‘The Woman In The Yard’ Review – A Tale Of Dueling Interpretations
I confess I wrote about The Woman in the Yard last week with no plans to see it initially. But after delving into the ending and its fatalist implications, I had to see for myself how bad it was. With that preconception, I was not expecting to like it (give or take a couple of caveats). Understand that I’m not saying I recommend it, just that I’m not sure the major complaint against the film is well-founded.
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If you haven’t seen the movie yet, that’s unfortunate for those who detest spoilers, because I’m not shying away from heavy spoilers here any more than I did last time. So read on only if you are still cool with that. First, we have to get the mandatory plot rundown out of the way.
In The Woman in the Yard, Ramona, an artist and newly widowed single mother played by Danielle Deadwyler, moves into a farmhouse with her two kids. The place is a fixer-upper she and her late husband (Russell Hornsby) were planning on moving the family into before tragedy struck.
Hubs was killed in an accident that also left Ramona on crutches and with a wrecked truck morbidly stored under a tarp in her driveway for some reason. But that’s not the only baggage turning up on her property. A mysterious woman in black (Okwui Okpokwosili) who fits the titular description is sitting outside for some unknown and, as you might have guessed, nefarious purpose.
There’s no use beating around the bush. Our black veil bride is trying to get Ramona to put a gun to her head and pull the trigger on herself. YouTube has already spoiled this twist up and down, and the fact that the Woman is a manifestation of Ramona’s grief and trauma. By the end, the two of them are juxtaposed to the point of being indistinguishable.
However, the unnamed Woman is given a personal agency that makes her more of an intrusive, tormenting spectral entity with distinct characteristics. She is also played by a different actress and not simply a creation of Ramona’s psyche. She says as much while she pushes Ramona to the edge of sanity, declaring she was summoned.
And that is where the harshest of critics’ main issue is rooted: the ending is ambiguous enough to leave a viewer with the impression that the Woman wins and the film is pro-self-deletion.
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I see what they are saying, but that’s not what I got from it. The theory that Ramona ends it all is based on the idea that she is selfish, entitled, and wants to bail on her kids because she never wanted to be a mom in the first place. Though I see signs of that interpretation, my reading of the text doesn’t affirm it. Ramona comes across that way in the beginning and in flashbacks where you find out her marriage wasn’t as happy as it looked.
She also turns out to be the cause of the crash that kills her husband, which frames her dreams and reliving of happy memories as a coping mechanism. On top of that, the twist leads me to believe she struggles with guilt over her reckless behavior, not the other way around. Ramona flips out at her children over small things while trying to keep it together because she is recovering and feels like a burden, not because her kids feel like one.
If she didn’t love her children, she wouldn’t try to protect them, and it would be easier for the Woman to convince her that suicide is the answer if she could point out how little she really cares. That’s not what she does. She shows Ramona illusions of how much better their lives are without her, which is just another trick an evil spirit uses to prey on a vulnerable, guilt-ridden mind. We’ve seen it 1000 times in horror films.
Then, there are the backwards letters shown throughout the movie. You can’t miss them, but you might miss that they serve more than one purpose. They are signs that Ramona’s memories are backward and that she spins stories to make herself feel better, yes. They also prove that her mind and priorities are also backward, and she is starting to realize it.
Whenever she sees her daughter write a reverse ‘R,’ Ramona freaks out and tells her to write it correctly. Ramona is trying to take back control in her life, and this journey runs counter to the perfect Mary Sue’s of modern fiction. She’s not perfect and knows it; in fact, she strived to be at someone else’s expense, and they both suffered the consequences.
The happy ending might be a little too neat and contrived, and the painting at the end with the reverse signature could be proof she did the dirty deed. Or it’s a relic of her past sitting in the house that proves she has won the battle but is still fighting the war. It’s open to interpretation.
Overall, I thought The Woman in the Yard was an engrossing exploration into grief and mental health with good performances. If you are in the negative camp for the ending or are not a Blumhouse fan, I probably won’t change your mind. Luckily, I suggest renting or streaming it, in case I do.
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The Woman in the Yard
PROS
- Danielle Deadwyler
- Mood and atmosphere
- Okwui Okpokwosili is spooky
CONS
- Passable but primitive-looking visual effects
- The beginning is padded by characters making breakfast
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