THE WOMAN IN THE YARD
Starring: Danielle Deadwyler, Okwui Okpokwasili, Peyton Jackson, Estella Kahiha, and Russell Hornsby
Director: Jaume Collet-Serra
BODE
It was only a matter of time before modern genre craftsman Jaume Collet-Serra returned to his horror roots, and with Blumhouse no less. But I don’t think that combination properly prepared me for what The Woman in the Yard had in store. Serra takes what could’ve felt familiar in its exploration of grief and depression, and pushes it (with the help of DP Pawel Pogorzelski and the committed brilliance of star Danielle Deadwyler) to surprisingly expressionistic places, further accentuating its palpable dread, and making some of the heavy-handedness in Sam Stefanak’s debut script easier to forgive. I mostly dug this.
ADRIANO
The Woman in the Yard's unapologetic bleakness is almost admirable, but it very clearly bites off more than it can chew. The filmmaking works. The excellent cinematography contributes to the storytelling and director Jaume Collet-Serra's tension. Danielle Deadwyler is (obviously) amazing, but the child actors, Peyton Jackson and Estella Kahiha, are equally great. That said... the writing tanks it. It sets up something interesting, but it's textbook "this should've been a short." It spins its wheels for way too long and its final act becomes nonsensical. I can respect the ambition, but it failed to leave the impact it tried for.
