Mystery thriller finds home care nurse Dale (Madelyn Dundon) being sent to the house of ailing orchestra conductor Olivia (Veronica Cartwright) when her current caregiver disappears. Dale herself has just come off a suspension stemming from the accidental death of her last patient. It's a challenge. Not only is Olivia immobile and suffering from dementia and OCD, but the house is rumored to be haunted by her late husband Albert. Soon strange things start occurring and Dale is finding there are some questions as to what really happened to her predecessor. As she begins to try and piece things together the mystery deepens, and Dale starts to believe she might be in danger...but the question is, from who?
Old fashioned style mystery is written and directed by Stevan Mena going in a different direction after his cult classic Malevolence slasher trilogy. He delivers a film that delightfully evokes some of those old school haunted house mysteries of yesteryear but with a contemporary enough edge to not come across as nostalgia. There are some spooky sequences, some nice tension and atmosphere and a few moments of impacting violence, especially in the last act when we start to get some answers ...or do we? Mena does keep us guessing and for the first two thirds The Ruse is a chilling and intense slow burn till the third act reveals and even then, not everything is as it seems. Whodunnit? What is actually going on? You will find out all the answers eventually and if the film has any flaw, it's that it doesn't quite let us enjoy some of the red herrings long enough till moving on to the next one. It changes possible suspects a little too quickly when we should have been left to believe the suspicions a little longer before the next revelation. It's still an entertaining homage to not only old-fashioned mysteries but the type of thrillers that were prolific in the 80s and 90s. A solid thriller that that makes good use of its not only the Maine locations but Mena's horror film background when things get intense or spooky. The cinematography from Cory Geryak is excellent, especially the drone shots, and Mena himself provides an atmospheric score.
The cast here is good. Veronica Cartwright is strong as the ailing but still proud Olivia. She can be tough and yet fragile, sometimes in the same scene, and having had personal experience with someone with dementia, she nails the unpredictability and anguish perfectly. Madelyn Dundon is a very likable heroine as Dale. Some of her delivery in the earlier scenes seemed a little stiff at times but she rises to the occasion when it counts most, especially in the intense last act. Michael Steger is good as neighbor Tom. He gives his single dad next door an air of mystery which suits the material as Mena obviously doesn't want us to trust anyone. T. C. Carter is efficient as the pervy grocery delivery boy Jacob, Nicola Jeanette Silber is good as Tom's daughter Penny, and Michael Bakkensen is solid as Detective Burke who gets to be our Maine version of Columbo in the last act's fun final reveal.
Overall, the film was very entertaining, and it was good to see Mena back in the writing/directing/editing chairs once again after a six-year break. It's a bit of old school mystery, mixed with some 80/90s thriller with a pinch of haunted house movie thrown in. There is tension, atmosphere and a deliberately slow burn pace till the plot starts to thicken in the last third. The only flaw is that it moves through some of the red herrings a little too fast for us to really appreciate/believe them before moving on to the next. Its final big reveal may not have been a complete shock, but the scene is clever fun, and it was an entertaining and sometimes spooky ride getting there.
