Jakob’s Wife Offers Proof That Horror Is the Ultimate Glow-Up

The story of a lady coming into her energy after getting a supernatural enhance is hardly a brand new one—however very similar to extra conventional makeover narratives, it’s typically rewarding sufficient to justify being so acquainted. The most scrumptious model of this story often entails a frumpy lass turning into a glamorous villain, like Uma Thurman blooming into Poison Ivy in Batman & Robin, or the misfit women of The Craft turning into dazzling teen desires. Jakob’s Wife, a brand new horror movie coming to Shudder, walks the identical path and with spectacular outcomes.

Jakob’s Wife—the brand new movie from Travis Stevens, who directed and in addition co-wrote with Kathy Charles and Mark Steensland—angles in by centering the motion in a deceptively mundane setting, and by giving us an endearing foremost character whose eerie transformation is extra liberating than terrifying. It is, nonetheless, nonetheless a fairly nightmarish expertise for Anne Fedder (Barbara Crampton, star of Re-Animator, From Beyond, and Channel Zero, to call only a few), whose life previous to her sudden vampire encounter may kindly be described as despairingly boring. Married to Pastor Jakob Fedder (Larry Fessenden, whose appearing credit embody You’re Next alongside Crampton and The Dead Don’t Die, and whose directing credit embody The Last Winter and a section in ABCs of Death 2), Anne’s performed the position of a dutiful minister’s spouse for 30 years, cooking, cleansing, sitting by means of her husband’s sermons, enduring his repulsive grooming habits, and holding her tongue each time he interrupts her or talks over her, which is commonly.

After a younger member of the congregation goes lacking, Anne sticks up for her, insisting that “good people don’t leave their families” when individuals begin suggesting the teenager might have run off with a boyfriend. That perception is one thing Anne herself should grapple with—first after a reunion with an previous flame turns unexpectedly steamy, after which after she’s bitten by a mysterious creature and feels one thing awaken inside her. If she doesn’t need to make Jakob’s breakfast, effectively—she ain’t gonna. Prim cardigans and cross necklaces are out in favor of purple lipstick and dramatic wardrobe selections (good factor she has an in depth assortment of scarves to cover these new holes in her neck). She additionally discovers she has super-strength—rearranging the lounge was by no means really easy!—and powerful opinions of her personal, the latter of which she’d forgotten about after many years of acquiescing to her husband’s perspective. Jakob’s perplexed by her habits, however Anne has by no means been happier, admitting, “I feel more alive than I have in years.”

The irony there may be, in fact, that she’s technically much less alive than earlier than, although she isn’t fairly a full vampire but. “The hunger” is turning into a urgent downside (it’s value mentioning Jakob’s Wife doesn’t skimp on the spurting, gushing, grotesque blood, and critter results… it is a vampire film, in spite of everything!), together with different inconveniences, like the hazards of daylight. There’s additionally the troubling but titillating presence of “the Master,” the traditional vampire who bit Anne within the first place—one thing that Anne begins to understand was no random assault. (To identify the actor who performs the Master could be a Jakob’s Wife spoiler, although you may simply discover it on-line for those who’re curious.) In reality, calling it an “attack” perhaps isn’t fairly correct, contemplating how a lot Anne’s life has improved in its wake.

For his half, Jakob rolls with the vampire stuff way more agreeably than he does with Anne’s newly assertive, liberated character—there’s no hesitation relating to getting holy water and stakes collectively to attempt to seek out the Master, within the hopes that killing the highest vampire will immediately change Anne again to her previous, meek self. Jakob’s Wife doesn’t take the simple method out with the Jakob character; he may have been only a closed-minded, misogynistic small-town minister kind, and whereas there are some parts of that, he’s extra a man who’s simply grow to be so used to his snug routine that it doesn’t happen to him to ever need to change it. Fessenden is superb as this oblivious, mildly boorish (however not monstrous) man who’s surprised to understand that his spouse’s lengthy been deeply sad of their marriage. But actually, this film is all about Anne.

Crampton is reliably nice in all the things, however we regularly see her utilizing her blonde, preppy attractiveness to distinction with no matter nefarious character she’s taking part in (see: her flip as an evil landlord on the most up-to-date season of Creepshow). Here, she’s simply as efficient as a good-hearted lady pressured right into a scenario she wouldn’t have chosen—however who finally realizes the facility that comes with having the ability to select for herself what occurs subsequent. Even if it entails guzzling human blood.

Jakob’s Wife is presently obtainable on-demand and digital; it arrives on Shudder August 19.

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