It seems like it’s rather slim pickings at the movie theater as of late – and I know that’s because all the big-name blockbusters are waiting to roll out next month for the summer.
However, I managed to snag a seat at an empty showing of “The Woman in the Yard” last week and I can confidently say the film surprised me.
While it’s hard to write a review without spoiling the ending, I fully believe the flick embodies atmospheric and isolation horror quite well despite the lean storyline.
Yard is an American psychological horror film directed by Jaume Collet-Serra and written by Sam Stefanak in his feature film screenwriting debut.
The film stars Danielle Deadwyler, Okwui Okpokwasili, Peyton Jackson, Estella Kahiha, and Russell Hornsby.
Clocking in at 87 minutes long the movie is rated PG-13 for terror, some violent content/bloody images, suicide-related content, and brief strong language.
Recently widowed mother Ramona Harris (Deadwyler) was left disabled after a car accident that killed her husband David (Hornsby).
Despite her severe leg injury, she cares for their two children Taylor (Jackson) and Annie (Kahiha), but is strict and emotionally distant from them.
Taylor spends most of his time tending to the family homestead while Ramona struggles facing reality.
One morning, a mysterious woman (Okpokwasili) draped in black appears suddenly sitting in the front yard.
Ramon and the kids spend some time discussing who the woman could be, but Taylor isn’t satisfied and Annie starts to get scared.
So, Ramona hobbles outside to question the woman and to send her away from their property with threats.
The veiled woman claims that “today’s the day” and Ramona heads back inside to lock up the house and occupy her children with other activities.
During this time she starts to drift off and is caught between remembering more about the crash and hallucinating murdering Annie.
Then the Woman uses shadow magic to attack their dog Charlie who goes missing and is presumed dead.
Ramona tries to keep the kids away from the Woman, who seems to know the true circumstances around David’s death.
Ramona led the kids to believe that he was driving and caused the accident, but it was really Ramona who was driving and crashed the car.
During a flashback scene in a restaurant, she has an argument with David about her unhappiness with her life, marriage, and family.
The Woman then seems to be using a dark power to antagonize the family and seemingly take Annie away into the shadows.
This spurs Ramona and Taylor to find her and forces Ramona to make a choice between her deceased husband and her living children.
Overall, I enjoyed the movie and empathized with Ramona regarding her grief and struggles with her injury.
While I feel like the film relied a bit heavily on jumpscares, the terror came more from not knowing more details about the Woman.
However, I can’t recommend this for anyone currently going through a depression or grief episode as it may be triggering for them.
