Who doesn’t love a good mystery with a twist? 2025 should be the year of The Ruse. We’re in peak true crime, with podcasts on this topic still trending, and continuing to often translate into films or series. 20/20, which once was a newsmagazine at least somewhat comparable to 60 Minutes seems now determined to inundate you with scintillating crimes just redy to spark your inner Jessica Fletcher. We thrive on solving crimes, which is why we have so many shows that all feel like a mystery of the week, from Elzabeth to Will Trent, Tracker to Poker Face, someone or something is absolutely afoot. We don’t know what, but we really want to know why.

That’s where The Ruse really can take off, is tapping into the mystery vibe of this presumptive ghost story. I truly did not expect much from The Ruse going in, because of what are sometimes red flags. the largely unknown cast, lack of a major distributor, a seemingly quiet presence leading to its release, and that damn ghost story premise which can, and often does, go so very wrong. I also had to face the fact that The Ruse came without audio description, and likely that was going to hinder my ability to enjoy the film.

the quick summary of the film, in the least spoilery way is that our protagonist is Dale (Madelyn Dundon) is a home health nurse who starts working for a retired composer, Olivia (Veronica Cartwright), who suffers several ailments and is all alone in her big house. The inciting incident is that her last nurse, Tracy, vanished without a trace. Adding to that, Dale meets a little neighbor girl who insists that the house Dale is in is haunted, and she’s seen the ghost before, and Olivia keeps talking about how she sees her husband, who already passed. Is the home haunted? is Dale in line to suffer the same fate as Tracy/

At first glance, this film felt like it was walking right down the most predictable path. indie films often have small casts, so in a whodunit, there’s a small range of possibilities. While the film does branch out to include more characters than I initially gave it credit for, it does present as a pretty limited scope early on. the narrow view is that dale might be in danger, and this is absolutely some kind of ghost story.

One of the few things I didn’t like was Michael Steger as Tom. there’s admittedly a clunky quality to how his character is handled, the things we learn about him, and how he seemingly fits into the film from a first glance. Tom, the father of the young girl, comes across far more distrustful than necessary early on, and with a limited scope of characters, and Dale’s budding friendship with the only other adult in radius, he always feels unstable, even when the film doesn’t require it. Now, the film is titled The Ruse, and this is where how Steger plays the role becomes a mixed bag.

One of the great things about The ruse, is that while it seems to point in a direction, the movie is inherently alerting you to something maybe you aren’t picking up on from the very beginning. It is this methodology, and a rather go for broke approach to twist endings, that The Ruse becomes a film you can’t look away from. It has more ending possibilities than you could ever initially predict, and does a great job of covering itself, and circling back around with another batch of bamboozlement. I don’t think many people will actually guess the end, even if they only get part of it. It is layered, so much so that when we finally get down to it, we have a character that breaks it down for you, just like those good old mystery shows and their intrepid detectives when they pieced together all the random puzzle pieces.

I actually ended up at the end, really charmed by the Ruse, a film that manages to tell you up front that something is absolutely afoot, and then lean in on preconceived notions you may have going in, only to completely wipe the floor with them by the end. I’m sure there are some technical aspects other critics might not adore, that limited budgets struggle to work around. And, I’m still not convinced Steger gave a good performance, even if he might have been trying to thread the most impossible needle. I have to believe there are stronger actors who would have approached his role differently, thus adding to the cloud around the eventual end of The Ruse.

I wish, as a blind film critic, this film had audio description, which I’ve said of a few films this year coming from the independent lens. I’m clearly a fan of what I think is the most impressive suspenseful film I’ve seen this year. major directors and studios have already taken shots at this, and there’s a scrappiness to the quality of The Ruse, which almost dares you to underestimate its potential, all the while knowing it is sitting on a Royal Flush. The ruse never lost my attention, and even though there are some visual clues and cues I missed due to the lack of accessibility, I still found myself excited to be very wrong about this film. It’s a film that stands on the shoulders of Agatha Christie, but also is something I think she’d like quite a bit.

Fresh: 7.9/10