The Woman in the Yard ★★

Watching a film in a crowded theater with an engaged audience that responds appropriately at the right moments is a great experience. Though I was a few weeks late in watching director Jaume Collet-Serra’s The Woman in the Yard, the small theater where I saw it was still full and the audience locked in from the beginning. A horror film with a good crowd elevates the film and makes its most shocking moments occur with real energy. There is a moment in the climax in an attic that got quite a few gasps of surprise, a living example of this film’s power on the big screen. But, despite this ideal viewing experience, The Woman in the Yard is not a consistently thrilling or horrifying film, stuck balancing its heavy-handed themes with its often more familiar scares.

The Harris family live in a remote farmhouse, a fixer upper bought by Ramona (Danielle Deadwyler) and David (Russell Hornsby). In a recent car accident, David was killed and Ramona survived but suffered a traumatic leg injury that has her presently relying on crutches. Nevertheless, she must get up and fulfill her motherly duties to son Taylor (Peyton Jackson) and daughter Annie (Estella Kahiha). Taylor is filling in a bit, but the family is showing signs of the grief-induced malaise that has taken hold with limited groceries and even their dog Charlie having to make do without dog food. The power is out, only adding to the tension as Taylor desperately wants to play video games. Instead, the family’s day will be further waylaid by the arrival of a mysterious woman (Okwui Okpokwasili), cloaked in black, and sitting in a chair at the edge of their yard. Ramona goes out to determine who this woman is, where she came from, and what she wants. Given only vague and chilling answers, Ramona returns inside, locks all of the doors, and instructs her kids to not leave. As the film progresses, the woman and her chair get closer and closer to the home. As the sun sets, her shadow can reach out and manipulate objects inside. In the climax – the moment that got such a rise out of my fellow audience members – Collet-Serra and cinematographer Pawel Pogorzelski effectively play with shadows, lighting, and the mysticism of this figure in casting her shadow onto that chair… now placed dangerously inside the attic of the home and empty.

Alas, it is a setup for a jump scare. You will probably guess where this woman in black actually is and, if you spend enough time thinking about the premise, what she is actually here for. This is a story about grief, guilt, and the dark cloud of depression. All have taken hold of Ramona who naturally blames herself for the accident and, as a flashback to the accident makes apparent, has been suffering from depression for a while after the family moved from the city to this rural area. She was once excited about everything to do with this new lifestyle, but once the reality of the home renovation project and her inability to put her artistic ability to work in this small town hit, she became disillusioned and lost. It is a heavy film, but one with symbols and an overwhelming theme that bludgeons the audience over the head. If it were a rarity in horror to see a film centered on grief, maybe The Woman in the Yard would still feel thoughtful and fresh, but it is as recycled as its jump scares.

The Woman in the Yard struggles to get started after introducing the mysterious woman. Scenes of the family bickering, a few startling dream sequences, and an overly familiar implied killing of the family dog, make up much of its setup. There are a few scenes that really pop – Annie struggling to get her capital R’s right in a writing homework assignment, some great foreshadowing for the film’s shocking final shot – and some that elicit more eye rolls – a ball that was thrown outside mysterious bouncing back through the hallway… have you ever seen that before? – but this does not make the film wholly irredeemable. In fact, The Woman in the Yard is quite engaging once it gets going and has plenty of appeal. Though Collet-Serra has earned a reputation as a director of action-thrillers (often starring Liam Neeson), he did get his start with House of Wax and Orphan in the 2000s. The Woman in the Yard builds up a menacing mood and seeing this seemingly demonic entity looming outside is always chilling. 

As her powers multiply and she sneaks in through the cracks of the home to influence events, perceptions, and physical objects inside the home, it is as terrifying as it is thought-provoking. Collet-Serra impressively toys with reality – a flashback shows Ramona and David outside of a movie theater playing The Mirror Has Two Faces, an apt title for how Collet-Serra plays with mirrors and parallel realities – and leaves the audience guessing as to which plane of existence Ramona has stepped into now, while always leaving some haunted house scare lurking around the corner. The impressive production design makes this home into quite the natural chiller – its exterior also has some stylistic elements that feel like the house in The Amityville Horror… why would anyone buy this place? – with its divided floor plan, countless doors and corridors, and aged appearance setting the stage for plenty of thrilling encounters.

While the theme is obvious in delivery, it does not dull its power. The final encounters between Ramona and this woman are filled with emotion, amplified by the terrific Danielle Deadwyler and the downright devilish Okwui Okpokwasili. The Woman in the Yard has much to say about the subconscious mind and the destructive grip that grief can have on a person. It is good to have memories of a lost loved one and to revisit those feelings, but one cannot be paralyzed by them and that is where Ramona finds herself. Deadwyler brings so much authenticity and depth that one can feel the pain has gripped her soul and made itself into such a powerful enemy. While its themes may be overly familiar in the horror genre, it is she who makes them feel so real and evocative. Sam Stefanak’s script also deserves credit for leaving clues and details about her mental predicament throughout, often in small throwaway moments but ones that all add together to paint a full picture of where Ramona is, where The Woman in the Yard is going, and the reality that the Harris family is confronting.

Jaume Collet-Serra’s The Woman in the Yard is a somber and moody film, one marked by the dark shadow of this mysterious woman in the yard with her looming presence through the window enough to send chills down one’s spine. Its approach relies too heavily on trite attempts to shock and startle, while its themes offer little new to grief and depression with heavy-handed execution doing it no favors. However, Danielle Deadwyler’s excellent and committed performance, Collet-Serra’s ability to wring out scares from its eerie mood, and the striking lighting work from Pawel Pogorzelski make this chiller set an old farmhouse into quite the experience. It is not enough to make it good, but it is enough to keep it comfortably middle-of-the-road.