Coming to Shudder: Jakob’s Wife

We’re currently witnessing a welcomed renaissance of Barbara Crampton. In 2011 she was cast in You’re Next and the next year Lords of Salem, both to positive reception amongst critics and moviegoers. More recently she has taken on independent projects to produce since 2015's Road Games, in which she also starred. Jakob’s Wife marks the third feature-length film in which she has produced & starred (the only outlier being 2020’s Castle Freak), and is the most ambitious of them to date.

Crampton is joined on-screen opposite Larry Fessenden, who also has a two-pronged horror history behind and in front of the camera. Crampton plays Anne, the wife of Fessenden’s milquetoast minister Jakob, visibly bored from her routine that exists to support her husband’s lifestyle and calling. It only takes news of an old fling from Anne’s past coming into town for work for her to perk up about something for a change, and for Jakob to grow jealous.

Barbara Crampton as Anne Fedder. Photo courtesy of RLJE Films and Shudder.

What Anne and Jakob didn’t anticipate was a lurking presence of the undead in their safe small town. It doesn’t take long until Anne is thrust into the grips of an undead master and left to adapt alongside her pious better half. Directed by Travis Stevens and co-written by Mark Steensland and Kathy Charles, Jakob’s Wife takes a look into the life of the sheltered white American bubble, shaken by something so familiar to genre film enthusiasts yet participate and perpetuate equally monstrous behavior in the face of privilege.

Larry Fessenden as Anne’s husband Reverend Jakob Fedder. Photo courtesy of RLJE Films and Shudder.

Fessenden and Crampton play off each other very well here and liven up the real dramatic moments that demand so much from their characters, but it isn’t quite sure whether to invest in its dive into the inquisition of gendered familial roles and obligation or to keep it as background while Anne and her boring husband run around in a bloody sandbox trying to get to the one responsible.

While the film ends up deciding on where it will land eventually, the journey between the door opening up to Anne’s awakening and her ultimate decision is still a fun one if not populated with mixed tones. But such is the life of a middle-aged couple in the face of death.

Jakob’s Wife premieres exclusively on Shudder starting August 19th.

[this article was originally published on august 8, 2021 on celluloidconsomme.medium.com.]