A good performance from Deadwyler can’t save this from being yet another messy film in the saga of Blumhouse.
PLOT: A mysterious woman repeatedly appears in a family’s front yard, often delivering chilling warnings and unsettling messages, leaving them to question her identity, motives, and the potential danger she might pose.
REVIEW: I’m not sure there’s any company that’s been struggling in the horror space more than Blumhouse. Their logo is starting to be a tarnished mark on a film, but I’m always rooting for a comeback story. And the marketing for The Woman in the Yard featured some slick visuals and enough mystery that it could go either way. Unfortunately, it never moves past its concept to deliver something that truly makes an impact, with messaging that is questionable at best.
The Woman In The Yard follows a family in the countryside on a day when their power goes out. They struggle with the recent death of their father, and the mother, Ramona (Deadwyler) has been neglecting her duties for a variety of reasons. This all comes to a head with the strange appearance of a woman sitting in their yard. She’s dressed all in black, draped in fabric, and sitting in a chair; not exactly normal for a yard in the countryside. She proceeds to torment the family, but it certainly takes its time getting there. I’m a fan of a slow burn, but the payoff needs to be worth it, and this is more about performances than anything else.
Danielle Deadwyler is really great as Ramona, but the writing has her in circles. It feels like everything is so mapped out that it’s just about letting the characters catch up. With the death of his father, Ramona’s son, Taylor, is trying to take on the role of the “man of the house.” But he’s only a young teen, and he’s clearly very misguided in what that means. Uneven acting and some really questionable character choices make Taylor a frustrating character to deal with.
I’m not sure what it is about Blumhouse movies in particular that love their loud noises so much, but dear lord, does someone need to tell them there are other ways to scare people. The usage of sound here was strange, with a full stretch of dog barks that made me wish my ears had an OFF setting. And it’s all for a payoff that doesn’t even ultimately matter. As much as the film is a slow burn, there’s hardly any tension that exists. It’s simply a couple of well-done shadow scares and a harrowing psychological breakdown that is completely betrayed by the ending. Deadwyler really deserved better than this.
Director Jaume Collet-Serra has always had an interesting visual style, and he goes the Sam Raimi route here. At times. We get some fun Dutch angles and slick camera work. But those moments are few and far between. There are some good visuals with the woman in the yard looking quite striking. And I really enjoyed the shadow element that came into play. They just don’t use it to any significant degree. There are some implications of the Woman having some Nosferatu-like shadow powers, but it’s hardly ever utilized outside of the visuals. And then it seems to want to have its cake and eat it too, by having both a psychological element, as well as an actual entity that’s doing the dirty work. Makes it all convoluted and messy.
I’m sure there are multiple ways to take the ending of The Woman In The Yard, but none of them are satisfying. If anything, the only word that comes to mind is offensive. It abandons Ramona’s journey of redemption and instead opts for a stupid ending tag. I was rather middle of the road, mostly focusing on Deadwyler’s great performance. Then that ending hit, and I couldn’t help but feel like I’d just completely wasted 90 minutes. This is becoming increasingly common with Blumhouse, but it definitely had me tricked at times. What seemed like an interesting psychological thriller devolves into jump scares and dog barks.
