When is a ghost/demon movie not a ghost/demon movie? When it’s a thinly veiled metaphor for human grief and suicidal impulses.
OK, so maybe that non-joke didn’t have a punchline to bring the house down, but in this era of horror allegories the use of something to represent something else has been as prevalent as Hell. Of course, horror has been the perfect tool to comment on social ills and relevant issues since the genre first took flight; but its flow has been extra heavy ever since the popularity of “elevated horror” sky rocketed during the 2010s and one studio that’s always tried to capitalise on that (with varying results) is the ubiquitous presence of Blumhouse. Sure enough, their latest release is The Woman In The Yard which sees director Jaume Collet-Serra (The Shallows) try to blend creepy shit with such themes as depression and grief. Does he succeed? I guess it’s time to pull up a lawn chair in the old front yard, soak in the sun and find out.
Ramona is the mother of two children who is struggling with the recent death of her husband in a car crash that also severely injured her leg. The sudden loss of a loved one can never come at a “good” time, but things are made extra tough for her to process thanks to the fact that her spouse passed in the middle of the family trying to fix up a home in the country, leaving them bereft of funds to both finish the job and keep the lights on. Furthermore, teenage Taylor is constantly pushing boundaries while little Annie needs constant supervision and assurance and as a result of the family tragedy, Ramona’s grown ever more strict and distant from her kids as she struggles to move on.
And then one day the three of them look out the window to spot a strange woman wreathed entirely in black sitting out in the middle of their yard with her face covered completely in a veil. As the family keep an eye on this strange visitor, it’s noted that she doesn’t move from her chair despite the fact that the sun is beating down something fierce and to break the deadlock, Ramona eventually goes out to talk to the stranger who initially seems confused as to how and why she’s there.
However, as the day goes on, it soon becomes fairly obvious that this is no ordinary random person and the woman in the yard is in fact some supernatural force who has locked onto the family and Ramona’s grief specifically. Armed with funky shadow powers and an alarming ability to get into people’s heads, the woman soon tries to turn the family upon one another and soon the pressure leads to Ramona spilling some dark hidden truths to her kids, but as the supernatural assault continues, it seems that the woman and the emotionally wounded mother are far closer than the latter would care to admit.
If major aspects of The Woman In The Yard sound a little overfamilar, you’re not alone as Jaume Collet-Serra seems to be following in both the footsteps of Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook and Alexandre Aja’s Never Let Go when it comes to examining the themes of mental issues, suicidal thoughts, grief and how it all affects being a parent – however, despite some good intentions, The Woman In The Yard ends up playing more like the muddled latter than the seminal former. The problem seems to be that where Kent knew exactly what she was trying to say with her top-hatted, gurgling demon, Collet-Serra seems less sure footed when connecting the dots and while he’s pretty adept at creating an atmospheric setup, his payoff is all over the place.
For a start, kudos have to be given for the director who aims to try and bring a creepy, oppressive sense of dread to a film that’s primarily set on a bright summer’s day and Collet-Serra stages a lot of his shots in the thoughtful style of an early M. Night Shyamalan thriller with intelligent use of empty space and long shots to draw out the tension. Also, the look of the titular woman is simple, but effective as the sight of her sitting deathly still while entirely cocooned in her black clothing is at odds with the lazy summer day and the dry, yellow grass. However, once it gets down to the meat of the matter, The Woman In The Yard hasn’t actually got anything particularly original to say and despite its noticably brief running time, feels at multiple times like it probably would have been far more effective as a short film.
Similarly, moments of random body horror (Ramona hallucinating that she’s obsessively unraveling her stitches) or CGI boosted scenes of the woman’s shadow running wild feel oddly out of place compared to the slow, steady build up. It also doesn’t help the film’s lack of overall originality that the filmmakers have created a villain that can move things with their elongating shadow that’s come out only months after the Nosferatu remake and while it’s initially a creepy visual, all it really does is knock a shitload of pots and pans over. Oh, while we’re on the subject, once you figure out that the marauding grief demon can manipulate shadow, maybe don’t grab a torch and wave it about the place creating hundreds of the bloody things?
On the acting side we find a somewhat different story as Danielle Deadwyler puts in a strong performance as a grieving wife whose guilt is pushing her into progressively dark places and even though this is another positive role when it comes to black representation in horror cinema and yet another film that touches on depression, when it’s all said and done, The Woman In The Yard is just missing that certain something to make it haunt you the way it should. It’s creepy and tense, yes, but not in a way that burrows under the skin like other, similar films have done. You are hardly rocked by the revelations or moved by the resolutions and after that drawn out, incredibly subtle set up, the final third is seemingly trying to aggressively mess with reality to keep you further off-balance but instead only serves to just confuse you in a bad way. Worse yet, delivering a muddled ending in a movie about a woman contemplating suicide kind of diffuses any positive or insightful message you may have had on the subject and it seems like yet another example of Blumhouse straining to deliver a cultural hot topic but failing to follow through with it because they have no clue how to merge the message with the scares.
While certainly interesting to look at, The Woman In The Yard manages to live up to its title character by being enigmatic, visually striking, but ultimately rather static and confusing and thus shoots itself in the foot when it comes to trying to say something truly profound or original.
Typical of ghostly depression demons right? Give them an inch and they’ll take a yard…
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