The Vampire's Assistant

When I finished reading the first three books in the Darren Shan series I watched the Vampire's Assistant right afterward. As a separate entity, the movie was pretty awesome. It was a good vampire story with a goofy side and it was pretty entertaining. But when you look at the movie as an adaptation of the books... it falls very short. The director didn't just make some changes for entertainment purposes, he changed almost everything. The kids were much older in the movie than how they were construed in the book. I love John C Reilly but he was not what I had expected for Mr. Crepsley. A big part of the book is how Crepsley is a lonely vampire but in the movie he is dating Madame Truska. The circus is described as being much smaller but in the movie it is huge with many more performers. Murlough and Mr. Tiny aren't in cahoots, at least not so far. Also, the way Darren Shan characterized Murlough really put a strong picture of him in your head. I saw a Wiley, odd, slightly crazy man who was very clever but in a psycho kind of way. I even had a voice for him... anyone who likes Buffy the Vampire Slayer will know who I mean... In season 7, episode 3 titled Same Place, Same Time there is a "monster" called a gnarl (he immobilizes his victims and then slowly pulls pieces of their skin off and eats them)... the voice of that monster is how I envisioned Murlough to sound.