Director: Travis Stevens

Writer: Kathy Charles, Mark Steensland, Travis Stevens (Screenplay)

Starring: Barbara Crampton, Larry Fessenden, Donnie Aarons, Nyisha Bell, Sarah Lind, Mark Kelly, C.M. Punk, Robert Rusler, Jay DeVon Johnson

Plot: Anne, married to a small-town Minister, feels her life has been shrinking over the past 30 years. Encountering “The Master” brings her a new sense of power and an appetite to live bolder. However, the change comes with a heavy body count.

Tagline – Who’s Your Master?

Runtime: 1 Hour 38 Minutes

There may be spoilers in the rest of the review

Story: Jakob’s Wife starts as Anne (Crampton) the wife of Pastor Jakob Fedder (Fessenden) finds herself going through a transformation, after a chance encounter with a creature, one that Jakob starts to see, getting worried about something else going on, Jakob looks to try and save his marriage.

Only when the truth starts to come out, Jakob must put his own faith on the table to decide how he could save his wife or help her get through the day.

Thoughts on Jakob’s Wife

Characters & Performances – Anne is the wife of a pastor who has lived everyday in a routine, the one day she moves slightly out of the routine is the day everything changes with her, the way she dresses, acts and behaviours are all out the window from what Jakob knows. Pastor Jakob Fedder has been the backbone of the community for decades now, he helps everyone in the neighbourhood, but starts to question his wife after noticing the changes she is going though. He must question his own faith if he wants to save her, a faith he has believed in for years and never questioned. Barbara Crampton and Larry Fessenden are great together in this film, they both show the changes they are going though, giving the reaction you would expect to see. When it comes to the supporting characters, each one will get a moment to shine, with each having some form of interaction with the couple, including the evil Master that has more control over everything going on in the small town.

Story – The story here follows a pastor’s wife that starts to go through a transformation after an encounter with a mysterious creature, with only her husband to either help her cure the change or cover up the change. This is an interesting twist on a popular horror figure, one that will see a human factor to the change, one we haven’t seen as often as we might have liked in the past. It will balance the religious side of the evil, with a natural relationship to create the conflict, like we saw From Dusk till Dawn do. The downside in the story, is that certain moments can feel out of place, rather than a natural movement in the story, we get what can only feel like an insert of a quirky moment that doesn’t connect to the story.

Themes – Jakob’s Wife is a horror thriller that will follow a woman through the transformation process after an encounter with an evil creature. This will give us plenty of blood soaked moments, over the top gore and everything else around it. The small town setting helps keep the story contained, showing us how things can spiral out of control when an unknown creature arrives.

Jakob’s Wife arrives on Shudder on the 19^th August.

Final Thoughts – Jakob’s Wife is a great horror that brings together the thinking points of the vampire movie, while still giving us the blood splatter.