For one of my final reviews for the flick focus I took a look at the new horror film The Woman in the Yard.
The Woman in the Yard follows a recently widowed mother who must protect her children from an evil force who has plagued their quaint farmhouse. With no power and limited resources they must band together to keep eachother safe.
The ticheller woman in the yard was freaky. Just the way she spoke was very eerie and unsettling.
With that being said everyone was way too blasé about this woman creeping on their front lawn. The only character who had any sense was the young son.
The story we get is a typical tale of grief and depression, the Woman being a personification of those emotions. I thought the movie handled its serious topics really well.
I also thought the story was quite predictable and sluggish at times. It has a short runtime of only 87 minutes, but in the middle it feels much longer.
I enjoyed the acting from everyone on the board. Child actors can make or break a movie, and I thought these kid actors were really believable.
I won’t get into spoiler territory because this movie just came out. What I will say is the last 20 minutes gave me such whiplash. I knew what was going on, but at the same time I didn’t.
I thought the movie could have played up their villain a bit more. She does more or less nothing but loiter in their yard the whole film. I wanted to see her wreak some havoc, but all we get is her moving things with shadow hands and her speaking in riddles.
On that note, the cinematography was really nice. It played with some cool shots and shadows. I found myself looking for the woman’s shadow in almost every shot. It was well done and very interesting.
All in all this is a pretty standard and forgettable Blumhouse film. It has some cool ideas, but gets lost in predictable and confusing storytelling. I would have liked to see more happen and much higher stakes. I would skip this one if you are looking for a really scary movie, because the trailer shows all of the scary parts.
I give this film a ★★☆☆☆ / ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
(thank you TA Lindsay for this sort of recommendation)
