The Ruse
- Ben Pivoz
- 11 minutes ago
- 3 min read
The Ruse is one of those haunted house movies where the audience is supposed to get caught up in questioning what is really going on. Is a ghost to blame for disappearances and strange noises? Or is someone alive up to something nefarious? Perhaps both? Despite a definitive lack of atmosphere, the screenplay does a decent job maintaining a sense of mystery. There are so many possibilities being juggled, with several suspects and potential explanations.
That air of the unknown is what kept me from totally losing interest. At least until the ludicrous last twenty minutes, with twist on top of silly twist, leading up to an exceptionally clunky exposition-filled monologue where one character suddenly figures out everything that happened and explains it to the audience, complete with unnecessary flashbacks, to make sure everyone watching gets the point.
The two main actresses do their darndest, but the screenplay is not nearly as clever as it thinks it is, basically hiding its truths while treading water so that it can surprise us at the end. Instead of being an intricately designed puzzle box, it is a puzzle box whose secrets are revealed when it gets smashed on the floor.
Dale is on suspension from her nursing agency after a vague incident. When the nurse for a dementia patient mysteriously disappears, Dale is given a second chance. Upon arrival, she suspects that something is off in that house and she might be in danger.
The best part of The Ruse (97 minutes, minus the end credits) is the presence of Veronica Cartwright as Olivia, the patient. She infuses this one-note character, a former orchestra conductor whose mind and body are deteriorating, with so much passion and energy. She lost her husband and now can feel herself slipping away. Olivia is just used as a mood piece; her intermittent memory loss is a plot device meant to amplify Dale’s isolation. It seems to also be intended as a way to make the viewer wonder about the ghostly presence of the dead husband, who she speaks of as though he is in the house. Is it because of the dementia? Or is he actually there? Even Cartwright can’t sell that aspect of the story in a convincing way.
Madelyn Dundon is certainly game for the genre as Dale. She doesn’t scare easily. Each odd occurrence only makes her more curious. She handles the on-the-nose dialogue pretty well, making the audience believe that she cares about this nonsense. It is a solid lead horror performance (or horror-adjacent). She may have a career there if she chooses better projects.
This is a thriller that contains no thrills. It is empty of suspense because it is trying way too hard to keep the audience guessing without a compelling story or effective misdirection. There is a kernel of a good idea in The Ruse. Yet it starts to fall apart before it even begins to play its hand. It attempts to be a smart take on familiar material and ends up being a sloppy, disappointingly predictable, bore.
1½ out of 5
Cast:
Madelyn Dundon as Dale
Veronica Cartwright as Olivia
Michael Steger as Tom
T.C. Carter as Jacob
Written/Directed by Stevan Mena
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