Jakob's Wife

A fun dark romance, one of the better Shudder films, Love lust, gore small budget done well I have seen much worse.

A vampire movie? A commentary on religion? A feminist manifesto? A horror comedy?

SNL used to have a skit where a husband and wife argued over a canned product. The wife said, "it's a floor wax!" and the husband said, "No, it's a dessert topping!" And a salesman comes in and says "Hey folks, it is both! It's a floor wax and a dessert topping!"

Which brings us to Jakob's Wife.

Either the movie had too many writers, each with a different idea, or the main writer got stoned and lost his train of thought 2 or 3 times during the course of writing this movie.

In chronological order; it is serious, it is scary, it's funny, it is feminist, it's boring, it is stupid and bam, it's over.

Ugh.

A couple of fun, bloody effects, an interesting vampire who looks like Caillou with bad teeth and a couple of cops who get a few good lines. Other than that, nothing to see here.

Barbara Crampton chews every bit of scenery in this film and takes us on a journey from repressed housewife to liberated vampire vixen. I thoroughly enjoyed the indie vibe, old school special effects, stellar cast, and nods to Salem's Lot. It felt like a labor of love and Barbara Crampton really gave it her all in every frame she was in. Jakob's Wife has a lot of heart and is a great little film that will provide you with laughs, gore, and plenty of Barbara slaying the screen.

This is one of those movies where I'm glad a friend showed it to our group and I was completely blind about it. Obviously if you've seen the poster here, you're clued in on what the subject matter is, but it's interesting that the movie isn't super blatant about it. The first third of the movie is kind of a tense paranormal thriller, and it gives you plenty of room to make up your own assumptions about what's going on.

Then the reveal hits -- and the tone of the whole movie shifts to something a little more tongue-in-cheek, complete with Evil Dead amounts of blood spray. Something that initially appears buttoned-up and serious turns out to be pretty fun, all told. Some of the more complex effects look a little cheap, but the movie doesn't take itself too seriously in the end, so it's fitting with the spirit of things.

I thought it was pretty good, and I liked the fact the Minister was more than just a walking stereotype. Always gotta have a little dimensionality to your characters, and the range of his character fits with the range of the movie itself.

And succeeds in almost combining an otherwise dull vampire tale with a story of feminine liberation from marital woes. Crampton, one of the last legitimate scream queens, goes for the the gold. The core problem remains that horror films are supposed to provide thrills in otherwise dull lives. Today reality provides all the horror anyone can stand.