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Ashely Wolfgram

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Aug 2, 2024, 10:21:44 AM8/2/24

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If you never even knew that there WAS a Cirque Du Freak movie... well, that might be seen as something of a mixed blessing!! Personally I enjoyed the movie on its own terms. If you've never read my books, it's a quirky, odd little film, packed with a brilliantly bonkers cast -- John C Reilly as Mr Crepsley! Salma Hayek as Truska! Willem Dafoe - Willem freaking Dafoe!! - as Gavner!!!! The sets are stunning, the score is sumptuous, and there's much fun to be had for those who are happy to go along with the ride and overlook its flaws.

BUT there's no denying it's far from a faithful adaptation. I had nothing to do with the writing of the script, and it shows. I didn't mind that it shoe-horned in elements from the first three books -- that was always going to happen -- but I was less impressed with the changes it made to the vampire lore I had carefully constructed... the dropping of key characters like Sam Grest, R.V. and Debbie... the reveals of certain secrets from later books in the series.

Still, all in all, I enjoyed it, as I've always (honestly) said over the last decade and a bit. And plenty of my fans enjoy it too, especially those who saw it before they'd read the books (for quite a lot of people, it served as their introduction to my world -- they'd never heard of me before seeing the film). But, equally, there are lots of my fans who loathe it, and I certainly understand their feelings on the matter.

Anyway, if you live in the UK, and have a Netflix account, you can check it out for yourself, whether it's to try it for the first time... to re-visit an old fave if you dug it first time round... or to watch it again to confirm that it really was as bad as you thought when it was originally released!!!

Cirque du freak is a young adult book series with 12 books. The series was written by Darren shan. It became very popular, so popular a movie version was made. However the movie was nothing like the books expect for the character names.

With Netflix's success in adapting YA properties (a series of unfortunate events, 13 reasons why, umbrella academy, the witcher) it would make perfect sense for Netflix to produce a cirque du freak series that is faithful to the books. Many fans grew up with the series and felt disappointed when the movie was released, myself included.