'The Woman In The Yard' Review Thread

I will continue to update this post as reviews come in.

Rotten Tomatoes: Rotten

Critics Consensus: N/A

Metacritic: 49 (15 Reviews)

Sample Reviews:

Owen Gleiberman, Variety - It’s actually rare to see a horror film of the week that’s a flat-out, old-school dud. But The Woman in the Yard comes pretty close. It’s like a haunted-house movie with no tricks up its sleeve.

Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter - The Woman in the Yard belies its disingenuously bland title with its considerable thematic ambitions. The film doesn’t fully live up to them, but it deserves credit for trying something different in an oversaturated, frequently exploitative genre.

Mike McCahill, Guardian - For an hour or so, it’s intriguing; we don’t know where we stand exactly, and there’s an awful lot in the air. It settles shruggingly, however, and some of what is being juggled is revealed as decidedly secondhand. 2/5

Tim Robey, Daily Telegraph (UK) - There’s little here to keep us up at night -- or from forgetting all about it by tomorrow. 2/5

Hannah Strong, Little White Lies - There's not enough here to sustain even a slim sub-90 minute runtime, and Collet-Serra seems lost when tasked with a project that provides little opportunity for dynamic action sequences or wild plot twists. 2/5

Nick Schager, The Daily Beast - Even at a brisk 85 minutes, it’s a bigger slog than a day spent mowing the grass.

Meagan Navarro, Bloody Disgusting - The high concept psychological horror movie is so inert that it lacks anything resembling tension or scares. 1.5/5

Jordan Hoffman, Fangoria - The Woman in the Yard succeeds (somewhat) due to Deadwyler’s sympathetic performance and Collet-Serra’s knack for sharp camera placement, evocative lighting and the occasional show-off camera move.

Peter Sobczynski, RogerEbert.com - A choppy and meandering narrative that not even an admittedly committed lead performance by Danielle Deadwyler can help save. 2/4

Kristen Lopez, The Film Maven (Substack) - What ends up elevating (and saving) The Woman in the Yard is some truly stellar casting that creates a sense of intimacy and warmth in a movie that isn’t afraid to become utterly nihilist. C

SYNOPSIS:

A lone, spectral woman shrouded entirely in black appears on a family’s front lawn without explanation and warns them “today’s the day.”

Where did she come from? What does she want? When will she leave? Only The Woman in the Yard knows.

From Blumhouse, the most successful global brand in horror, comes a new original chiller starring BAFTA and SAG nominee Danielle Deadwyler (Till, The Harder They Fall, The Piano Lesson) as Ramona, a woman crippled by grief after she survives a car accident that takes her husband (Russell Hornsby; BMF, Fences).

Seriously injured, Ramona now must care for their 14-year-old son (Peyton Jackson; Respect, American Refugee) and 6-year-old-daughter (Estella Kahiha; Will Trent, BMF), alone in her rural farmhouse.

Then one day the woman takes form in their yard.

Ramona assumes the woman (Okwui Okpokwasili; The Exorcist: Believer, Julie Taymor’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream) is lost or demented, but as the woman creeps nearer and nearer to the house, it becomes clear she is no ordinary figure and her intentions are anything but peaceful. Now Ramona must rally to protect herself and her children from the grasp of the woman who simply won’t leave them alone.

CAST:

• Danielle Deadwyler as Ramona
• Okwui Okpokwasili as The Woman
• Russell Hornsby as David
• Peyton Jackson as Tay
• Estella Kahiha as Annie

DIRECTED BY: Jaume Collet-Serra

WRITTEN BY: Sam Stefanak

PRODUCED BY: Jason Blum, Stephanie Allain

EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Danielle Deadwyler, Jaume Collet-Serra, James Moran, Gabrielle Ebron, Scott Greenberg

DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Pawel Pogorzelski

PRODUCTION DESIGNER: Marc Fisichella

EDITED BY: Timothy Alverson, Krisztian Majdik

MUSIC BY: Lorne Balfe

CASTING BY: Ally Conover, Terri Taylor

RUNTIME: 88 Minutes

RELEASE DATE: March 28, 2025