One of the biggest movies of 2024 wasn’t found in theaters, but on Netflix, with Jaume Collet-Sera scoring potentially the biggest success of his career with the high-stakes airport thriller Carry-On. The Taron Egerton and Jason Bateman flick exploded onto Netflix’s all-time Top 10 list, immediately sparking calls for a sequel, though it likely won’t happen. Next best scenario: we now have the trailer for Collet-Sera’s next effort hitting the 2025 movie schedule, and it’s a completely different kind of stressball.
Reuniting the director with Carry-On co-star Danielle Deadwyler, The Woman in the Yard is one of several upcoming horror movies from Blumhouse Productions and Universal Pictures, and it looks about as harrowing as a movie with such a direct title can be. Check out the first trailer below!
The Woman in the Yard stars Deadwyler as Ramona, a widow who is still grieving the death of her husband, who was killed in a car accident that also injured Ramona herself. Now suddenly a single mother, Ramona has to cope with both her injuries and taking care of both their 14-year old daughter (Peyton Jackson) and their 6-year-old daughter (Estella Kahiha). And just when it seems like the pressure couldn’t build any further…the titular woman makes her first appearance.
At first, Ramona isn’t too taken aback, and believes the woman who appeared in her yard is sick or lost, but it doesn’t take too long for the matriarch to realize that she’s dealing with something outside of her scope of understanding. It’s unclear if she talks beyond uttering the seeming threat from the trailer — “Today’s the day,” — but it wouldn’t take much more than that to make me want to move to the other side of the planet.
The titular woman is portrayed by Okwui Okpokwasili, whose recent genre efforts also include The Exorcist: Believer, in which she portrayed Doctor Beehibe, as well as Agatha All Along, where the actress also covered her face in veils as one of the mysterious Salem Seven in pursuit of Kathryn Hahn’s witch. Though she doesn’t get all that much to do, Okpokwasili is indeed creepy as all hell while smiling beneath her covering and holding out her bloody hands. Where’d that blood come from? Are her hands ever dry, or do they just stay bloody while she’s sitting out there?
The film also stars the always enjoyable Russell Hornsby as Ramona’s late husband, whose only moment in the trailer teases his vehicular death. Sucks to not have a solid actor like that in more of the film, but hopefully Deadwyler’s performance is intense enough to make Hornsby’s absense less noteworthy.
The Woman in the Yard is the latest horror effort from the popular director, whose first film was 2005’s House of Wax remake. He also helmed 2009’s Orphan and 2016’s The Shallows, among more straightforward action films like Unknown, Non-Stop and Run All Night. I don’t expect to see Liam Neeson show up as “The Vengeful Irish Man in the Yard,” but won’t be too surprised.
While Jaume Collet-Sera may not have anything hitting Netflix’s 2025 movie premieres with quite the same brute force as Carry-On did, we can indeed look forward to freaky ass yard people making life tense when it hits theaters on Friday, March 28.
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