Jakob’s Wife Star Barbara Crampton on the Film’s Long Road to Release

Barbara Crampton is no stranger to horror films, having starred in beloved ’80s projects like Chopping Mall, Re-Animator, and From Beyond, with her casting in 2011’s You’re Next resulting in a major resurgence for her in genre film. The actress next stars in Jakob’s Wife, playing the titular character who makes a disturbing discovery that changes her life forever. Her many accomplishments mean she could rest easy and allow the acting opportunities to come to her, but she’s arguably more passionate about the genre than ever, as Jakob’s Wife is a project she’s personally been hoping to develop for years. Jakob’s Wife makes its world premiere on Wednesday, March 17th at 8 p.m. CT and comes to theaters, On Demand, and Digital HD on April 16th.

“I actually found the project about five years ago. Jakob’s Wife won a screenwriting contest at Shriekfest in Los Angeles and Denise Gossett, the festival director there, reached out to me on behalf of Mark Steensland and they were sort of conjuring this ‘evil plan’ that maybe I would be right for the central character and maybe I’d want to produce it,” Crampton recently detailed to ComicBook.com. “And, I had just produced Beyond the Gates at that time. So I looked at the material and I read it and I thought it was amazing. I loved the central character of Anne, who something horrible happens to her, or something tragic, and it changes her and changes the couple for the better. Then I brought it to a few production companies and I hooked up with Bob Portal at AMP, Alliance Media Partners. He and I developed it over the next couple of years with Mark and with Kathy Charles.”

In Jakob’s Wife, Anne is married to a small-town minister and feels like her life and marriage have been shrinking over the past 30 years. After a chance encounter with “The Master,” she discovers a new sense of power and an appetite to live bigger and bolder than before. As Anne is increasingly torn between her enticing new existence and her life before, the body count grows and Jakob realizes he will have to fight for the wife he took for granted.

More than just a dark and disturbing experience, the themes explored in the project had an added layer to them, as they mirrored the real lives of the film’s cast and crew in some capacity.

“Then we brought it to [director] Travis [Stevens] when it was ready,” Crampton noted. “We were looking for directors and he had just come out with Girl on the Third Floor and we loved the film. And Bob had worked with Travis before on another film and, of course, I worked with him on We Are Still Here and he read it and he said ‘I love this movie. Don’t talk to any other directors. I want to make this movie with you guys. I see the parallels in Barbara’s life and her career. And I see her as the central character playing that role and it’s a feminist movie and I just really am hip to it and I want to do it.’ And, so we looked no further. Then we developed it a little bit more with him over the next year and he added some special things into the script that made it the final draft that we were able to shoot. That’s how the team was put together.”

Jakob’s Wife makes its world premiere on Wednesday, March 17th at 8 p.m. CT and comes to theaters, On Demand, and Digital HD on April 16th.

Are you looking forward to checking out the new film? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars.