Jakob's Wife stars Barbara Crampton, as a woman trapped in a pretty boring marriage with a minister, played by Larry Fezenden. She feels like her life has been shrinking over the past 30 years but 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. 

Barbara Crampton, for those who don't know, she's well known in the horror genre especially in the 1980s. She's great in Jakob's Wife, definitely the star of this movie. Her counterpart, Larry Fezenden, is a surprise, the two play off each other really well. It's fun to watch two elderly couple who have been together for a long time, suddenly need to stake people through the heart because the wife is craving blood. 

Jakob's Wife started off as a drama, then shifted to horror before it throws comedy into the mix. Sometimes there are tone shifts, and it doesn't feel natural. There are a few scenes that feel very serious, and plays an important role in the story, but there's suddenly there is a joke. It will make people laugh since we won't be expecting it. Larry Fezenden does a great job with humour. 

At its core, the film is about a relationship that is crumbling to older people who simply don't feel the passion anymore. The husband is unaware of how much his wife is suffering and how much she believes her life is pointless. Some believe she is in an abusive or neglectful relationship. He isn't really there for her and doesn't realise how much she needs him. He's also constantly talking over her and interrupting her. I do appreciate that the story is based on an older couple, and not a group of teenagers, or a young couple. We've seen that way too often in Hollywood. 

When she encounters a vampire, she sees an opportunity to take hold of her life. This is something we've all seen before, it's not new. It happens quite often. When something is not going well for the characters, the story will introduce another element to create conflict or change. In this case, it's a vampire. It's fun to see how it can change someone and their marriage. Things are flipped outside down, and everything is changed forever. To watch their relationship change after so many years is nice to see. They don't immediately solve all of their problems nor does one of them just immediately end their relationship. 

My issue with Jakob's Wife is the tone. In the first act, it feels like it's going to be a drama horror movie. It slowly changed in the second act when the story introduced the vampire. It seemed to be dark and gritty. Then it decided to throw in-jokes, which is good, but it made the movie feel unbalanced. 

Jakob's Wife is a surprise. It's better than I expected. It started off slow, and I thought I would hate this movie. Slowly, but surely, it got better and I liked it. There's vampire stuff, blood and gore which I always, always, want to see but there was actually a surprising amount of depth to the characters. It's not the best nor the worst. It's a decent horror movie. 

Final Score - 3/5 

Thank you so much for reading. Until next time, stay caffeinated! 

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