The Woman in the Yard
The Woman in the Yard
2025, 87 min., PG-13
Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra
Written by Sam Stefanak
Cast: Daniell Deadwyler, Okwui Okpokwasili, Peyton Jackson, Estella Kahiha, Russell Hornsby
*1/2 out of ****
The premise is promising but a good horror film, or maybe just any film in general, can’t affect anyone based solely on a premise. You still have to have compelling drama, good characters, suspense, atmosphere and mood to elevate the material. “The Woman in the Yard” gets very few of those elements right opting instead to bog itself down in a hollow metaphor that is actually kind of pathetic in the end.
The recently widowed single mother Ramona (Danielle Deadwyler) is raising her son Taylor (Peyton Jackson) and Annie (Estella Kahiha) on her own. She was left partially disabled in a car accident that killed her husband and remains an emotionally remote shell when it comes to connecting with her kids. She lies in bed watching an old video of her husband and ignoring her son who has come to tell her the power is out. Their phones aren’t charged either which makes outside communication impossible.
After a stunningly unproductive morning, a mysterious woman (Okwui Okpokwasili) appears sitting on a chair in their front yard. She is dressed entirely in black and has blood on her hands. Ramona keeps the kids inside as she tries to communicate with her. The woman asks, “How did I get here?” and claims to Ramona “Today’s the Day”. Weird things start to happen. The power is out, the dog disappears, Ramona experiences unexplainable mood swings, her daughter writes her R’s backwards, and other out of the ordinary things happen. It appears that this otherworldly doppelganger in the front yard has some kind of hold on this family and won’t let go until she has achieved her mysterious plan.
The script raises some heavy issues like the loss of a family member, suicide, child abuse, and single parenting that Director Jaume Collet-Serra is ill-equipped to handle. Sure he attempts to use some flashes of visual style like soft focus, quick pans and tilts, and moody lighting to enhance the material. There is one really effective scene in which a flashlight is spinning around and we see flashes and glimpses of the surroundings as the mysterious woman uses her magic in the attic.
But for all the visual tricks he uses there is one thing that Collet-Serra frustratingly fails to evoke: emotion. The actors onscreen emote but the material doesn’t succeed in giving them any life. Deadwyler, who is one of our most underrated actresses, gives a performance that occasionally lifts this otherwise dead dog of a movie up to a place that resembles awakening. If only her director were on the same level. It’s as if he realized the material might lean in the direction of being overwrought and exercised too much restraint in dealing with it. Rather than melodramatic (which also wouldn’t have worked), the story is vacant in terms of establishing any sort of emotional center.
Then there’s the metaphor that the mystery guest is standing in for. Spoiler Alert (but I’m doing you a favor): Today’s the day that Ramona is to commit suicide. The Woman is also the obvious double for an unfinished painting that Ramona keeps in the attic. This painting is the main connection to everything strange that’s been happening for the entire movie. It also brings to mind the adage, “The question is interesting. The answer is stupid.”
