The Woman in the Yard

Grade: C+

From now on, whenever a horror movie comes out that features a strange presence or monster, I’m going to prepare myself for the metaphor shoe to drop. It’s rarely just a straight-up creature feature anymore. There often turns out to be more to it. The Woman in the Yard is no different. She signifies something specific. I like the idea, but the problem is that too little happens for too long, and then it dissolves into a surrealistic, David Lynchian final act. It’s not a terrible film, just messy and muddy.

Atlanta actress Danielle Deadwyler is very good. I would have nominated her for an Oscar for Till. She stars as Ramona, a recent widow. Her husband recently died in a car crash, that left her with crutches and a brace on her leg. She is left to raise her young son and daughter in a remote rural farmhouse, which was his baby. She wasn’t keen on living there in the first place. One day, they find a woman sitting on a chair in the front yard, facing the house. She is dressed in all black, with a long black veil covering her face. I’ve thought since I first saw the trailer that she must be absolutely scorching sitting out there in that heat for hours dressed like that.

But, of course, she’s not necessarily a real person. First, she sits outside, spouting out Blumhousy taglines like a sing-songy “Today’s the da-ay.” When she makes it into the house, the characters frequently walk backwards with flashlights so they can bump into her. The screenplay brings up lines and bits that heavily telegraph “pay attention to this, because it’ll come back into play later.” The teaser trailer is terrific, leaving just enough mystery. It could have, or maybe should have been left as its own short.

By the time we catch on to what it’s really about, it’s too little too late, as we’ve been subjected to fuzzy dreamlike sequences through what look like cheap sets. The main plot is interesting enough to have been explored by itself without the underlying metaphor. It either needed to ditch the horror element, or lean into it more, without the symbolism or allegory. The Woman in the Yard has one foot in two different ponds, with insufficient devotion to both.

Grade: C+