Director Jaume Collet-Serra has a proven track record of delivering palpable suspense, whether through horror, frenetic action thrillers, or big-budget blockbusters. That makes The Woman in the Yard an outlier among the filmmaker’s work; the high concept psychological horror movie is so inert that it lacks anything resembling tension or scares. That’s especially bad news when its sparse plot is content to faithfully adhere to the well established and overly tired grief horror blueprint.

The Woman in the Yard gives The Babadook a bland and underdeveloped update with Ramona (Danielle Deadwyler), a grieving widow and mom to teen Tay (Peyton Jackson) and adorable grade schooler Annie (Estella Kahihi). Ramona is still recovering, both physically and mentally, from the tragic accident that left her injured and her husband David (Russell Hornsby) dead. So much so that she’s mentally checked out, leaving the parenting to Tay as she watches...