BEDIO: Cirque Du Freak by Darren Shan

Hey everybody, welcome back!

As October is a month full of spookiness and horror, I started thinking about books and series that got me interested in the genre in the first place. There were some classics, such as Stephen King, as well as ghost stories compiled on websites such as The Moonlit Road, or books like Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark.

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However, if there was ever a series that got me interested in the horror genre as a whole (reading, writing, or movie- wise) Cirque Du Freak was the gateway for me as a kid. It was the first time I felt true fear and creepiness while reading a story, especially as Darren Shan named the main character of the series Darren, which, being a kid at the time, I thought for a moment was his actual story. Darren Shan has also written a series called Demonata which I had started, but lost interest in after a few books, so I’m going to focus on Cirque Du Freak.

It was also one of the series where I was extremely disappointed in the movie adaptation. I’ve had many instances of liking the book more than the movie, but even then, I could still find some elements of the movie that I liked more so than in the books. Cirque Du Freak was not one of those instances.

MV5BMTI1NDA1MTMwNl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwNTg0MDE4Mg@@._V1_.jpg — Just looking at this movie poster is making me angry🤣😡

The movie is an almost clownish, comedic interpretation of the source material, which doesn’t make sense if you know the story. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Cirque Du Freak, it is about a teenager who turns into a vampire after he steals a rare poisonous spider from a performer from the Cirque Du Freak. This spider bites his best friend, and in order for Darren to save his friend, he makes a deal with the performer (who is actually a vampire) and becomes his half-vampire assistant. Darren is forced to leave his life behind to save his friend from the grave mistake made, and now we have a cartoonish interpretation of that story. I watched maybe five minutes of it on TV, then turned it off because I couldn’t sit through anymore of it.

It also didn’t help that John C. Reilly played the role of Larten Crepsley. Mr. Crepsley is a mentor for Darren in the novels, but also his boss and captor in a way (Since he forces Darren to become a half-vampire against his will, essentially). He isn’t a comedic character, but with John C. Reilly in the role (since he’s mainly a comedic actor), it just didn’t seem to fit. Not that comedy actors can’t play more serious roles, I just don’t remember that being the case with this movie.

TL:DR: I loved the book series Cirque Du Freak as a kid, but was not a fan of the movie at all.

Now, that’s about all I have for today. This is a shorter post, but I figure it’s good to have some shorter posts mixed in with the longer ones… for variety right? 👌

I’m going to leave off with a couple questions for you guys: