The Ruse Review: A House that Fails to Haunt

The Ruse, a haunted house horror movie, fails to scare its audience, but is worth seeing for the appearance of horror legend Veronica Cartwright.

The Ruse, written and directed by Stevan Mena, is a horror movie, but it has few scary ideas outside of, “Wouldn’t it be creepy to be alone with an old lady?” Sure, I guess. With that one note that it seems to be unable or unwilling to move away from, The Ruse is a slight, cramped feeling movie that fails to unsettle its audience. 

Our main character is Dale, played by newcomer Madelyn Dundon. She is an in-home caregiver fresh from a sabbatical after a patient passed away on her watch, and itching to get back to work. Like any good Final Girl in a horror movie, Dale has a generically tragic backstory that she will have to overcome in order to survive to the closing credits. She is sent to the coast of Maine where she will watch after an elderly woman, Olivia Stone (Veronica Cartwright) after Olivia’s previous caretaker vanished suddenly into the night.

The elderly woman is a former symphony conductor and composer, with a Type A personality and trigger-fast temper. She suffers from dementia and emphysema, and believes that the ghost of her deceased husband is trying to kill her. The handsome single father (Michael Steger) living down the road is perhaps too eager to help Dale, and his cute young daughter is full of stories about the ghost residing in the house. 

The best performance in the movie belongs to Cartwright. A true legend of horror because of her appearances in such movies as The Birds, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Alien and Witches of Eastwick, in The Ruse she demonstrates a perfect understanding of the style of acting needed for the genre. It’s a big and theatrical performance in all the best ways, comfortably leaning into the eerie flamboyance while still layered with recognizable humanity. Dundon acquits herself nicely as well, giving Dale a practical and thoughtful kindness that endears her to the viewer.The characters in The Ruse are thinly sketched, but the earnest attempts of the actors render them engaging. 

The most obvious problem with The Ruse is that it is not scary. Perhaps there are certain moments which are tense, that will make a particularly sensitive person grab the side of their seat, but that’s pretty much it. The cinematography by Cory Geryak gets a lot of mileage out of the beautiful Maine location, but it fails to conjure any sort of atmosphere. Attempts to frighten the audience come courtesy of jump scares, complete with a loud sting on the soundtrack, and an obtrusive, near-constant score, as though the movie felt the need to tell the viewer when they should be scared. Any sense of tension in The Ruse comes from Cartwright’s performance. 

For any particular fan of Veronica Cartwright, The Ruse is well worth checking out. She holds the movie together, creating a feeling of unease through her quavering voice and limpid blue eyes. When Cartwright is not on screen, The Ruse falls into the doldrums. It is a small, creaky horror movie that has one idea and fails to deliver anything beyond that for the viewer.

The Ruse will be released in US theatres on May 16, 2025.