Teenage Vampire Flick Lacking Bite

CIRQUE DU FREAK: THE VAMPIRES ASSISTANT *** 12A

THIS teen vampire flick is screaming out to be the next Harry Potter.

In many ways it is a better film than the boy wizard's first outing in The Philosophr's Stone - but there's still something that just doesn't feel quite right about Cirque Du Freak.

And I suspect it doesn't quite live up to the bestselling series of Darren Shan books on which it is based.

The film combines the first three books into the one story and it's evident the film-makers hope it'll be the start of the next big movie franchise.

But the film lacks the necessary spectacular action, or star appeal to give it any real box-office bite. And if there's any film this season that's got the subject of vampirism nailed its blood- sucking sequel The Twilight Saga: The New Moon.

Everything else is dead on its feet including this, even though it's aimed clearly at adolescent boys and not Robert Pattinson obsessed females. And therein lies the problem.

Twilight has Robert Pattinson and Cirque Du Freak has Chris Massoglia. He's a perfectly capable young actor but lacks the necessary charisma to make young girls swoon or to carry the weight of a franchise - mind you many said that about Daniel Radcliffe,so who knows? There's also the casting of John C Riley - who effectively plays the movie's Dumbledore, Larten Crepsley - a vampire who can make gravity defying moves like Keanu Reeves in the Matrix.

Sadly, the usually excellent Riley is utterly miscast in this action hero and mentor role.

Still the film does stir up some terrific and, on occasion, very weird and wonderful moments, as it tells the tale of 14-year-old Darren (Massoglia).

He's a good kid who stays out of trouble until he and his best mate Steve (a well-cast Josh Hutcheson) stumble upon a travelling freak show.

Darren is subsequently pulled out of his very average existence into a war between two factions of vampires.

Playing more like a pilot for a television show than a big- screen hit, this is a mish-mash of action, horror and comedy.

At its best it's sporadically entertaining and at worst, like its leading young man, it is rather forgettable.

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