Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant (2009)

  This is like Percy Jackson for the goth crowd:  A-list adults, up-and-coming teens, a fairly cheesy script, and a lot of effects.  Believe it or not, that's still a compliment.  I don't see this one getting a sequel but I didn't expect The Lightning Thief to get one either and apparently that's happening.

Darren (Chris Massoglia) is a goody-two-shoes kid whose only weird habit is that he likes spiders.  His best friend Steve (Josh Hutcherson) is more of a troublemaker.  When the boys catch a One Night Only flyer for a travelling sideshow called Cirque du Freak, Steve convinces Darren to sneak out.  There they see a collection of oddities, including a man named Crepsley (John C. Reilly) and his pet spider Octa.  Darren is instantly captivated by Octa but Steve is convinced that Crepsley is actually a vampire.  After the show is broken up by angry townspeople, Darren sneaks into the dressing room and steals Octa.  He runs from the theater after overhearing a couple of conversations he shouldn't, including when his buddy Steve busts in and demands to be made a vampire, only to get shot down for having bad tasting blood.  Things go from bad to worse when Steve tries to smash Octa with a broom and gets bit, landing in the hospital.  Crepsley barters with Darren over the antidote into becoming his half-vampire assistant.  When Steve finds out, he is furious that Darren hijacked his dream and immediately joins up with the other faction in an ongoing vampire war.  Crepsley and Darren seek shelter amongst the neutral Cirque and Darren learns valuable lessons about not judging people for how they look.

This is based on a 12-book Young Adult series that is apparently much beloved.  I missed the boat on that as I was already out of high school when it was published.  It's not a terrible movie and I liked the idea that it presented.  It looked like it had a lot of potential that was unfortunately weighed down by introducing too many characters that have no real part and having really cartoony CGI effects.  If you're 12 that probably doesn't matter so much to you, but as an adult, I found it grating.  The opening titles were my favorite part of the whole movie and I really wish the rest of the effects lived up to that standard.