Final Rating: 2.5/.5
The Woman In The Yard, directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, stars Danielle Deadwyler as Ramona, a mother of two grieving the recent death of her husband while dealing with a power outage at her secluded country home. After more than a day without power, food is running out and the family is getting anxious. But as tensions bubble under the surface, a veiled woman sitting atop an ornate chair appears in the family’s yard and… does nothing.
The woman in the yard is both the film’s greatest strength and weakness. A completely passive presence, the woman is naturally unnerving and intriguing as a horror movie antagonist. When characters look away, they’ll occasionally look back later only to find the woman has gotten closer. However, that limited activity also results in the film being very slow-paced. A 90-minute slow burn that feels like two hours. It’s impressive how much mileage the film gets out of characters simply trying to figure out what the woman wants, though there’s only so many times someone can go outside and try to confront her before it all starts blending together.
Still, the bulk of the film is anchored by the performances of Deadwyler, Peyton Jackson, and Estella Kahiha, the latter two playing Ramona’s son and daughter, respectively. Jackson stands out as Taylor. At the outset of the film, Taylor is impatient and already deeply frustrated by his mother’s condition. He’s quick to take matters into his own hands, going so far as to sneak his father’s gun out of its safe to confront the woman in the yard early on. As the most confrontational character, he’s constantly at odds with both his mother and the woman, and often the one driving events forward when everyone else would rather sit and wait.
Despite her menacing appearance, it’s never the titular woman terrorizing Ramona’s family. Her mere presence instead puts Ramona on edge, making her more volatile. Harm directed at her family always comes from – or is implied to come from – Ramona herself. In an early scene, Ramona hallucinates herself stabbing her own daughter, guided by the shadowy hand of the woman, snapping out of it only to realize that her daughter actually has, somehow, cut herself in the kitchen. Later, once the woman has finally reached and entered the house, her shadow chases the family through the kitchen, sending pots, pans, and other utensils flying around the room. This parallels a moment from the beginning in which Ramona briefly loses her temper at breakfast and throws a plate.
The Woman in the Yard is overt, but highly personal. First-time writer Sam Stefanak has said as much, noting that the film is inspired by “the moment years ago when I nearly lost my battle with depression.” Indeed, the final scene imagines that figurative battle as a literal one, the woman making one last suggestion to Ramona that there’s an easy way out. In dramatizing his specific experience, Stefanak succeeds in creating a uniquely affecting film. Despite the film’s shortcomings in other areas, it gets under the skin through its depiction of depression. Even the setting – Ramona’s secluded country farm – mirrors her own internal state: lonely and falling into disrepair following the sudden death of her husband.
Like the woman in the yard, depression simply casts a shadow. The battle against it isn’t so much a battle against a monster as it is a realization that the monster isn’t going to go anywhere.
The BluRay for The Woman In The Yard contains two additional behind-the-scenes featurettes. The first, simply titled “The Making of The Woman in the Yard” shows some making-of footage interspersed with interviews with the principal cast, director Collett-Sera, and key creatives like the production design team. The passion of the creatives is palpable, with each excitedly sharing what drew them to the project – the film’s single location setting made set decorator Claire Sanchez downright giddy thinking about storytelling potential, for example. Notably absent is writer Stefanak, whose proximity to the story could have provided a fascinating perspective.
More interesting is the second featurette, “Behind the Veil,” which revolves around the process of bringing the woman in the yard to life. The woman is played by Okwui Okpokwasili, a performance artist and choreographer, chosen for her physicality. In “Behind the Veil,” Okpokwasili is interviewed alongside the makeup team to discuss what went into the look and performance of the film’s “villain.” The care put into the hairstyling, prosthetics, and even the mannerisms of the woman is mind-boggling considering how little is highlighted within the film itself. While a more active antagonist would have conflicted with the film’s messaging, it’s a shame that so many of the details in The Woman In The Yard go largely unsung.
Thank you to Mandy Kay Marketing for the screener.
