For vampire-crazed “Twilight” fans who are eagerly awaiting “New Moon,” there’s a new movie that’s trying to fill that stake-shaped hole in your heart: “Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant.”

Based on the first book in the Cirque du Freak series, “The Vampire’s Assistant” tells the story of best friends Darren (Chris Massoglia, “The Hole”) and Steve (Josh Hutcherson, “Journey to the Center of the Earth”) who stumble upon a freak show and encounter a myriad of strange and mysterious figures. As captivating as the performance is, however, the duo soon discovers entertaining their curiosities can have deadly (or, rather, undeadly) consequences. Eventually, Darren must give up his place among the living and become a vampire in order to save his friend’s life.

Unlike “Twlight,” however, “The Vampire’s Assistant” is geared toward a somewhat younger age group. But don’t worry, this movie doesn’t feature a stereotypically attractive male lead whose main role is to serve as tweenage eye candy, nor is it your average high-intensity action blood ‘n’ guts vamp thriller. Instead, this movie takes on a different angle from which to view the undead, one of more innocent and entertaining intentions.

If you are looking for a movie with good writing, interesting plot twists, and exceptional acting, then look elsewhere. Unless you’re overcome by nostalgic desires for simplistic grade school book reports, then you will most likely not get a whole lot out of sitting through this one -hour- 48-minute-long film.

The storyline, while solid enough and even reasonably thrilling, is still rather juvenile, involving every Disney Channel drama from best friend fights to predictable pretty girl love interests. This is pretty disappointing considering “The Vampire’s Assistant” lacks any detailed explanation of its fictitious boundaries — which one could argue is the most interesting element of the film — and relies heavily upon clich?.

While the writing is occasionally witty at times, it is otherwise a brand of cheesiness that straddles the border of ridiculousness while being overwhelmingly obvious about the morals of the film — especially the phrase “It’s not what you are, but who you are.” Given the blatancies in the characters’ momentous speeches, the morals of this story could not possibly be shoved any further down viewers’ throats.

Then again, such tends to be the case for this particular target demographic. The overacting and displaced awkward moments are almost excusable taking into account the saving presences of John C. Reilly (“9”) as ringleader Larten Crepsley, Salma Hayek (“Across the Universe”) and Michael Cerveris (“Fringe”) (Willem Dafoe unfortunately made himself scarce), and keeping in mind this is somewhat of a kids’ movie — even though the occasional curse word did make this a bit questionable.

Even taking all of this into account, “Cirque Du Freak” still manages to come off as an overall entertaining movie. Its carnival-esque theme allows for a creatively designed set and an amusing array of freakish figures, including a snake-faced struggling musician and a lady with the uncanny ability to regrow her own limbs only after purposely chopping them off. It serves its purpose as a lighthearted yet adventurous piece of entertainment, just as long as viewers remember to leave all analytical criticism at home.

Two and 1/2 stars out of five