STORYLINE: An in-home caregiver fears for her life after being assigned to a mysterious elderly patient in a remote seaside home. (IMDb) 

  Not all horror films are huge blockbusters.  There are some really great independent features out there. The Innkeepers (2011),  The Witch (2014), and Hereditary (2018) come immediately to mind. George Ronero’s Night of the Loving Dead (1968) and John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978) set the standard. The recent release The Ruse falls in the category of infy horror and is a middle of the road movie. 

  I appreiated the fact that The Ruse took a step away from the torture porn that used to dominate the genre, and relied on jump scares to scare its audience. Part of those scares came in the slow release of information  this aided in creating an eerie atmosphere that lasted throughout the majority if the film.

    Where the film lost me was in the closing ten minutes.  After the climax, The Ruse, drags out its epilogue to over explain the why and how of the film. This could have been done in half the tine presented and made for a tighter end to the feature.   

   Like most hirror films the creepy scenes Halle Ed either in the dark, in the rain, or both.  There is nothing wrong with that. The great horror films can scare audiences in the light as well as the dark.  While the imfanois shower scene in Psycho took l,ace at night the lights were ON, there were NO shadows. 

    The film was entertaining, not great. I enjoyed myself from my normal seat with my normal order from the snack bar. 

    Until next time I will see you at the movies!