Jaume Collet-Serra’s 2025 horror movie “The Woman in the Yard” was released in March to mild fanfare and unimpressive box office numbers. Against a modest budget of only $12 million, the film passed through theaters with only $23.3 million in box office receipts. It also wasn’t reviewed terribly well, sporting a mere 41% critical approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Still, it was great to see Collet-Serra back in the horror genre after he’d taken a detour to work on un-engaging mainstream blockbusters like “Jungle Cruise” and “Black Adam,” which was a disappointing turn to fans of his earlier horror movies like “House of Wax,” “Orphan,” and “The Shallows.”

Despite its bad reviews, however, “The Woman in the Yard” is one of the director’s more subdued, emotionally intense movies. It’s one of many modern horror films to center on grief as its central theme, although this film argues that grief and depression can lead directly to wrath, neglect, and horror. It’s a bleak, slow-moving film that’s shot mostly inside or immediately in front of a remote farm home in the country.

And the premise is disturbing. Danielle Deadwyler, who also co-starred in Collet-Serra’s thriller “Carry-On,” plays Ramona, a woman who lost her husband in an accident. She has two children, the teenaged Taylor (Peyton Jackson) and the younger Annie (Estella Kahiha). One day, a mysterious, nameless Woman (Okwui Okpokwasili) appears in the family’s yard, sitting in a chair, completely shrouded in black lace. She doesn’t move much, but her chair appears to teleport ever closer to the house when Ramona and her kids aren’t looking. She can speak, however, and says cryptic things about being summoned.

What she actually represents is horrifying, as those who’ve driven the film into Prime Video’s current top 10 stateside (via FlixPatrol) now know.

The Woman is clearly a supernatural entity, and she is most certainly a threat. Although Ramona appears to be in danger, she is strangely blasé with her kids. She shouts at them, doesn’t seem to care about their welfare, and even casually abuses them. None of this has anything to do with the influence of the Woman, either. Ramona is just casually cruel. Her family is then shaken out of their anger and resentment when the Woman asserts her presents. In a standout scene, the Woman’s shadows are cast into Ramona’s living room, and she can apparently knock over physical objects. The sequence looks to have been filmed using mere lighting and practical effects, making it feel all the more real.

The Woman is also a threat to the family dog Charlie, who, to warn sensitive views, is put in peril. There are several tense moments when Ramona or one of her kids has to leave the house, and the Woman’s ghostly presence puts them under threat. “The Woman in the Yard” manages to get a lot out of what comes across as very limited resources. There is only one set, one yard, and not a lot of special effects. The cast is small, and the time frame is brief. This is a classic one-location indie-style horror thriller that, in its setup, resembles any number of low-budget thrillers from the 1970s.

The actual explanation as to who the Woman is and where she comes from is, as mentioned earlier, horrifying, but it’s horrifying because it’s sad and not because she’s monstrous. There are spoilers ahead, so continue with caution.

As the film progresses, Ramona’s behavior indicates that she knows more about the Woman than she’s been letting on. She also reveals that the circumstances of the accident that took her husband’s life and left her injured weren’t what she initially described. Those watching will begin to intuit that the Woman is really a representation of Ramona’s guilt and depression, and that she was deliberately summoned. Ramona, you see, has been despondent, and the Woman is there as a symbol of her suicidal ideation. The Woman is encouraging Ramona to die because Ramona already feels that she deserves to. The drama of “The Woman in the Yard” isn’t about defeating a ghost, but whether or not Ramona can face the bleakest parts of herself and survive.

I will not reveal the denouement, but “The Woman in the Yard” will leave you feeling hollowed out. This is no mere ghost caper; it’s a rather serious look at the cruelty of despair.

Perhaps it was the messaging that kept people away from “The Woman in the Yard.” It was too bleak for horror audiences. I can picture a raucous group of teens entering a theater on a Friday night, hoping to get a few jump scares and fun horror violence, only to be presented instead with a gloomy tale of depression and suicidal ideation. It’s not exactly a crowd-pleaser.

But “The Woman in the Yard” is good, and it is underrated. It’s a little slight (that vintage Blumhouse low-budget aesthetic is clearly visible), but it’s filmed well by a director who knows how to make good horror movies. And Deadwyler gives an intense, scary performance as someone who’s falling apart right in front of us.