- Director: Jaume Collet-Serra
- Screenplay: Sam Stefanek
- Cast: Danielle Deadwyler, Okwui Okpokwasili, Russell Hornsby, Peyton Jackson, Estella Kahiha
- Cinematography: Pawel Pogorzelski
- Editing: Timothy Alverson, Krisztian Majdik
- Score: Lorne Balfe
- Genre: Psychological horror
- Runtime: 87 minutes
Ramona (Danielle Deadwyler), on crutches following a car crash that killed her husband, cares for her two children in a farmhouse in the middle of nowhere. One day, a woman appears on their property, swathed in black like the Grim Reaper, her face obscured by a veil. Just sitting there, patiently. We don’t find out who this person is or what they represent for a good chunk of the film, most of that time is spent by Ramona trying her best to keep her son from approaching this mysterious figure, to no avail.
A shallow attempt to convey a message about grief and guilt wrapped up in the skin of a horror flick, ‘The Woman in the Yard‘ is a disappointment considering the filmography of director Jaume Collet-Serra. He did direct ‘Orphan‘ and ‘House of Wax‘ but has focused on action thrillers in the past 15 years (‘Unknown‘, ‘Non-Stop‘, ‘Run All Night‘, ‘The Commuter‘ – he’s obviously a friend of Liam Neeson) so perhaps he’s forgotten how to craft a decent horror movie in the intervening period.
After a moderately eerie atmosphere is created, it descends into sheer and utter madness in its final third. Deadwyler does what she can with the sub-par material but cannot save things. For a runtime of only 87 minutes, it feels as though it went on for twice as long. At this rate, I’d be running towards the woman and risking an uncertain fate if it meant this nightmare would end.
My rating: 4 / 10
SilverScreen 