SXSW 2021 Film Review: Jakob's Wife
Barbara Crampton vamps out in the bloody horror anthem, Jakob’s Wife
My 2021 SXSW coverage begins here! Horror legend Barbara Crampton takes the spotlight in Travis Stevens’ sanguine vampire comedy, Jakob’s Wife. Embracing its B-movie trappings, the film tackles its themes of empowerment with the subtlety of a stake to the heart, but Crampton makes everything work with a hypnotic, career-best performance. Jakob’s Wife is camp horror brought to rousing life with blood spilled and guts strewn, and the fun everyone is having is infectious. Minor spoilers ahead…
Genre legend Barbara Crampton is having a career renaissance - in the last decade alone, she’s had at least 25 screen credits to her name. Building upon an already storied filmography - including, but not limited to, classics such as Re-Animator, Chopping Mall, and Castle Freak - Crampton has found another calling outside of her performances as a champion of horror. In addition to acting and producing, she has also become a figurehead in the genre community: writing columns for Fangoria, engaging in Twitter discussion, and embracing her role as a beloved steward of the spooky.
Coalescing this new energy and influence, Crampton has delivered her most impressive role yet as the title character in director Travis Stevens’ (Girl on the Third Floor) vampire horror dramedy, Jakob’s Wife. Where Stevens’ feature-length debut played it deadly straight and serious in Girl on the Third Floor, Jakob’s Wife embraces its B-movie charms with bloody effervescence, trading in a gross and austere haunted house for a fresh spin on the vampire tale.
Taking more than a few pages from its 80s influences, Jakob’s Wife centers around Anne Fedder (Crampton), the meek and jaded wife of a small-town pastor (Larry Fessenden). Enervated and dissatisfied, Anne unexpectedly develops the supernatural “thirst” after a furtive tryst ends with a bite from a strange, bat-like shadow. Suddenly, Anne finds herself flush with newfound power and hunger, and a new - more confident - lease on life: She upgrades her wardrobe, carries herself with a new gait, and begins to feel an unusual hankering for red meat. Jakob, who sermonizes from his pulpit about the biblically traditional roles of husbands and wives, is barely able to process Anne’s transformation.
“Jakob’s Wife embraces its B-movie charms with bloody effervescence…for a fresh spin on the vampire tale.”
Reuniting Fessenden with Crampton, both of whom starred in Ted Geoghegan’s gruesome We Are Still Here, is the best decision Jakob’s Wife could have made. The pair of horror icons give the characters their all - especially for Crampton, who sinks her proverbial teeth into the title role with camp and relish. Anne’s evolution from submissive Christian housewife to bloodthirsty succubus is sold entirely by Crampton’s powerfully nuanced performance, which is at times the bright spot keeping the script - that is occasionally clunky and sledgehammer subtle - afloat.
Tonally, Jakob’s Wife doesn’t always land its punches; its metaphor of vampirism as a meditation on a sagging marriage is a powerful one, but it’s a reckoning that is quickly forgotten in favor of the movie’s eagerness for bloodletting. However, it’s a good thing that the horror aspects more than make up for the film’s wobbly cohesion. There’s gruesome carnage played straight, moments of slapstick B-movie gore, and even some inventive set pieces that will leave you grinning from ear to ear: An early scene in which Anne visits the dentist is a stunningly clever and hilarious riff on the vampire mythos. I won’t spoil anything, but it involves some new teeth and a grotesque use of ultraviolet light.
Jakob’s Wife doesn’t always follow through on its themes, but Barbara Crampton covers an entire spectrum of emotions and tone without breaking a sweat - an absolutely delightful chameleon worthy of the “legend” moniker. In the end, the film is a much better creature feature than delicate character study, but Travis Stevens proves himself an adept weaver of a new vampire mythos and a talented craftsman of a good, bloody time.
