On Shudder now

Vicar’s wife Anne feels like her life and marriage have been shrinking over the past thirty years. Through a chance encounter with a stranger, she discovers a new sense of power and an appetite to live bigger and bolder than before.

Travis Stevens’ (Girl on the Third Floor) movie defies categorisation, sitting somewhere between horror, comedy and social drama. But what’s not in dispute is the career-best performance by Barbara Crampton (Re-Animator) as the eponymous spouse, and she steals every scene that she’s given.

Ann is bored with life, which seems to revolve around making meals, watching video workouts and being talked over by her ecclesiastical husband. Something has to give, and when she hears that a former flame will be in town on business, she happily meets up with him at an abandoned mill that’s due for redevelopment. Even he no longer recognises the adventurous Ann who got lost along the way, and then a stolen kiss is spoilt by the arrival of a vampire, who gives Ann a very different kiss on the neck.

As she begins her transformation into a vampire, Ann starts dressing in red and wearing sunglasses. She cannot stomach food and drink, and most importantly she starts to push back against domineering husband Jakob (The Dead Don’t Die). Modern day small-town vampire tales inevitably get compared to Salem’s Lot, and both the wooden packing crate coffin and Nosfetatu-like creature design of the Master (Bonnie Aarons, The Nun) take us back to Tobe Hooper’s adaptation of the Stephen King tome.

There’s jumps and gore to satisfy the horror fans, but the real enjoyment comes from Crampton’s empowered Ann. This liberated woman erotically fingers the wound in her neck while bathing and masturbates at the window in the presence of her vampire master. You can feel the years of pent-up frustration falling away as she becomes emancipated from her chains and takes control of her life.

Verdict: Barbara Crampton gets the role of her life, transforming from repressed wife into vampish vampire. I suspect she enjoyed playing the role as much we do in watching it – finally getting herself a role to really sink her teeth into. 9/10

Nick Joy