The Ruse

Stevan Mena did a phenomenal job with this mystery thriller, at one point I felt like I was watching it adaptation of a Stephen King novel and other points felt like pure old school Hitchcock Presents. It has all the typical tropes of a Hitchcock film with spot on pacing, and shot beautifully. There are a lot of twist and turns, in a unique setting, great tension building throughout the film. Cast was phenomenal, one thing Stevan Mena does well in all his films is find those untapped talents. Watch every single one of these unknown names in this movie, They all have a very bright future out of them.

"The Ruse" is an excellent thriller that I would very much like to recommend!

The Plot: A new caretaker, Dale (Madelyn Dundon), is hired to take care of elderly Olivia Stone (Veronica Cartwright) due to being diagnosed with dementia. While taking care of Olivia, she realizes that the caretaker before her, Tracy (Kayleigh Ruller) has disappeared without a trace, leaving Dale to piece together what happened to Tracy while trying to take great care of Olivia.

I am such a huge fan of Stevan Mena's works "Malevolence" and "Malevolence 2: Bereavement." I thought this was very engaging throughout, and this movie is directed, produced, written and even the music is done by Mena! I think that is super awesome that he has lots of control for what he wants to make! Lastly, I think these movies by Stevan Mena has me thinking he is one of the most underrated horror movie directors out there!

9/10 stars for me.

I watched The Ruse (2024) in theaters last night. The story follows a woman desperate for work who lands a recently vacated caretaker position. She soon discovers that the woman she's caring for is far more than she bargained for-and may be connected to the mysterious disappearance of the previous caretaker.

The film is written and directed by Stevan Mena (Malevolence) and stars Veronica Cartwright (Alien), Michael Steger (90210), Madelyn Dundon (Lucky Louie), and Drew Moerlein (Bloodline Killer).

This is a movie that feels uneven in just about every way. Veronica Cartwright delivers a fantastic performance, keeping the film intense, unpredictable, and charged with uncertainty. Her dialogue, mannerisms, and delivery are consistently strong. Unfortunately, Madelyn Dundon's performance is noticeably stiff, often coming across as inauthentic. Her facial expressions and body language frequently don't align with what's happening in the scene, though it's hard to say how much of that stems from her acting versus the writing.

I did enjoy the cinematography-there are some clever uses of black-and-white visuals and well-chosen camera angles that effectively build tension. However, the kill scenes rely on cutaways, which I always find frustrating. That said, the ending is pretty fun and left me wishing the rest of the film had taken more kills along the way.

In conclusion, The Ruse has enough worthwhile elements to hold your attention, but not enough to stand out in the genre. I'd give it a 5.5-6/10 and recommend seeing it once.

I haven't been to the theatre in a long time, because movies today don't make you think.

I'm so tired of movies with all action and no story. The Ruse is a movie where you are compelled to pay attention and follow the plot. Great acting, great script, great ending with a twist. Sure, there are some violent scenes, but they aren't there just for the sake of it. You can tell there was a lot of thought to detail. This is how movies used to be. We need more of this. It's made so that you care about the charcters and what will happen, or can happen to them. This was well worth the price of admission.

Well that was enjoyable! I just got done seeing Stevan Mena 's new suspense/thriller, "The Ruse". It reminded me of something that seems to have almost become extinct in today's movies, and something I miss. That being of a slow burn, suspense building story, reminiscent of many of the great films that the legendary Alfred Hitchcock wrote and directed. The movie stars Hitchcock alumni Veronica Cartwright (The Birds), who has been acting in movies since 1958 (67 years!), as an elderly former composer that lives alone, who now suffers from dementia, as well as OCD, and needs a live-in nurse. There is something "off" and a little creepy about her character, Olivia Stone. Cartwright's portrayal is nothing short of her performances in a lot of her other great films (Aliens, Invasion of the Body Snatchers - 1978) Fairly new up and coming actress Madelyn Dundon (in her 3rd film) gives a phenomenal performance as the fill-in live-in nurse after the previous nurse goes "missing". Like other actors that started early in their careers in some of Mena's films and went on to become stars (Alexandra Daddario and Peyton List), I see a similar path for Dundon. I loved the overhead shots of the small town atmosphere surrounded by rivers, of which each individual house seem to have their own character to them (and Olivia's, though beautiful, has a creepy feel to it). The suspenseful music was spot on and set a atmospheric tone and enhanced each scenes.