• Skip to main content
  • Skip to header right navigation
  • Skip to site footer
  • Magazine
  • Our Story
  • Buzz Learning
  • Buzz TV
  • Contact Buzz
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
Buzz Magazine

Buzz Magazine

What's On in Wales - Your Ultimate Guide

  • Culture
    • Art
    • Books
    • Comedy
    • Dance
    • Film
    • Music
    • Sport
    • Theatre
    • TV
  • Life
    • Reviews
    • Interviews
    • Travel
    • Food & Drink
    • Community
    • Environment
  • Regions
    • South Wales
    • Mid Wales
    • West Wales
    • North Wales
  • What’s On
  • Culture
    • Art
    • Books
    • Comedy
    • Dance
    • Film
    • Music
    • Sport
    • Theatre
    • TV
  • Life
    • Reviews
    • Interviews
    • Travel
    • Food & Drink
    • Community
    • Environment
  • Regions
    • South Wales
    • Mid Wales
    • West Wales
    • North Wales
  • What’s On

  • Magazine
  • Our Story
  • Buzz Learning
  • Buzz TV

  • Contact Buzz
  • Write for Buzz
  • Advertising
  • Jobs
  • FAQs
  • Privacy Policy

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • YouTube
You are here: Home / Culture / Film / JAKOB’S WIFE | FILM REVIEW

JAKOB’S WIFE | FILM REVIEW

August 17, 2021 Category: Film, Reviews
Barbara Crampton in Jakob's Wife

Jakob’s Wife is a so-so vampire comedy thriller that riffs on bloodsucking motifs, benefitting from the presence of scream queen and Re-Animator veteran Barbara Crampton – and OTT gore. Crampton plays a preacher’s wife: bored, lonely, hating the way her husband (Larry Fessenden) eats, she flirts with having an affair. However, when she is on the verge of succumbing to excitement, her potential lover is eaten by rats, while she’s bitten by The Master – a vampire overlord and rat wrangler played by Bonnie Aarons, aka the terrifying tramp behind the garages in Mulholland Drive.

Emboldened by being bitten, Crampton does the normal vampire stuff: craving blood, being able to move furniture around one-handed, and gorily ripping people’s heads in half.  The husband finds himself drawn into the fray: jealous at his wife’s potential infidelity, he and some cheeky non-believers encounter another of the turned (Nyisha Bell), leading her back to his wife, who is having some problems of her own. A battle for a marriage and control over Crampton ensues, with plenty of blood and histrionic schlock.

Crampton has fun as an older woman reinvented via the Nosferatu-esque Master, but it all feels rather unsubtle; this battle of the genders and call for female empowerment rings hollow. Jakob’s Wife is an often effective B-movie that doesn’t fully commit to being horribly funny or funnily horrible. Fans of horror veterans Crampton, Fessenden and Aarons will lap up the tropes and familiar beats, but others might feel a little underwhelmed and – ludicrous shock-gory moments aside – rather under-scared. An on-the-nose soundtrack, some rather clunky dialogue and tonal cheesiness makes this would-be dark relationship satire rather fangless.

Dir: Travis Stevens (18, 98 mins)

Streaming on Shudder from Thurs 19 Aug

words KEIRON SELF

Advertise with us.

We have a range of options across print and digital.

Learn More
  • Tweet
Tag: Barbara Crampton, buzz film review, jakob’s wife, keiron self, Larry Fessenden, shudder

You may also like:

Eiffel

EIFFEL trades historical facts for romantic fiction in so-so story behind the French monument

What Josiah Saw

WHAT JOSIAH SAW: Robert Patrick is the world’s worst dad in tense American gothic

Hit The Road

Iranian film HIT THE ROAD is a masterfully moving road trip

PALE WAVES cement nostalgia-baiting pop-punk sound with UNWANTED

Danger Mouse & Black Thought

DANGER MOUSE & BLACK THOUGHT: hip-hop heavyweights make effortlessly cool collab

Arch Enemy

Swedish metal titans ARCH ENEMY don’t let up on triumphant 11th album


Sidebar

Looking for something to do?

The Ultimate Guide to What’s on in Wales!

See What’s On
Advertisement
Tickets
BTP - Campaign

Buzz archives

Buzz Magazine

12 Gaspard Place
Barry
Vale Of Glamorgan
CF62 6SJ

[email protected]

Contact Us
  • Jobs
  • Advertising
  • Editorial
  • Submit an Event
  • Write for Buzz
About Us
  • Our Story
  • Magazine
  • Buzz Learning
  • Media Services
  • FAQs
  • Privacy Policy
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • YouTube


Copyright © 2022   |   All Rights Reserved   |   Buzz Magazine   


We are using cookie tracking to give you the best experience on our website.

You can find out more about which cookies we track and personalise your preferences in settings.

Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.