The Woman in the Yard

Can creep out an audience but is less deft with freak-me-out horror.

Simplicity is power, and the lean initial premise here is as potent as it gets... The inexorable, creeping chill of this uncanny game of What's the time, Mr Wolf? dissipates almost entirely, though, during a convoluted third act.

Like a particularly concise, purposefully elliptical short story, The Woman in the Yard quickly milks this beguiling, WTF-is-going-on-here? scenario for all the dread it’s worth.

Soaking his film in an atypical amount of sunlight, Collet-Serra forces the generally strong work of cinematographer Pawel Pogorzelski into boring monotony.

It's well performed, and Collet-Serra knows his way around a beautifully timed scare, but what's most haunting is the sense that the same idea has been done better before.

The Woman in the Yard succeeds (somewhat) due to Deadwyler’s sympathetic performance and Collet-Serra’s knack for sharp camera placement, evocative lighting and the occasional show-off camera move.

... merges his horror and thriller for a story that calls its shot well before its third act reveal, yet is no less compelling in the aftermath.

Jaume Collet-Serra and writer Sam Stefanak don’t savor the promise of Woman in the Yard’s premise. Instead, they point toward an ending like a pool player calling a pocket. Which makes it all the more disappointing that the movie can’t even sink its shot.

The Woman in the Yard attempts to be a psychological study of depression even as it remains beholden to the horror genre, but director Jaume Collet-Serra and scripter Sam Stefanek are never able to quite make the two approaches dovetail.

The Woman in the Yard offers an eerie first act filled with intrigue, which soon drags on without many scares or substance despite its good ideas.