A minister’s passive and disillusioned wife seeks to regain equal footing in her marriage after she is turned into a vampire in Jakob’s Wife, a zany thriller directed by Travis Stevens.
Veteran horror actors Barbara Crampton and Larry Fessenden, who previously worked together on You’re Next, join forces in Jakob’s Wife to fight vampires and fix their stale marriage. Crampton, an 80s horror icon known for her roles in films like Re-Animator, From Beyond, and more recently We Are Still Here, is completely in her element as Anne, the lead character who is injected with a new zest for life with a side of ravenous hunger for human blood. Crampton is also a producer on the film. Fassenden meets his co-star part way in a performance that captures the campy comedy but occasionally falters when playing it serious—not that the film provides a lot of solemnity. Overall, Crampton and Fassenden’s interactions infuse the pulpy horror with much of the film’s charm and humour.
The film opens with a close-up of a rat in front of a church, an ominous image that complements Jakob’s patriarchal preaching to a receptive congregation—except for Jakob’s wife Anne, who looks as though she can barely contain her disgust. Once known by her friends as “adventurous Anne” with big dreams for her future, Anne now finds herself a passive, meek wife in an unfulfilling marriage. Jakob constantly speaks over Anne, expects her to have breakfast ready for him every morning, and generally dismisses her. She has faded into the background of her own life, but sees an opportunity to reclaim some excitement when her old flame, Tom Low (Robert Rusler) comes to town. When the two have an amorous exchange while checking out an abandoned factory under the guise of working on a professional project together, demonic rats attack and a shadowy figure bites Anne, jumpstarting her transformation into a vampire as well as a woman with newfound confidence and expectations for her marriage.
It’s a little too on the nose that the minister’s wife is punished immediately after committing the sin of adultery, however the film tries to steer clear of the unwelcome metaphor by framing it as an empowering change for Anne. She dresses boldly, rediscovers her sexuality, voices her opinions, and confronts Jakob about their uneven marriage. She demands they work as a team from here on out, and insists that Jakob has never fought for her because he’s never had to. This spurs Jakob to action, ready to take down the Master (Bonnie Aarons), the vampire who turned Anne. In another subversion of expectations, the Master is presented as a female Nosferatu who insists Anne is not beholden to her and can make her own choices—although the Master’s claim is questionable, given that another newly turned vampire speaks only of her devotion to the Master. Nevertheless, Anne refuses to submit to the Master and joins Jakob in a mission to take her down.
The film’s empowerment angle is not altogether convincing as Anne must change herself completely in order to seek equality in her marriage, nor does she seem to accomplish that goal by the film’s end. While she motivates her husband to finally fight for and with her, and he stops interrupting her, Jakob often takes the lead in their vampire-hunting mission and continues to make decisions on Anne’s behalf throughout the film—including during the final confrontation between Anne and the Master. It’s presented as a personal and climactic moment in which Anne must make an important choice, and yet Jakob forcefully disrupts the interaction, once again undermining Anne and denying her autonomy.
Despite its mixed messages and occasionally clunky dialogue, the film’s stars pull off the campy horror through their fun chemistry, which particularly shines once Jakob becomes aware that Anne has turned into a vampire and attempts to help her. His discovery is captured in a hilarious sequence in which Jakob finds Anne slurping blood off the floor next to a dead body in their blood-soaked kitchen, and Anne tries to deny it was her doing. A slightly erratic movie that falters in imparting sincerity, but lands comedic punches and employs zany special effects that will have cult horror enthusiasts grinning, the lead actors are clearly having a fabulous time as they rip heads off, eat worms, stake vampires, and get showered in blood and guts.
Written by Kathy Charles, Mark Steenland, and Travis Stevens, Jakob’s Wife is a campy B-horror film that sometimes struggles to find a tonal balance but provides an entertaining ride nonetheless, in large part due to its veteran lead actors.
Score: B-
© 2021. UniversalCinema Mag.