The Woman in the Yard Controversy

TW: Discussions of suicide and mental health.

Spoilers.

Admittedly, when I saw the trailer for The Woman in the Yard (2025), I thought it was yet another jump-scare-laden, trash-fest churned out by Blumhouse. Despite the image of a black lace shrouded figure sitting at the bottom of someone’s yard being enticing, I was happy to give it a miss. The lacklustre reviews and Rotten Tomatoes score didn’t help.

This was until I saw the controversy surrounding the film. And as that great poet laureate, Eminem, stated, ‘we need a little controversy. ’ At the very least, it got me to watch the film and, surprisingly, enjoy it. Woman in the Yard was everything a horror movie should be atmospheric, claustrophobic, and powerful. The film’s protagonist, Ramona (Danielle Deadwyler) is a mother trying to cope with the sudden death of her husband whilst caring for her two children in an isolated farmhouse. 

It is clear that Ramona is suffering greatly, not only physically, as she spends the film dragging around her injured leg, but also mentally. This suffering is compounded when, one day, a mysterious figure appears on their property. The figure appears to be a woman, and although she sits calmly (in the yard), there is a feeling of encroaching dread that almost tears this already fractured family apart. 

But where’s the controversy, I hear you cry? A creepy looming figure? An isolated house containing an adorable family in peril? All pretty standard for Horror. The controversy lies with the symbolism of Ramona and The Woman in the Yard and the film’s purported handling of depression and suicidal ideation.

The Woman in the Yard cleverly uses visual cues to illustrate Ramona’s state of mind. In the first scene, she is dragging herself out of bed, weighed down by her mangled leg and mental anguish. The camera catches a glimpse of her hairy armpits as she arranges her crutches. Now, perhaps Ramona simply doesn’t shave, or shaving is too painful for her, or she simply doesn’t care anymore. Downstairs. The camera pans past several vases of dead and decaying flowers. Tributes to the family’s loss are not yet tidied away and made more palatable to onlookers; a perfect metaphor for the film.

Mental illness is not easy to look at. As a genre, Horror has always transformed mental health problems into literal demons and ghosts. Horror is a metaphor, and metaphor is a lot easier to digest. 

Many viewers have debated over exactly what the entity in The Woman in The Yard is. The Woman (Okwui Okpokwasili) is wearing Victorian-like mourning clothes, her face obscured. The allusion to death is obvious. Is The Woman death? Is she Ramona’s ‘shadow self’ (repressed parts of oneself)? When Ramona engages with The Woman, she taunts Ramona, telling her “today’s the daaaay”. Viewers have hypothesised that The Woman is talking about Ramona’s suicide. 

Ramona and her two children are terrorised and chased into the attic by The Woman. It is here that the movie turns more abstract and metaphorical. In a mirrored reality of the bedroom where Ramona hides herself from the world and her children, The Woman and Ramona sit on her bed and talk. The Woman tries to convince Ramona to ‘let go’ and leave her life behind. Ramona worries about her children, and The Woman assures her they will be fine as long as Ramona ‘sets them free’. The family photos on the bedroom wall change to images of her children’s future; graduating from college, entering careers, etc. This talk encourages Ramona to send her children away, grab her late husband’s shotgun, and head to the shed.

It is unclear whether Ramona does shoot herself or manages to pull herself out of her depression, and the film’s happy ending is the hope she feels for the future. Some viewers argued that this ambiguous ending could encourage vulnerable people to hurt themselves. I don’t believe The Woman nor the film itself is trying to make suicide look like a viable option.

The Woman is voicing Ramona’s thought process as she struggles with her tormented mind. How could she think about leaving her beautiful children? A suicidal person may convince themselves that their loved ones would be better off without them. The film painstakingly shows Ramona’s pain and frustration at the start of the film, to the point of being accused of being ‘slow’. Mental health struggles aren’t pretty or linear. In the penultimate scene, Ramona does say The Woman will ‘be back’, implying The Woman is not beaten, much like mental health struggles almost always recur.

The online discourse surrounding The Woman in the Yard’s ending reminded me of another controversy. The Netflix show, 13 Reasons Why, was mired in controversy throughout its run, but the first controversy was arguably during its first season in 2017. The first series is told from the POV of a teenage girl, Hannah (Katherine Langford), who committed suicide.

In the original finale of series 1, the scene in which Hannah commits suicide was graphic and well-acted (in my opinion). In 2019, 2 years after the season 1 originally aired, the scene was re-edited to be less graphic and contain only her parents’ reactions to Hannah’s suicide. This change was made ‘on the advice of medical experts’. 

Many voiced their concerns that show glamourised suicide and mental health problems. Without ghosts and ghouls to cushion the blow, we are left with only the grim reality of suicide. I understand the concern for vulnerable people viewing such media, but the media also (when done right) gives voice to the vulnerable and explores dark and difficult topics such a mental health. 

There is always a danger of commodifying suffering and trauma, but what The Woman in the Yard and 13 Reasons Why remind us is that depression is an illness like any other, and sometimes it kills. 

Art should start conversations about difficult topics and allow people the space to process and get help. This is art at its best. 

The Woman in the Yard is available to stream on Amazon Prime.