A mysterious woman shrouded in black appears on a family’s front lawn, leaving them to question her motives and the potential danger she might pose. A film by Jaume Collet-Serra, starring Danielle Deadwyler, Okwui Okpokwasili, Peyton Jackson, Estella Kahiha, and Russell Hornsby.
The WOMAN in the YARD
Jaume Collet-Serra
(2025)
In a secluded farmhouse, Ramona (Danielle Deadwyler) lives with her children Taylor (Peyton Jackson) and Annie (Estella Kahiha). She watches a video clip on her phone of her late husband David (Russell Hornsby) describing a dream he had where their house was finally complete, decorating finished, the barn full, and the yard covered in Ramona’s beloved irises.
In his dream, he tells her, life was perfect. The only thing missing was a name for their farm. Ramona’s recorded voice responds that not every farm needs a name, but David insists their place deserves one after all the work they’ve put into it.
As the video clip ends, Ramona presses replay to watch it again. She’s suddenly interrupted when Tyler bursts into her bedroom to tell her the power is out, pleading with her to call the electric company. The scene reveals that David is no longer with them, and Ramona has a disability suggesting she and David were in an accident that only she survived. Later, when Ramona picks up her phone to call the electric company, she discovers her battery has already died.
It appears that following the accident, Ramona is still overwhelmed by grief and loss. Her son Tyler has taken on most of the household responsibilities caring for the chickens in the barn, looking after his little sister Annie, feeding their dog Charlie, and preparing breakfast with eggs from their coop. Meanwhile, Ramona nitpicks whenever something isn’t done to her standards and suddenly loses her temper when Tyler doesn’t follow her instructions.
After Charlie throws up the food that Taylor mixed with leftovers from the fridge and the last portion of dog food, Ramona asks Taylor to take Charlie outside and put him on his chain. When Taylor returns, he appears concerned as he tells Ramona that there’s a woman in their yard.
The three of them peer through the window at the mysterious woman draped in black who sits motionless in their yard. They speculate about who she might be and where she came from. Eventually, Ramona decides to go outside and speak to the woman herself, hoping to get some answers.
The woman (Okwui Okpokwasili) initially appears confused when Ramona approaches, seemingly unsure how she ended up there when asked if she’s lost or needs help. She makes unsettling observations about Ramona’s wedding ring, injured leg, and the damaged truck, concluding that Ramona was lucky while her husband wasn’t. Growing frightened, Ramona threatens to call the police if the woman refuses to leave her property. As Ramona turns to retreat back to her house, the woman calls after her, declaring that “today is the day” and that she came because Ramona had called for her.
Later, Ramona hallucinates pulling a long black thread from the bloody wound on her leg. They discover Charlie has disappeared from his chain. When Annie repeatedly writes the letter R backwards, Ramona becomes increasingly frustrated. In her distorted mental state, she imagines stabbing Annie with a knife.
Convinced that Ramona isn’t telling the whole truth about the mysterious woman, Taylor accuses her of killing Charlie and lying about his disappearance. Growing impatient with his mother, Taylor decides to take matters into his own hands despite Ramona’s insistence that she’s only keeping everyone inside to protect them. He retrieves the shotgun from the safe, which contains just one shell, and uses it to threaten the woman, hoping to frighten her away.
Instead of being intimidated, the woman calmly tells Taylor that he’s confused and that his mother has been lying to him about the circumstances of his father’s death.
Taylor confronts his mother. Under pressure, Ramona finally reveals the truth about that night. She admits to a heated argument with David where she confessed she never wanted to live on the farm. She complained that every sacrifice she made was never for herself, but always for David, the kids, the farm, even the chickens. When David insisted they couldn’t uproot their lives again, reminding her this was their shared decision and that she’d once claimed to be happy, Ramona coldly threatened to leave them all.
During the drive home, the accident occurred.Ramona admits the terrible truth she’s hidden. She was behind the wheel when David died, not him as she’d always told the children. The crash that killed their father also left her disabled.
Directed by Spanish-American filmmaker Jaume Collet-Serra, “The WOMAN in the YARD” is a psychological thriller based on Sam Stefanak’s feature screenwriting debut. The film follows a widow and her children who become unsettled by the appearance of a mysterious woman in their front yard. As the narrative unfolds, it explores themes of grief and depression, revealing how the protagonist’s inner turmoil begins to fracture her mind and unravel the lives of everyone around her.
Danielle Deadwyler delivers a compelling performance, but the film struggles to maintain a plausible narrative, which weakens the story’s overall credibility. However, it does feature some memorable scenes. One standout moment occurs when the mysterious woman attacks Ramona’s house using her shadow-based powers. In this chilling sequence, she demonstrates the ability to lift a knife telekinetically, but the knife suddenly falls when the windows are covered, cutting off her access to shadows.
The filmmaker seems to prioritize style over substance. The third act twist reveals the mysterious woman to be a physical manifestation of Ramona’s psyche, a manifestation she unknowingly summoned herself. While this revelation isn’t completely surprising, it raises unanswered questions: Is this entity truly part of Ramona, or a separate malevolent spirit? Why did the woman have to lure Ramona into the mirror realm, and how did Ramona get out?
Despite these narrative ambiguities, the ending delivers a powerful impact. I found myself waiting for some definitive confirmation of Ramona’s fate, perhaps through a dramatic sound effect or visual cue. Instead, the film maintains an eerie silence before its final, horrifying reveal of Ramona trapped forever in the mirror realm.
The WOMAN in the YARD was theatrically released in the United States on 28 March 2025, by Universal Pictures.
