THE WOMAN IN THE YARD Review

Blumhouse Horror, hearing those words can either excite or anger fans of the horror genre. While they release some pretty good titles, they seem to dump a lot of slop in-between each solid horror release. So where will The Woman in the Yard fall on the Blumhouse spectrum?

Ramona (Danielle Deadwyler) and her children, Taylor (Peyton Jackson) and Annie (Estella Kahiha), live on a farm in rural Georgia. It is implied and confirmed early on that Ramona's husband and the father to their children, David (Russell Hornsby), has recently passed away.

They used to live in the city but Ramona became overwhelmed and burnt out on city life. So together, her and David chose to move out to the countryside and enjoy the benefits that living away from it all can offer, complete with their own chicken coop. They chose a fixer-upper on a farm and for the most part, the renovations were completed prior to David's passing.

Speaking of his passing, we learn that it was a tragic car accident that took David's life. We also learn that Ramona was in the car with him when it happened. She survived though injured her leg and is currently on crutches.

Being a widowed mother of two is no walk in the park, especially when you live on a farm far from help and just lost power. Ramona now has two young kids who have no access to the internet or the ability to play video games.

Well, why not just call the power company and see what's going on? Should be easy enough, right? It should be, but Ramona didn't plug her phone in the night before and it's dead. Taylor had a phone but broke it awhile back and Annie is too young to have one to begin with. No power, no phones, isolated on a farm, what else could possibly go wrong?

While in the kitchen, eating eggs that Taylor made with Doritos, Annie sees something and tells Ramona that there's a woman in the yard. Taylor and Ramona both look and sure enough, there on the edge of the dirt road is a woman (Okwui Okpokwasili), draped in all black, sitting in a chair. Unsure of how she got there, where she got the chair from, and what she could possibly want, Ramona decides to grab her crutches and go speak to the woman.

Keeping a safe distance, Ramona tries to get some answers out of the woman. However, the woman doesn't say much other than "Today is the day, today is the day" and "You asked for this". Startled and shook, Ramona hurries as quickly as her crutches will carry her back into the house. But, when the kids ask what the woman had to say, Ramona lies and says that the woman is just lost from the nursing home up the street. As the day progresses, the woman slowly moves closer and closer to the house.

What did the woman mean by "today is the day" and "you asked for this"?

And why is Ramona lying to her kids about what the woman is doing there?

I am happy to say, that for me, The Woman in the Yard belongs in the "solid horror release" category when discussing Blumhouse Horror.

For starters, I appreciate that almost immediately we're given an explanation as to why they are more or less stranded out there. Power outage? Ok, that's not far-fetched. Forgot to charge your phone and now the battery is dead? Yeah, that's one hundred percent believable. So right away I'm able to allow myself to become invested in the story rather than having the "well, why didn't they just do..." questions running through my head.

There are only five characters in the entire movie, one of which we only see in flashbacks. That puts a lot of pressure on the other four to really deliver, and deliver they did. Danielle Deadwyler is great in everything and that is no different here. You feel every ounce of pain, grief, and guilt that Ramona is trying to cope with and process while putting on a brave face for her kids. The kids are great here as well. While they might not deliver award-worthy performances, they are grounded, believable, and relatable. That's key in any genre but especially in horror. If I can't find a reason to care about or relate to a character, why do I care what happens to them? And while having very little to say, Okpokwasili is able to bring an eerie presence and aura that is key to the plot working at all.

Director Jaume Collet-Serra continues his Black Adam redemption tour. Last year he gave us the Netflix thriller Carry-On, which I also wrote a review on, and The Woman in the Yard makes for two consecutive wins.

What's more exciting is that this marks the first feature for writer Sam Stefanak. Yes, there were some leaps between plot points that might make you raise an eyebrow. But overall, I hope to see a lot more feature scripts from Stefanak.

While I did go to one of the first showings of the day, there were still only six people in the theater, including me. I'm not sure if the marketing has been lackluster in reaching a broader audience or if the stank of "Blumhouse Horror" is scaring people off.

If you're a fan of the horror genre and want something that is a tight 90-minutes and feels fresh, this is right up your alley.

I would highly encourage you to get out to a theater and check out The Woman in the Yard on the big screen.

🍿 SCORE = 85 / 100