“Today’s the day, Ramona.”
Universal Pictures’ horror film “The Woman in the Yard,” released in March 2025, earned a 5.6/10 on IMDB and a 45% on Rotten Tomatoes by critics. It’s clear to say that it falls squarely in the middle of the scale for most viewers.
What are viewers not liking about “The Woman in the Yard”?
The story opens with a newly widowed single mother named Ramona, played by Daniella Deadwyler. She hobbles out of bed on crutches and winches at the pain in her leg, adorned with a massive cast.
Ramona’s two children, Taylor, 14, and Annie, 6, played by Peyton Jackson and Estella Kahiha, are eating breakfast at the dark dining room table as Ramona comes down the stairs.
As they chat tensely about missing the deadline to pay the power bill, Taylor is the first to notice a woman, covered with a black veil, sitting on the front lawn of their country home, silently.
Ramona, after a short period, confronts the woman from a distance and asks why she is here and if she needs help. The woman in the yard peeks her hands, stained in blood, out of the veil and says: “Today’s the day, Ramona.”
Unlike typical horror movie structure, we are introduced to the woman sitting in the yard pretty early on in the film, making the suspense last longer than horror movie fanatics are used to. There is hardly a boring second throughout the film, since it hits the ground running.
One of the strengths of “The Woman in the Yard” is the ability to show, not tell. For example: As Ramona sits down in the dining room, she glances over to the empty seat at the head of the table, indicating within the first few minutes that the family is not whole.
Jackson and Kahiha played their supporting roles incredibly, however, Deadwyler’s acting throughout the film stands out as nothing short of astonishing. True horror movie acting at its peak. From the range of emotions Ramona experienced, to the simplest of glances, Deadwyler told a story through just her acting throughout the entire movie.
If acting quality was enough of a reason to thoroughly recommend a movie, “The Woman in the Yard” would qualify.
The confused debate over how the movie ends, however, feels like the reason that viewers seem to group “The Woman in the Yard” as a middle-of-the-scale film.
You don’t have to scroll through random Reddit posts for a fan to explain the convoluted ending of “The Woman in the Yard,” just keep reading.
Contains spoilers
The woman sitting in the yard is a manifestation of Ramona’s grief, pain and guilt over driving the car that killed her husband and the dissatisfaction and depression she faces everyday in her life. The woman is always with her, the darkness is too.
This physical manifestation over her own internal pain, throws objects around the house, attacks the family and shows a reflection of Ramona stabbing her own daughter in the mirror, to demonstrate the ways in which the dark parts of Ramona feels like a danger to her kids.
The woman under the veils is how she views herself and she spends the entire movie trying to protect her children from the hallowed out parts of her.
In a flashback, she tells her husband how she feels dissatisfied with the person she has become, how everything she does is for the children, the dog and their chickens, and she is losing herself in the daily routine.
When the woman in the yard appears, she slaughters the chickens and the family dog first, before coming after the children.
Deeply, Ramona wants more than anything to protect her children from herself, and set them free from the fate that she will inevitably bring them. She prays everyday for the strength to end her life and set them free. The woman in the yard comes to give her strength.
“Today’s the day.”
In the ending scene, the filmmakers show Taylor and Annie run into the renovated farmhouse, with a soft light welcoming them through the windows as their dog runs in after them and Ramona follows closely behind, glad to be the light for her children.
This is not the reality however, but Ramona’s life through the mirror world, a world in which she could overcome the pain she is feeling and be the mother that her kids deserve.
Even though that was not the case.
“The Woman in the Yard” is at its core a commentary on the darkest side of depression and guilt and its manifestation within a person.
That, to me, is worth more than a 5.6/10 rating.