The Woman in the Yard Review

“Today’s the day.” – The Woman

This whole thing began, for me at any rate, when Steve wandered into the study and told me; “there’s a new horror film about a woman who shows up in your garden.” That’s it? “No, there’s another one about a killer unicorn – I think he growls too.” Thing is, you never can tell with Steve and his sense of humour so I had to check out the trailers. The film about the woman who shows up in your garden turns out to be actually titled The Woman in the Yard, and is indeed about a woman showing up, seemingly randomly in a family’s front yard. In daylight. You can see why I was sceptical. (The other film also actually exists and is called Death of a Unicorn, no doubt that’ll be reviewed as soon as I’ve seen it.)

So, I’m faced with the new Blumhouse film about a strange woman who just appears in this family’s garden, sitting there in the sun, wearing all black including a shroud, and fair play, she seems to have brought her own chair. To be honest, she sounds like more of a nuisance than a sinister menace. I was wondering why they don’t just poke at her with a stick until she goes away. I was curious to see just how this could become a horror movie. An easy trick or treat concept, yes – if you’re happy to carry a chair around on Halloween, but a horror movie?

The film is set in rural Georgia, where Ramona (Danielle Deadwyler) lives with her kids, teenaged Taylor (Peyton Jackson) and much younger Annie (Estella Kahiha). They’re recovering from a family trauma. Ramona has survived a car accident that killed her husband and father of her kids. The accident has left her with her leg in a brace and dependent on the kids, particularly Taylor, to help her out and the strain on the family is beginning to show. The family fabric is fraying.

One morning, the power is out. They can’t phone the power company, so they’re just waiting for power to be restored. On top of all this, they notice there’s a weirdo sitting in the front yard, just watching the house. When approached, she tells Ramona that today’s the day. They try to help her, they ask her to leave, they threaten her with a gun… she’s not moving.

But she’s sinister, she seems to be getting closer (no, we don’t see her move her chair on tiptoe when nobody’s watching) and she appears to have supernatural powers – all the chickens in the henhouse die, and Charlie the family dog goes missing. From a film about a family dealing with a nuisance, it blossoms into a horror movie as the Woman (Okwui Okpokwasili) begins to use shadow magic as the day closes and the shadows lengthen. There’s a memorable scene where the lengthening shadow of her outstretched hand reaches the house was very reminiscent to me of the visual style of Nosferatu. The family are soon under siege from the mysterious stranger.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by the tone and direction of The Woman in the Yard, especially when you consider that I was basically seeing it out of curiosity and not really understanding how it would deliver any kind of punch. But it does. Obviously, there’s a deeper story at work when we learn that somehow, the Woman has been summoned by Ramona. Ramona has no memory of this and all she recalls is asking for the strength to carry on for the sake of her young family. But Ramona has a dark secret she’s kept from her kids, and subconsciously, the strength to carry on isn’t exactly what she asked for.

My one criticism of the movie, overall, is that the final act is a little confusing and what’s happening isn’t made clear. Between us, my family and I worked it out as we were going for a post-movie burger, but I still had to verify it online when I got home. I guess it might be open to a few interpretations, maybe the next time I see it, I’ll see something differently.

Rob Rating = 6