Darren and Steve are friends in high school but are completely different. Darren is cautious, considerate, and listens to his parents. Steve is reckless, a trouble-maker, and a bad influence on Darren. They share a similar taste in the macabre, however, which leads them to see a traveling freak show that stops in their small town. Among the performers is a real vampire who ultimately takes one of the boys as his apprentice, while the other jealously searches for dark power elsewhere. In this world, vampires are good but dangerous, while a sub-set of vampires are people-eaters.
The movie has a Disney channel/Nickelodeon TV feel despite the fact it "wants" to be dark. The main characters are very young and don't have the necessary charisma to carry the picture. Larger stars have a few bit parts, including Salma Hayek and Willem Dafoe, but it feels as though they are slumming for a paycheck. Only John C. Reilly ("Stepbrothers") as the vampire circus performer has any real personality in the picture. He cannot save a poorly crafted movie that is more goofy than gruesome, more ham-fisted than humorous. Even for a children's film, the action on-screen is simply not entertaining enough to justify the effort.
A better children's book adaptation that was overlooked not too long ago was "The Spiderwick Chronicles." It is much more scary, adventurous, and heart-warming than this film. For a more adult-leaning exploration of sideshow freaks and geeks, try renting the former Showtime series, "Carnavale."
Rated PG-13 for sequences of intense supernatural violence and action, disturbing images, thematic elements and some language.
