The Campfire: Cirque du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant
Shownotes
Welcome back to the Campfire — our special bonus section!
In this episode, we reminisce about our time watching the 2009 vampire not-so-mega-hit Cirque Due Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant so you never have to see it. We thought it was going to be relevant to our episode on the vampire’s familiar (given the title), but oh how we were misled!
Plus: Hannah formally apologizes to Rebecca for not realizing how gay the movie was at the time of our viewing, we discuss the bizarre uncanny valley between self-aware and self-serious, and you’ll learn important life lessons lessons such as make sure to communicate with your friend when the circus comes to town, never steal a vampire’s spider, and maybe don’t touch fingertip to fingertip with an immortal who looks a little like a clown.
Come vamps, join us around the campfire.
CW: brief mentions of suicide in fiction
Major Spoilers:
* Cirque Du Freak: The Vampire’s Assistant, directed by Paul Weitz, 2009
Other media mentioned in this episode:
Fiction
* Dracula by Bram Stoker, 1897
* Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead, 2007
* Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice, 1976
* The Saga of Darren Shan by Darren O’Shaughnessy, 2000-2004 (series)
Film
* Nosferatu, directed by F.W. Murnau, 1922
* Drácula, directed by George Melford, 1931
* Dracula, directed by Tod Browning, 1931
* The Hunger, directed by Tony Scott, 1983
* Fright Night, directed by Tom Holland, 1985
* Once Bitten, directed by Howard Storm, 1985
* Blade, directed by Stephen Norrington, 1998
* Shadow of the Vampire, directed by E. Elias Merhige, 2000
* Van Helsing, directed by Stephen Sommers, 2004
* Twilight, directed by Catherine Hardwicke, 2008
* Daybreakers, directed by Michael Spierig and Peter Spierig, 2009
* What We Do in the Shadows, directed by Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi, 2014
* Nosferatu, directed by Robert Eggers, 2024
* Vampire Carnival, directed by Justin Powell and David Charbonier, 2027
TV
* S5E1 “Buffy vs. Dracula,” Buffy the Vampire Slayer, 2000
* The Vampire Diaries, 2009-2017
* What We Do in the Shadows, 2019-2024
* American Horror Story: Hotel, 2015
Games
* Castlevania, 1986-
Non-fiction
* Blood with Recipes by Jennifer McLagan, 2019
Substack
Liked this episode? You’ll also like…
The Trials and Tribulations of the Vampire’s Familiar
Are All Vampires a Leetle Gäy?
To Live Forever and Never Grow Up: The Vampire Child
From Monster to Muppet: Making Vampires for Children
Are You Sure You Want to Live Forever?: The Horrors of Immortality
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This episode was written, recorded, and produced by Rebecca Glazer & Hannah Spiegelman — without AI, ever.
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