISAs(ideological state apparatuses), in which "college, job, [and], family", the goals that all people are programmed to aspire towards, don't seem to be Darren's goals, as the boy satirizes his father's mantra of mass conformity.

This satirical moment loses its bite, however, since Darren(Chris Massoglia) has no choice in the matter, the matter of secession from the living, when he agrees to the conditions of the pact he makes with Crepsley(John C.

Reilly), who turns the boy into a vampire; his compensation for saving Steve's life. It's Steve, not Darren, who's transfixed by vampire iconography, so when this sheltered boy rebels against the dad, he's actually expressing his friend's reservations about societal norms.

Since "The Vampire's Assistant" is fitted with the calibration of a light comedy, Fred seems neither happy nor particularly sad about being dead. The film lacks a corresponding scene that directly addresses the boy's burlesquing of his father.

Was he, or was he not, an anarchist(or a nihilist) in the making? The film, instead, occupies itself with the ongoing schism between the two factions of vampires, and gives short-shrift to the schism within Fred's half-human/half-vampire self.