The Cirque Du Freak

Yes, a small rant on the movie versus the books. Bear with me here. I've read that the movie is a combination of the first THREE books, not the first TWO. If this is true, they left out pretty much the entire third book.

POSSIBLE SLIGHT SPOILER ALERT: I'm not going to give anything huge away, but if you plan on reading these (please do, they're great) or seeing the movie (it was good), and you REALLY don't want to know ANYTHING, do not read any further.

Okay, so I read the book series when I was in sixth grade. It's a series of 12 books about Darren Shan, this kid who goes the the Cirque Du Freak (or Circus of Freaks) with his friend, Steve. Darren has this freaky obsession with spiders, and one of the guys in the act (Mr. Creepsly) has one. He ends up stealing her (the spider), and she eventually bites Steve. In order to save Steve, Darren agrees to becomes a half vampire to save his friend. In order for his parents to not spend their lives looking for him, he had to "die." Which basically means he takes this knockout paralytic, and Creepsly breaks Darren's neck (he fixes it later) and tosses him off the roof. Most people think he committed suicide. Except (in the book) for Steve. So Darren goes with Mr. Creepsly, and he goes and lives in the freak show. They do all kinds of things and have all kinds of adventures throughout the series.

Things about the book that they changed in the movie that bothered me immensely (in no particular order/sequence):

1. The Little People: There are these super small little beings called Little People that Mr. Tiny (see below) creates. In the book, they always wear hoods. You never see their faces, and you have no idea what they look like. You find out in a later book that their faces are really gross and creepy and all sewn together and stuff, because Mr. Tiny makes them by sewing together the parts of other people. In the movie, Mr. Tiny makes them by pouring some magic dust on a person after they die, and then they just turn into a little person that has weird grey skin. It's ridiculous.

2. Mr. Tiny: Mr. Tiny is this super weird, really creepy dude who helps out the Cirque by giving them some of his Little People to do stuff at the Cirque. They captured him pretty well, except for one thing. He ALWAYS wears a yellow suit. In the movie, he's never in one. That made me a bit angry, because that's like his trademark.

3. Steve: In the movie, the Vampaneze dude comes when Mr. Crepsly is digging Darren up, but in the book, it's Steve. Steve saw Mr. Crepsly's picture in a book, though he was using a different name, and recognized him. Steve went to him after the show and asked to be made a Vampire. Crepsly tested his blood and said it was evil, so Steve got all pissed and vowed revenge. Then, he went to see Darren in his coffin before the funeral because he suspected Vampire mischief, he figured out what Darren had done, so he went to the graveyard when Crepsly was digging up Darren, and there was this giant fight. In the movie, he eventually becomes a Vampaneze, but in the book he just dedicates his life to hunting down Vampires.

4. Powers: In the books, and the movie, Darren only becomes half a vampire. He isn't fully blooded by Crepsly because it's seriously messed up to blood a kid. In the books, though, because he's only half a vampire, he doesn't have all the powers a full vampire does. He has neither knockout breath, nor the healing spit. He can go out in daylight, so he has absolutely no need for a coffin. And, if I recall correctly, he cannot flit. In the movie, though, he has healing spit and he eventually flits. FUN FACT: Vampires age one twelfth the rate of humans. Half Vampires, one sixth.

5. Love Interest: In the third book, Darren meets this chick named Debbie, who is a love interest on and off throughout the series. In the movie, for some reason, there is a monkey girl who becomes his love interest. I don't understand what they plan on doing with Debbie if they continue with the movies, considering she appears later in the series.

6. Mr. Tall: In the movie, he's Asian or something and has a hard to understand accent. I don't really know what he really looks like in the book, but I imagined him looking like Abe Lincoln, not a weird tall Asian dude.


7. Limb-Regrowing Character: In the book, I'm almost positive he was a dude. In the movie, a chick plays the part. Why?

Okay, rant over. Read the books. See the movie. Have a great week! Love, Me.