An interesting outlier concept in the horror and thriller genres has been stories revolving around a hospice aide’s terrifying encounters while caring for a patient. This story has been used with a variety of results, ranging from the hoodoo-inspired Skeleton Key ending to the recently released Irish folklore-based Fréwaka. With The Ruse
, writer-director Stevan Mena aims to go for a more grounded and slow-burning thriller, but unfortunately, it lacks any kind of burn or tension.
The Ruse centers on Madelyn Dundon as Dale, a hospice nurse still grappling with the death of a patient on her watch, who is also hoping to be taken off her probationary leave from her nursing agency. This opportunity seemingly arises when she’s asked to care for a bedridden composer after her original nurse goes missing. As she learns to manage the woman’s obsessive behaviors and needy personality, she also discovers a series of suspicious occurrences around the house, which the woman claims to be her late husband, sending her down a rabbit hole of decreasing sanity.
The Ruse’s Plot Takes Forever To Get Interesting
It’s All Set Up With Little Pay Off
The biggest problem with The Ruse is just how long the movie took to grab my attention. Mena attempts to stand out in the genre by putting a bigger focus on his characters rather than on the well-worn haunted house tropes of slamming doors, missing objects and spectral figures, which is a welcome change of pace. Additionally, the characters’ personalities, on paper, make for an interesting range of people to follow throughout.
One of the glaring issues with the movie’s pacing is just how much it focuses on setting up its somewhat convoluted final act.
That said, the desire to put so much focus on the characters quickly becomes a bore when there’s very little actually moving the plot forward. If this were to have been a movie in which the story was not really the point, I could’ve accepted the atmospheric thrills and drama that Mena put to film. But, because there are the central mysteries of the missing nurse and the woman’s supposed ᴅᴇᴀᴅ husband haunting the house, The Ruse should have flowed a lot better than it ultimately did.
One of the glaring issues with the movie’s pacing is just how much it focuses on setting up its somewhat convoluted final act. Characters lay down red herring after red herring of backstory to throw Dale’s suspicions at each other, none of which feels all that new or compelling. It also makes the ending incredibly rushed and overstuffed, feeling more like a Knives Out movie as a character lays out the entirety of the movie’s plot paired with flashbacks of the events.
The Ruse’s Sound Design Is Quite Terrible
From Low Audio To An Over-The-Top Score, My Ears Were Unhappy
Where some movies’ smaller budgets are generally noticed through lackluster visual effects or cheap-looking sets, The Ruse‘s is instead felt through its rough sound design. Much of the dialogue in the movie sounds too low, even with my volume turned most of the way up. It took me out of some of the movie’s attempts at emotional scenes. More disappointingly, others are ruined by crackly audio or blown-out microphones.
For a movie in which one of its central characters was once a world-renowned composer, and we hear classical music tracks throughout the film, I would have hoped the music would be utilized in some meaningful fashion. Instead, I couldn’t help but feel that the score was oppressive and attempting to force the emotions of a scene instead of being a natural extension of it.
The Ruse’s Cast Is A Little Dull To Watch
Veronica Cartwright Is The Sole Interesting Actor Here
The film’s bigger focus on the cast is also undermined by the fact that the majority of them just aren’t that great performers. Whether it be the direction they were given, the script, or the actors themselves, the majority feel like they’re coasting through their scenes, almost as if they were given a single take to film their work rather than multiple chances to try and improve.
The real saving grace among The Ruse‘s cast is Veronica Cartwright as Olivia, Dale’s ominous patient. Initially introduced as a rude and pushy older woman, the more we sat with her, the more entranced I became with Cartwright’s performance, as she not only plays the harsher side of her character well, but also the heartbreakingly real fears of death and loss of loved ones. It’s just a real shame the Alien alum’s performance is wasted on a thoroughly droll story with a mildly interesting twist ending.
