WOMAN IN THE YARD, THE

(director: Jaume Collet-Serra; screenwriter: Sam Stefanak; cinematographer: Pawel Pogorzelski; editors: Timothy Alverson, Krisztian Majdik; music: Lorne Balfe; cast: Danielle Deadwyler (Ramona), Okwui Okpokwasili (Woman), Peyton Jackson (Taylor), Estella Kahiha (Annie), Russell Hornsby (David); Runtime: 88; MPAA Rating: PG-13; producers: Stephanie Allain, Jason Blum; Universal Pictures/Blumhouse; 2025)

“More fitting as a folklore than a horror tale.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
  
The Barcelona born Jaume Collet-Serra (“Carry-On”/”Black Adam”) moved to Los Angeles at 18 and is now based there. He stylishly directs this tedious pic that’s written by Sam Stefanak with an inexplicable twisty ending. Its thin story is more suited for a short film than a feature.

The film is set in the fictitious rural town of Dixon, Georgia.

The depressed widow Ramona (Danielle Deadwyler) lives in an isolated old country farmhouse with her two children, the teenager Taylor (Peyton Jackson) and the lively adolescent Annie (Estella Kahiha). Ramona uses crutches because she has a leg injury from the car accident that killed her husband David (Roger Hornsby).

One morning the power is out and Ramona’s cell phone battery is dead. Taylor also notices a strange woman (Okwui Okpokwasili, Nigerian American artist, dancer and actor) dressed in a black mourning outfit with her face covered by a veil, who is sitting silently on an ornate chair in Ramona’s front yard. She’s a stranger, and it’s not known why she’s there.

Ramona talks with the ghost-like woman with bloody hands to find out why she’s there and is told because “Today is the day.” Secrets are then revealed and how menacing she can be when it‘s revealed she can manipulate objects.

The meandering story seems more fitting as a folklore than a horror tale. As far as I’m concerned, even Deadwyler’s committed performance couldn’t save this weakly scripted and dreary pic for me. 

REVIEWED ON 4/8/2025  GRADE: C+
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