The Rule of Jenny Pen (2025)

[BluBonnet]

Shudder Buys ‘The Rule of Jenny Pen,’ Thriller With John Lithgow and Geoffrey Rush

Shudder has acquired the rights to “The Rule of Jenny Pen,” a thriller about a stroke-ridden judge trying to stop an elderly psychopath that stars Oscar-nominee John Lithgow and Oscar-winner Geoffrey Rush. The film was directed by James Ashcroft, who co-wrote the screenplay with Eli Kent.

The deal covers distribution in North America, the U.K. and Ireland. Shudder is owned by AMC Networks and is a streaming service focused on horror, thriller and supernatural movies and shows. “The Rule of Jenny Pen” will have its world premiere at Fantastic Fest 2024 later this month, and will debut on the streamer in 2025.

Ashcroft made his feature debut with “Coming Home in the Dark,” which world premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Lithgow has appeared in such films as “Terms of Endearment,” “Cliffhanger” and “The World According to Garp.” On TV, he won Emmys for his work on “Dexter,” “Third Rock From the Sun” and “The Crown.” Rush won an Oscar for his performance in “Shine,” and also starred in “Quills” and “The King’s Speech.”

The film follows arrogant Judge Stefan Mortensen (Rush), who suffers a near-fatal stroke, leaving him partially paralyzed and confined to a retirement home. There, Mortensen clashes with a seemingly gentle resident named Dave Crealy (Lithgow) who is actually secretly terrorizing the home with a sadistic game called “The Rule of Jenny Pen” while wielding his dementia doll as an instrument of cruelty. When Mortensen’s pleas to the staff go unanswered, he takes it upon himself to put an end to Crealy’s reign of terror.

[BluBonnet]

In theaters March 7th

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Nk_EoUWaOo

[BluBonnet]

[Foggy]

Saw the poster for this and immediately dismissed it, caught the trailer on a whim and think it looks really fun. I’ll check it out once it hits Shudder.

[BluBonnet]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msFtdWr5Kqs

[Jennifer Lawrence Fan]

My theater is getting this on release date.

[Zivouhr]

Looks interesting. John Lithgow and Geoff Rush are good actors. Here in a senior retirement home it looks like, and then Lithgow's character might have some evil power.

Stephen King said it's the best film he's seen all year. Does he mean 2025?

Lithgow was at the Oscars 2025 and looked upset.

[Zivouhr]

Arrogant Judge Stefan Mortensen 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 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.

That synopsis (No spoilers) reminds me of Bubba Ho-Tep, where Bruce Campbell as an elderly Elvis Presley, lives in a nursing home and also has to deal with an evil lurking in the halls.

Jenny Pen is in theaters this weekend, competing with the new release of Mickey 17 and In the Bad Lands (Paul WS Anderson). This one has my interest but I do want to see the other two also another time.

[PhotonsBits]

Deadline has a positive review of it, enough so that I'm going to be checking it out.

https://deadline.com/2025/03/the-rul...me-1236313108/

[Zivouhr]

The movie brings the viewer right into some of the awkward routines of a senior living in a nursing home (in Australia in this film). It follows the Judge played by Rush, and wastes no time putting him into the Nursing home. The film in general, wastes no time with point A to B transitions many times. So a scene ends, and suddenly we're somewhere else, which works mostly but does omit some details that could've given the film a little more heart.

For example, a patient

[Show spoiler]dies, and the only clue that anyone even knew about it was a lock preventing that outside door from opening by patients. Otherwise, not a single word about their death and no opportunity for the patients or staff to address it at all.

I think that plays into the whole theme that these old folks are mostly expendable in how they feel about their situation and life sadly.

Rush is the main character that the story follows, but sometimes it'll put the viewer in the point of view of the villain, played well by the odd character by Lithgow.

The slower pacing actually makes sense for a movie about elderly patients, so I really can't complain about that.

For horror, this is a horror film, though I saw a review that said it's more of a drama. I'd say more horror as the music is horror themed for certain, and the Jenny Pen eyeless puppet doll appears gigantic to the victims about to meet their worst enemy again each night. It's not scary, but a mix of dry humor with horror.

I did laugh aloud a few times in the first quarter of the film. Then things get mostly serious after that with not much more humor. Everything made sense by the end I felt.

Good, slow paced elderly nursing home horror film about a long-time resident patient bully haunting the residents and going over the line many times. The staff

[Show spoiler] is truly the real enemy here in this film, leaving him unchecked for the whole film. No accountability.

I'd say for what the intent of The Rule of Jenny Pen was as a horror film, it achieves that goal nicely. Good movie. 4/5

Scares? Not really.
Creepy imagery: Yes
Evil Doll: Sort of, yes. Especially the surreal aspects of it at night.
Good theme to the horror: Yes
Pacing? Slower paced but picks up towards the end. Matches the theme.
Story: Good story. I was interested in how it ends.
Acting: Good but nothing too pressing for their roles. Mostly low-key, tired people at the end of their days acting.
Theme: A film about the abuse of power and standing up to it with what little power one might have.

Originally Posted by PhotonsBits

Deadline has a positive review of it, enough so that I'm going to be checking it out.

https://deadline.com/2025/03/the-rul...me-1236313108/

Cool, good to hear.
I saw it and liked it.
I thought for sure no one else in this forum was going to see it as this thread has next to no interest for a new film in theaters today.

[therealjondoe]

This was great
Both actors knocked it out of the park
Shudder has another one

[Zivouhr]

There are similarities to One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. A Cure for Wellness is much different though, even though it's also set in a place for the mentally ill.

Here though, their are some patients of this nursing home with depleting mental resources, which often happens with age. One lady thinks her family is going to show up every time we see her talking.

SPOILER:
What is really interesting is how each death

[Show spoiler] is never followed up on afterwards unless you spot a subtle clue, like the lock on the gate outdoors for one of the deaths. The fire death, no follow up on that from what I could tell, but it seems to have happened and wasn't imagination as the cat confirms it by having been a witness while watching out the window. In other words, we see people dying. Okay, there was a follow up on one death, where they wheeled the guy out of the room afterwards.
Interesting because there is no closure on some death to confirm it really happened and wasn't part of his imagination. I think all the deaths in the film were real, none imagined.

Originally Posted by therealjondoe

This was great
Both actors knocked it out of the park
Shudder has another one

Cool that you saw it too. I didn't realize it was from the Shudder channel (which I don't have) till the movie started and the Shudder logo appears.

[Cherokee Jack]

Worth a watch for Rush and Lithgow alone. Lithgow plays a great creep, which is not news if you’ve seen him do this kind of material before, but it was especially fun seeing him go full crazy here. At one point he basically channels O’Toole’s performance from The Ruling Class. Rush’s character is a bit more one note, but I’m always impressed when an actor manages to humanize a nasty prick character.

There’s a good amount of conventional horror in this (and it’s all done quite serviceably) but the real horror on display is basically this:

[Zivouhr]

I thought when Rush as a patient was forced to sit in the audience to watch people sing and dance, that was funny. He was very grumpy and it wasn't something he would partake in normally.

The movie uses earlier clues to pay off later in the film with the characters and choices.

With elderly age, I read 50% of people end up with some degree of dementia, which is the brain depleting in memory and reason to do routines if I have that right. With dementia, hallucinations are also possible I hear. I wonder if that explains some of the surrealism we see in the film, or if that was mostly symbolic of evil intent from the doll and puppet master. It's left open ended to interpretation.

I hear reading books that use imagination, solving complex puzzles, staying active and eating broccoli and oils can help reduce the chances of dementia along with plenty of water. Alzheimer's is very similar, but no cure either.

[DKLou]

Might catch this on some streaming service, depending on which one gets it. Looks decent enough.

[Steedeel]

Shudder means a UK Blu release is unlikely.

[Zivouhr]

Originally Posted by DKLou

Might catch this on some streaming service, depending on which one gets it. Looks decent enough.

Yeah, the two leads bring enough personality to the film to make it worth a watch for this light horror film.

Originally Posted by Steedeel

Shudder means a IK Blu release is unlikely.

Thanks. I haven't kept track of Shudder releases but sounds like they hoard all their stuff to streaming only.

[The Great Owl]

Four stars

After suffering from a stroke, Stefan, a judge played by Geoffrey Rush, is wheelchair-bound and confined to a rural nursing home. As he grapples to come to terms with his deteriorating condition, a predicament that is already traumatic in its own right, he finds himself at the mercy of another elderly resident, a psychopath played by John Lithgow, who visits fellow patients in the night hours and commits sadistic acts against them with the use of a puppet doll whom he calls Jenny Pen. When his efforts to alert the caretakers prove futile, Stefan must rely on his own devices to battle his tormentor.

The 2024 New Zealand psychological horror film, The Rule of Jenny Pen, directed by James Ashcroft, suffers from an overly long run time and from uneven brushes with surrealism, but it nonetheless maintains a highly unsettling momentum simply by way of addressing the common fear that we the viewers have of losing our own physical and mental facilities. The subject of elder abuse is one that touches a nerve with all of us, because of the notion that we may all inevitably end up in a state of being where we are unable to defend ourselves.

As a 53 year-old man who is unmarried with no children, I ponder, with increasing frequency, the prospect of being alone during my so-called golden years with nobody in my corner. I have told a couple friends, only half-jokingly, that, when I turn 72, I plan to find a tall cliff and pull a Midsommar. I have to remind myself that, while getting old sucks, it is still better than the alternative.

The showdown of wits between Rush and Lithgow is its own reward here. Rush excels as a character who, quite understandably, lashes out in bitterness against the universe due to the tragically unexpected turn that his health had taken. Lithgow, in the type of menacing role that he was born to play, often commands the proceedings with just a wordless scowl on his face.

[Gmamalis6]

One of John Lithgow's most sinister performances after Raising Cain and Dexter. It's Stephen King's Misery meets Magic with Anthony Hopkins.

[Phibes]

On Shudder on March 28th.