The Woman in The Yard (2025) (Spoilers)

After an accident kills her husband, a woman and her kids find that a strange woman all in black is sitting in their yard.

This is a metaphor for grief, depression and the desire to commit suicide wrapped up in a the trappings of a short horror film  which was inflated to feature length.  It's a film that has some great visuals that get lost in script that not only doesn't give us any real details about anyone for over half the film, it then flip flops it's symbols in the final twenty minutes leaving us to scratch our heads. There is a great horror film a draft or two away from this film...its such a shame because this film could have been something.

The visuals are what shine in this film as it stands now. The woman and the shadows she casts are stunning. The effect crew should be commended for the work that they did. People will be talking about the images in the film for years. I think I said wow out loud a couple of times.

Unfortunately the film's script doesn't really work. While the film doesn't tell us much, we have to work things out on our own for the better part of an hour, when we finally do get a few fleeting details we kind of wish we knew more. We never get a sense of these people outside of their worrying about the woman in the yard. It would nice to know more about the parent child relationship other than mom has been different since the accident that killed her husband and left her with a broken leg. Yes this is the mother's story, but the kids don't have much to do. While the performances are good, the characters are one note...beyond what there should be for a single day. They shouldn't be. They are vital to the story and to th mother, even if this is pure metaphor there should be more characterization of the kids because ultimately the mothers mental state hinges on them and how she feels about them, how see sees them is key to everything. They shouln't be blank slates or one note as they are here. Their mom would see them as more even in the depths of depression.

While I could detail more than a couple of the plot turns that are head scratchers (why are door knobs suddenly falling off the doors?) the real problem here is the metaphoric nature of the tale. Yes this film is really the internal battle the mother has with grief and depression, so the question of how much of this is real is ultimately questionable, but at the same time there kind of needs to have an internal logic. That logic is missing as things kind of randomly happen at times. Even chalking them up to a fugue state bits don't hang together and seem to be there just to get a gasp from the audience.

Things go off completely the rails about an hour in when the shadows that had been  the main means of mayhem for the woman in black goes side ways first as she appears in the darkened room before the flashlight is turned on, and then when it is jetisoned completely for notions of a mirror world. What once was shadows becomes mirrors and we are left scratching our head. It might have worked if the daughters letters beyond the Rs were turned side ways... the the real problem with the film is the gotcha at the end doesn't work becaus the reveal that we are now in a mirror realm collapses because the shot before the final shot of the reversed signature is undone because the sign outside the house is not backwards.

I sat in the theater wondering if this was two films or two scripts mashed together. How could they not see that the shift metaphors didn't work?

This film should have kicked ass, I mean isolated momnts work, and in stead it left me feeling, as most films I've seen in 2025, like it's just okay and in a week I'll have no memory of this game try, despite the good bits.

There is enough here that its worth a look for the curious but honestly wait for streaming.