Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Woman in the Yard’ on VOD, a Minimalist Supernatural Thriller Elevated by Danielle Deadwyler

The Woman in the Yard (now streaming on VOD platforms like Amazon Prime Video) might be director Jaume Collet-Serra’s most narratively concise genre exercise, in a filmography full of such things. He’s directed a Blake Lively-trapped-on-a-rock-by-a-shark thriller (The Shallows), a Liam Neeson-trapped-in-a-plot-on-a-train thriller (The Commuter) and a Liam Neeson-trapped-in-a-plot-on-a-plane thriller (Non-Stop). Granted, he also tackled a couple of big-money big-franchise duds in Jungle Cruise and Black Adam, but returned to form last year with the amusing Taron Egerton-trapped-in-a-plot-in-an-airport thriller Carry-On, currently one of the most-streamed Netflix movies ever. And he quickly followed that up with The Woman in the Yard, a four-and-a-half-hander starring Danielle Deadwyler as a mother trapped in a plot in a remote farmhouse as a mysterious lady outside sits vigil over the family. Now, here’s What’s Up With That.

THE WOMAN IN THE YARD: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Ramona (Deadwyler) can barely get out of bed. She has a brace and bandages and stitches on her leg, so that’s the physical component. The psychological one is far more debilitating, though. The injury is the result of a car crash that killed her husband David (Russell Hornsby), and she watches a video of him over and over and over again until her teen son Tay (Peyton Jackson) whips open the curtains and informs her that the power has gone out. At least it’s a sunny day outside, right? But that’s not the kind of thing Ramona focuses on these days. It’s a grim scene in this home, with its tableful of dead sympathy flowers, stack of unpaid bills, not enough food for the dog and the general sense of gloom Ramona lugs with her as she hobbles around on crutches, the black cloud threatening to infect Tay and his younger sister Annie (Estella Kahiha). Grim. 

It’s a scene ripe to be harassed by a concept: “Mom, there’s a woman in the yard,” Tay informs her. Sure enough, seated out yonder past the chicken coop is a woman (Okwui Okpokwasili) in a black dress and long veil – mourning garb, you’ll no doubt note. It’s an unnerving sight, this still figure, just sitting there, observing, hands in her lap. This only exacerbates the tension already simmering in this house, where Tay has clearly grown impatient with his mother’s inability-slash-unwilllingness to take care of her family, her home and herself. And it’s a perfect storm of crappo luck, with no power, cell phones with dead batteries and a car in the garage that won’t start. It’s as if life was conspiring to trap these poor people in a screenplay.

Ramona limps outside to confront the woman, resulting in a rather mercurial conversation. “How… did I… get here?” the woman croaks. The chickens are dead and the dog is missing and Ramona goes back into the house and locks all the doors and hovers nervously and very very very unconvincingly tells Tay and Annie that everything is fine. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the reality of Ramona’s POV may be unraveling, via hallucinations and lapses in the laws of physics and space-time, most notably the woman in the yard’s apparent ability to use her shadow to knock objects around in the house like a mischievous ghost.  

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Let’s see, we’ve got a cooped-up Nightbitch mom, some Candymanish freaky bits, a hint of Barbarian, the mental-health metaphors of Control Freak and a concept that might not exist without The Babadook.  

Performance Worth Watching: Between her strong work in this, Till, The Piano Lesson and I Saw the TV Glow, it’s only a matter of time before someone gives Deadwyler a role that lands her an Oscar nom.

Memorable Dialogue: “Today’s the day, Ramona,” the woman says. “You called and I came. Today’s the da-ayyyyy!” 

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: Let’s see, what could the woman be? Death, a ghost, Ramona’s mother or long-lost ancestor, god, the devil, evil, fate, grief, a metaphorical manifestation of deep-seated internal psychological torment – wait, I might’ve hit upon something with that last one there. That’s not a spoiler, it’s just my interpretation of text that pretty much doesn’t leave much room for any other interpretation, not that there’s anything wrong with that, especially if the movie is executed in a compelling fashion, which it pretty much is. Collet-Serra is low-key one of Hollywood’s best genre filmmakers, the type of director who’s constantly elevating boilerplate scripts with keen visual language and a knack for creating and sustaining suspense, betraying his status as a trickle-down benefactor of Hitchcockian technique.

The not-quite-minor but also not-quite-major trouble with The Woman in the Yard isn’t all on Collet-Serra’s shoulders; you can sense him wrestling with a screenplay (a former Black Lister by Sam Stefanak) that could use another layer of complexity, so the director gently, but artificially juices the proceedings a bit in the third act with some surreal through-the-looking-glass flourishes. Despite its mushy moments down the stretch, the film hangs together pretty well for a snappy 87 minutes, delivering just enough creeping dread, bumpity-jump scares and thorny emotional overtures – via Deadwyler’s fully committed performance – to overcome its heavy-handed mental-health-horror cliches. You won’t leap out of your skin or bawl your eyes out, but chances are, you’ll be invested in what Deadwyler has to offer here, and it’s not insignificant. 

Our Call: Push through its un-understated symbolism and the prevailing sense that Deadwyler is too good for this material, and you may appreciate The Woman in the Yard for the concise, well-made supernatural thriller it is. STREAM IT.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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