The Woman in the Yard (2025): Everything Wrong with 'Grief Horror.'

In recent years, arguably since the conception of horror, ghosts

and ghoulies have been used as a metaphor for grief. Though plenty of horror fans are tired of this trope, I never thought I'd get enough of it; perhaps it's simply the idea of a second layer to the horror - no matter if it's complex or original. After all, grief is a universal experience. Hence why I was still willing to give 'The Woman in the Yard' (directed by Juame Collet-Serra)a chance.

Unfortunately, it highlights all of the criticisms of the Grief Horror sub-genre.

The film follows Ramona (Danielle Deadwyler), who's been left severely injured in the car accident that took her husband. She now lives on a remote farmhouse with her two children, Taylor (Peyton Jackson) and Annie (Estella Kahiha), when a woman clad in black appears in their back garden. (At least she brought her own chair!)

The biggest problem with the film is its characters, or lack there of. Most telling is the first scene, in which Ramona is re-watching a video of herself and her late husband. Aside from the stereotypical and tiresome reliance on a past video of a loved one (why were they even recording this?), it showcases how empty a character Ramona is. She "doesn't know" what they will call the farm they're working on; not a single idea.

It's true that this may tie into a later (and predictable) plot point, but this lack of engagement makes for a boring character. I can understand Ramona is struggling with depression from the opening five minutes, but without any personality shown before or after the accident, it's hard to care about her or her struggles at all, either way - add into this that she's not kept up with the phone bills and has barely any food in the house for her children.

Contrast Ramona to Amelia (Essie Davis) in the Babadook (2014) - another horror dealing with loss and grief in the guise of a monster - she's clearly struggling also, but is still trying her best to care for her child. That's not to say that we always root for Amelia either - it's very easy to hate her, but even that's better than the indifference that Ramona invokes as an absent parent. Collet-Serra is aiming for the same result, but doesn't have the finesse the Babadook does.

It doesn't help that the children themselves feel just a bland. Annie is a wide-eyed, sweet little girl. Even in the scene where she's supposed to be irritating, she's nowhere near on the level of her counterpart of Samuel (Noah Wiseman) in the Babadook. Samuel's divisive screaming as least gives the audience insight into Amelia's conflicting emotions; it's hard to feel the same about a little girl sweetly confusing which way round her 'R' should go.

Taylor is the boy who's, understandably, frustrated with his mother's behaviour and struggling to know how to fix things. It's a breath of fresh air to have a character with purpose, even if there's little substance to him.

A gaping problem with both children is that we're not allowed to explore their grief, either. They're treated, for the most part, as props in Ramona's story.

Both child actors play their roles well and believably, for what they have to work with in the script. It's a shame they're written so skin-deep.

When it comes to the Woman in the Yard herself, her dark-veiled prescence is striking. Her reedy voice and mysterious dialogue are intriguing enough to want to know what her deal is. Unfortunately, they unveil her much too early and the reveal is disappointing. Okwui Okpokwasili is a striking woman, but she's not a horror movie monster. The grand lifting of the veil to reveal...just a woman...feels boring - especially when we know this is all a metaphor.

In comparision, the Babadook is a visually interesting monster that feels like a threat. The metaphor monster in 'It Follows' is also just a human, but the tell-tale smile adds an otherworldly eeriness that delivers the scares. Likewise, Jordan Peele's 'Us' is full of metaphor, with a very human villain - it's Lupita Nyong'o's performance that makes it memorable and threatening.

The Woman in the Yard fails to deliver any of this, to the point where it would be more interesting if she was a disturbed woman sitting on someone else's property. There's no presence or memorability, and certainly no scares.

The problem is, this lack of character, ambiguity on the entity's part and lack of real scares, seems to be purposeful. There are in movie justifications for this, which makes it all the more disappointing. Stripped back to the metaphor, there's nothing interesting anymore. We're left with bland characters and a bland entity, and, frankly, a boring film. When the entity's purpose is revealed, it's very hard to care about the outcome.

The few good points of the movie are the feeling of calustrophobia. There are no phones and the neighbours are too far to run to; this isolation makes for a somewhat interesting dilemma. It would be more interesting if Taylor's feelings of being trapped in the house with his mother were further expanded upon - it feels like his story is the one with more horror than his mother's. It's also intriguing to have a horror movie mainly taking place in the day, with the heat of the farm palpable through the screen.

Overall, The Woman in the Yard has little substance and fewer scares, leaving the film a slog to get through. The metaphor is bare faced and explores nothing new, to the point of feeling like a parody of grief horror. The lack of finesse highlights the lack of creativity in pumping out films that are desperate for you to think they're so clever in their double meanings. Most of the time, like 'Talk to Me,' there's enough good in it for it to work.

Unfortunately, 'The Woman in the Yard' falls flat on all counts.