The Woman in the Yard
Universal Pictures | Release Date: March 28, 2025 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
51
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 17 Critic Reviews
Positive:
7
Mixed:
9
Negative:
1
Watch Now
Stream On
Stream On

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
NMEJordan BassettMar 27, 2025
It’s a shame the movie has such a goofy name, which throws a shroud over a powerful and unique cinematic experience. Read full review
71
Paste MagazineJesse HassengerMar 28, 2025
On its terms, and especially with an ending I read as ambiguous, The Woman in the Yard is also unflinching enough to maybe count as daring, and maybe Sollet-Cerra’s most viscerally moving film. It’s also among his least playful, least comforting. Your anxieties can’t follow you around if you can barely make it out of bed. Read full review
70
IGNSteve GreeneApr 2, 2025
More unsettling than outright terrifying, The Woman in the Yard is smaller-scale horror that works as a return to fundamentals for a talented filmmaker, and is further proof of Danielle Deadwyler’s immense skill as a lead performer who knows how to pull off the psychological ramp-up required for a movie like this. Read full review
70
Rolling StoneDavid FearMar 31, 2025
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, while not necessarily being in a hurry to fill folks in on the full 411 regarding this sticky situation. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterFrank ScheckMar 28, 2025
Some genre fans will be disappointed by the film’s slow-burn style and the cryptic nature of Sam Stefanak’s screenplay, including its twist ending that’s open to interpretation. But for anyone more interested in cerebral horror and less in watching arteries gushing and entrails popping out, The Woman in the Yard offers considerable rewards. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubNatalia KeoganMar 28, 2025
Leave it to Collet-Serra to deliver a trim, serviceable product—something almost impressive when compared to some of Blumhouse’s other recent original efforts. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineJustin ClarkMar 28, 2025
The film is a slow-burning tale of very real traumas suffered by a woman far out of her element and forced to process a tragedy on top of it all. Read full review
60
ColliderJeff EwingMar 28, 2025
There's an excellent film somewhere in The Woman in the Yard, but it would take another draft to uncover it from beneath that jet-black burial shroud. Suffice it to say, it's a horror outing that works rather well until it falls apart at the end. Read full review
60
Screen DailyNikki BaughanMar 28, 2025
A raw central performance from Danielle Deadwyler brings some depth to this Blumhouse thriller, which otherwise maintains a creepy atmosphere but mostly trades in familiar psychological horror tropes and an abundance of jump scares. Read full review
60
EmpireHelen O'HaraMar 28, 2025
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. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comPeter SobczynskiMar 28, 2025
While the film does subvert basic audience expectations, it doesn’t really do anything beyond that as it stumbles through a choppy and meandering narrative that not even an admittedly committed lead performance by Danielle Deadwyler can help save. Read full review
45
The Daily BeastNick SchagerMar 28, 2025
Even at a brisk 85 minutes, it’s a bigger slog than a day spent mowing the grass. Read full review
42
IndieWireAlison ForemanMar 28, 2025
Commingling an overwrought spin on something like “The Babadook” with the kind of bland nonsense genre fans should expect from a Blumhouse flick in March, The Woman in the Yard is effectively a cinematic garage sale peddling parts from better movies. Read full review
40
Little White LiesHannah StrongMar 28, 2025
There’s not enough here to sustain even a slim sub-90 minute runtime, and Collet-Serra seems lost when tasked with a project that provides little opportunity for dynamic action sequences or wild plot twists. Read full review
40
The GuardianMike McCahillMar 28, 2025
Deadwyler remains credibly frazzled, pushed towards monstrousness in ways that will be familiar to anyone who homeschooled during Covid, and the bundled figure closing in on her is genuine nightmare fuel. Yet the rest of this hotchpotch never matches it, and flails in trying to explain it away. Read full review
40
The TelegraphTim RobeyMar 27, 2025
There’s little here to keep us up at night – or from forgetting all about it by tomorrow. Read full review
30
VarietyOwen GleibermanMar 27, 2025
The Woman in the Yard never musters the imagination to horrify or even jolt you. It’s a tale of one-note inner demons. Read full review
More From This Movie

51 Critic Reviews

tbd User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 77 Project Hail Mary
2 75 Send Help
3 73 Hoppers
4 72 The Sheep Detectives
5 68 Crime 101
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL