Official synopsis: Arrogant Judge Stefan Mortensen (Geoffrey Rush) suffers a near-fatal stroke, leaving him partially paralyzed and confined to a retirement home. Resistant to the staff and distant from his friendly roommate, Mortensen soon clashes with seemingly gentle resident Dave Crealy (John Lithgow) who secretly terrorizes the home with a sadistic game called “The Rule of Jenny Pen” while wielding his dementia doll as an instrument of cruelty. What begins as childish torment quickly escalates into far more sinister and disturbing incidents. When Mortensen’s pleas to the staff go unanswered, he takes it upon himself to put an end to Crealy’s reign of terror.
Director James Ashcroft’s The Rule of Jenny Pen (New Zealand, 2024) is a master class in acting from Geoffrey Rush as an arrogant judge who suffers a stroke and finds himself wheelchair bound and weak, and John Lithgow as a man who terrorizes the judge and all of the other residents of the nursing home where the pair reside. Their performances alone are reason enough to strongly recommend the film.
The Rule of Jenny Pen will hit hard to anyone who has ever had a loved one in a nursing home situation, and the scenes of lack of caring by staff members are as upsetting as the abuse and violence that Lithgow’s character Dave Crealy — titular dementia doll on hand — inflicts on the residents. Indeed, this film will make you think twice about committing relatives to such a place, and make you pensive about aging yourself.
Ashcroft delivers a truly unsettling film featuring a villain who you can’t wait to see get his. There are plenty of excellent horror films focusing on elderly characters and featuring older cast members, and The Rule of Jenny Pen is a gripping, disturbing addition to the subgenre.
The Rule of Jenny Pen, from IFC Films and Shudder, opened in theaters on March 7th and debuts on Shudder on March 28, 2025.
