Barbara Crampton Talks Crafting The Story Of Shudder’s JAKOB’S WIFE (EXCLUSIVE)

With its latest release, Jakob’s Wife, Shudder is tearing up the vampire movie rule book. The film, directed by Travis Stevens, is rewriting history and turning the vampire in to a story of empowerment and feminism.

In our review Neil said “a heady mix of comedy, human drama and horror makes Jakob’s Wife a breath of fresh air in the vampire genre.”

Actor and producer Barbara recently sat down with Neil to discuss the filmmaking process and bringing horror to a new generation.

Neil Vagg: Hi Barbara, how are you doing today?

Barbara Crampton: Great thank you.

NV: Take me back to the beginning and how you got involved with Jakob’s Wife?

BC: The script won a screenplay competition in 2015 at Shriek Fest in Los Angeles. Mark Steensland, the original writer, and Denise Gossett, the director of that fest reached out to me personally, because they thought it would be potentially a role that I would really like. I’m not sure at the time if they knew I had started producing or not. But I had and I worked on Beyond The Gates with Jackson Stewart and I had a couple of things in development. I thought, wow, this is a really great script, a really great part. And this is meaningful to me. So I thought it was something that I could potentially be in, and also produce.

Originally, the script was written through the, the lens of Jacob and how we can deal with a partner who maybe had a terminal illness. We decided that we would change that aspect and make it more a feminist movie from the lens of Anne’s character. And so, really, in, because everybody knew that I was probably going to play the lead. The subsequent rewrites for the film focused on me, Barbara as that character.

NV: That flip on the vampire lore is so interesting, giving it that feminist edge. Was that a refreshing change to play?

BC: Yes, I mean, we were trying to focus on the feminist aspect from the beginning, whilst keeping in mind that we wanted it to be a movie where she’s not blaming her husband. It is, it’s also a movie about a marriage and a long term relationship. And how do you keep that going when something tragic or unexpected happens to one person?

NV: It’s interesting isn’t it? you get the feminist angle, but then it isn’t the case whereby at the end of the film she leaves Jakob. Do you think there’s more story to come?

BC: Well, actually, I don’t think you know at the end of the story of what’s going to happen because you’re left with the feeling that there’s a few different roads they could go. Depending on your point of view the viewer can decide what’s going to happen. You know, is she going to kill her husband and go with the vampire? Is she going to bite him and go on with him as a vampire? Or are they going to try to live as equals? Or, you know, could she potentially, you know, go and find the master and kill the master and be released? So that is a question that we wrestled with in all the rewrites. That any of those possibilities could be true? And we don’t we don’t really know. But isn’t that kind of like how relationships are? We don’t really know when we take a leap of faith every time we wake up in the morning with the same person. And and continue on with them.

You can listen to the full interview with Barbara in the latest episode of the GYCO Podcast.

Catch Jakob’s Wife streaming now via Shudder.

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