Everyone should see Cirque du Freak. I don't care if you've never read the books, or didn't even know there were books. I don't care if you're a book purist (as I usually am). I don't care if you're like me and completely exhausted of the plethora of vampire movies/TV shows/books coming out as of late, many of whose fans have no idea who Anne Rice is. I don't care if you're broke, have no time, or just don't care. Everyone should see it.

A very thin plot summary is that after seeing a freak show, Darren Shan steals a performing spider owned by a vampire named Larten Crepsley. When his best friend, Steve Leonard, gets bitten, Darren confronts Mr. Crepsley for an antidote. Mr. Crepsley makes a deal with Darren: he'll give Steve the antidote only if Darren agrees to leave his family and become his half-vampire assistant. Darren agrees, and goes to live with Mr. Crepsley at the Cirque.
The MOVIE is both about Darren coming to terms with himself as a half-vampire, as well as unravelling some plot that concerns the war between two factions of "vampires" (vampires vs vampaneze). Much more would be spoilerish.
That, again, is a very stretched summary. If I went into more, it would ruin a lot for both the movie and the books.

The movie is quite different from the books. And usually that would bother me, but I loved the movie enough so that it doesn't. And I don't give a damn if people don't like John D. Reilly as Mr. Crepsley. As an insane fangirl who lives more in her own imagination than in the real world and is still refusing to read book 10 because of the end of book 9, I give Reilly my approval.
My only complaint, which I'm quite rapidly getting over, is the huge role given to female characters who either did nothing in the books, or didn't exist. Rebecca took the place of Sam, Debbie, and most of Evra's role. And she looked 12. 0__o Did anyone else notice that?

I want Mr. Crepsley for Christmas. There.