Before anybody gets to thinking that the new horror thriller comedy "Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant" is jumping on the vampire bandwagon, star Chris Massoglia wants you to know that the film had established its stake, so to speak, long before people started to sink their teeth into "Twilight," "True Blood" and "The Vampire Diaries."

"When we were filming 'The Vampire's Assistant,' 'Twilight' or those shows hadn't even come out yet," Massoglia recalled in a recent @ The Movies interview. "Actually, we were filming the same time as the first 'Twilight' movie. So there weren't any thoughts of how we were going to do against those projects at the time."

"Cirque du Freak" is similar to "Twilight" in that the story originated in a series of books, which all became international best sellers. However, "Cirque" and its first follow-up novel, "The Vampire's Assistant" were released in 2000 and 2002, respectively, years before the release of "Twilight" in 2005.

Told in first person by author Darren Shan, the movie version -- which takes its name from the first and second novel -- follows the unlikely exploits of teenager Darren (Massoglia), a promising student whose boring suburban life takes a dramatic turn one night when he and his best friend, Steve (Josh Hutcherson), attend a traveling freak show. Falling in the clutches of the vampire Crepsley (John C. Reilly), Darren becomes a part of the undead traveling troupe and unwittingly breaks a 200-year-old truce between two feuding factions of vampires. Unfortunately, his best friend has sided with the enemy.

Opening in theaters nationwide on Friday, "The Vampire's Assistant" also stars Salma Hayek, Ken Watanabe and Willem Dafoe. As the assistant to his vampire, Massoglia, naturally, has most of his scenes opposite Reilly; and was thrilled that the veteran actor was able to bring both his comedic and dramatic sensibilities to the role.

"He started out in theater and doing dramas, but most recently stuff like 'Talladega Nights,' 'Step Brothers' and 'Walk Hard' made him real popular, especially with young people, as a comedic actor," Massoglia said. "This will be a cool role for him to again play to people my age and younger -- but this time they get to see him in a new light."

Fresh Blood

A casual fan of vampire fare (his exposure prior to playing Darren only included the classic "Dracula" movies) Massoglia, a Minneapolis native, admitted that he hadn't even heard of Shan's book saga before he readied for auditions for the film, much less read them.

"When I was out in LA doing auditions, I would tell my friends what I was auditioning for and whatnot," Massoglia recalled. "But one time, I was sitting in a hot tub with this one kid who was laid back and leaning against a jet -- but when I told him I was auditioning for Darren Shan he was like, 'What!?' and jumped up and went to his hotel room to get me a copy of the book. He read all of the books in the series twice. I had a lot of friends who read the books."

While he was only newly familiar with the source material, Massoglia said that he didn't feel at an advantage or disadvantage when it came time trying out for the role -- mainly because he treats books and films as two different mediums.

"Preparation for an audition is different for every actor, but for me I prepare off the script," Massoglia explained. "The thing about movies, it's about the script. We're not filming the book page by page. If I have a big callback I might research things a little more in-depth, but all in all, it's about the script and the director and what he wants you to do in the scene. As an actor, you have to be able to go in there and do what it takes in the scene to do the movie."

Massoglia said he had that complete sense of trust in his director, Paul Weitz ("About a Boy," "American Pie"), who coincidentally is the brother of "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" director Chris Weitz. It was a good feeling for the 17-year-old television actor ("Wanted" and "Law and Order: Criminal Investigation"), who was cutting his feature film fangs on "The Vampire's Assistant."

"My obligation is to the director, especially as a first-time actor. I'll admit I didn't always know what I was doing on set," Massoglia said with a laugh. "I really connected with Paul. He really communicated to me what he wanted in a scene and throughout the film."

And, as a vampire, some of those scenes included some actions by Darren that were otherworldly -- meaning Massoglia occasionally had to be strung up in a harness to get his feet off the ground. But the youthful actor didn't mind.

"We did a lot of harness work and a couple 10-minute fight scenes in the movie. Certain things get strenuous, but I can handle it," Massoglia said, laughing. "It was a lot of fun."

The future of Massoglia's tenure as "The Vampire's Assistant" depends, of course, on the success of the film. But Massoglia said that he's ready for more should the coffin door swing open again.

"I've signed on for three movies," Massoglia said. "If it does well and the fans respond, there will be more."