NEW YORK (OSV News) — While the mysterious presence of “The Woman in the Yard” (Universal) is meant to trouble the other characters on screen, it’s as likely to bug viewers of this Gothic misfire at least as much as any of its fictional targets. That’s because the sequence of events her sudden appearance initiates amounts to borderline nonsense.
Screenwriter Sam Stefanak is at pains to make the stranger’s intended victims, a trio of family members occupying a remote farmstead, as vulnerable as possible. Mom Ramona (Danielle Deadwyler) is a recent widow, still recovering from the extensive injuries to her leg she sustained in the car crash that claimed her husband David’s (Russell Hornsby) life.
Ramona’s two kids, restless teen Taylor (Peyton Jackson) and docile six-year-old Annie (Estella Kahiha), seem to be coping better than their bereaved mother. But the electricity has gone out, Taylor’s cell phone is broken and distracted Ramona has forgotten to recharge hers.
So when the figure of the title (Okwui Okpokwasili), ominously clad in a black veil and antique mourning attire, suddenly appears on the farm’s front lawn, calling the police to dislodge her is not an option. Instead, Ramona tries to reason with her, then attempts to shut her out by locking all the doors before easily exasperated Taylor rashly resorts to threatening her with David’s rifle.
All in vain, of course. But what, you ask, is the unwanted intruder doing there in the first place? To the degree that the murky script provides any rationale for her visitation, she seems to be a sort of poltergeist summoned up by the anxieties and mental frailties of one of the family members.
Director Jaume Collet-Serra’s chaotic horror exercise ultimately wraps up in a morally acceptable manner. Yet it remains dramatically unconvincing.
On the upside, this is no slasher flick and problematic material is mostly kept within reasonable limits, making the movie possibly acceptable for older teens. They’re as unlikely as their elders, however, to derive much enjoyment from this cinematic jigsaw puzzle from which more than a few key pieces seem to be missing.
The film contains occasional stylized violence, some gory images, a suicide theme, at least one use of profanity, about a half-dozen milder oaths, a single rough term and a couple of instances each of crude and crass language. The OSV News classification is A-III – adults. The Motion Picture Association rating is PG-13 – parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.