An intense thriller told from a unique, elderly perspective, director and co-writer James Ashcroft’s The Rule of Jenny Pen is a deeply frightening and unnerving film for genre fans of all ages. That’s not just because it’s the story of elders who can’t fight back properly getting caught in the crosshairs of an equally aged psychopath, but because so much of the suspense within Ashcroft’s work arises from realistic fears of growing old and infirm. Bolstered by a trio of perfect performances from a triple threat of pros working at the top of their game, The Rule of Jenny Pen will get under the viewer’s skin and make them squirm with maximum discomfort.
Following a stroke that leaves him unsteady on his feet and requiring a wheelchair, Judge Stefan Mortensen (Geoffrey Rush) is forced to leave his home and move into Royal Pine Mews Care Home. The self-sufficient, brusque, and learned Stefan can’t stand the patronizing staff, the lack of autonomy, and his perpetually noisy roommate, former rugby star Tony Garfield (George Henare). Struggling with depression, but optimistic that he’ll be out of the rest home in due time, Stefan tries to keep his cool and count down the days to freedom. Unfortunately for him, Stefan catches the eye and ire of fellow resident Dave Crealy (John Lithgow), an outright psychopathic bully who parades around with an eyeless, creepy baby doll on his hand. Dave treats Stefan with unprovoked cruelty, but is arguably worse to poor Tony. None of the staff believe Stefan when he protests that Dave is making his fellow residents’ lives a living hell, and it becomes apparent that targets of bullying have simply clammed up for fear of reprisal. Never one to give in to bullies, Stefan decides to engage Dave in a battle of wills and wits to a potentially bitter end.
The Rule of Jenny Pen (adapted by Ashcroft and playwright Eli Kent from a short story by Owen Marshall) is already bleak and mournful before Lithgow’s villain shows up, depicting Stefan’s adjustment to life after a stroke in sorrowful, rich detail. Living in a care home, with all its various troubling, annoying, or obtrusive stimuli, requires a level of empathy and compassion that Stefan doesn’t possess. It’s not hard to see why Stefan doesn’t get along with his good egg of a roommate, and equally easy to see why he wouldn’t back down from a fight with someone as loathsome and annoying as Dave. As someone who doesn’t suffer fools easily, Stefan makes a perfect foil for Dave, who seems to have never met a challenge to terrorize someone that he didn’t like. It’s Grumpy Old Men taken to deadly extremes.
Horror is often a young person’s game, but with his second feature film New Zealander Ashcroft uses age to his utmost advantage. It’s one thing to tell a story about a school yard bully or an unstoppable slasher preying on teenagers, but the degree of suspenseful difficulty is changed when the villain is an unassuming looking old man that many staff members show empathy towards and the victims often aren’t in any shape to fight back. The fear of not being able to defend oneself from harm is palpable among the aged. Some of the residents are as mentally and physically vulnerable as young children. They are further frustrated and saddened by bullying and threats of physical and psychological violence because in their prime people like Stefan and Tony were physically and mentally capable of holding their own with someone like Dave. The horrors at the heart of The Rule of Jenny Pen go beyond a roaming psycho with a creepy looking doll.
Further to Ashcroft’s credit, The Rule of Jenny Pen doesn’t spell out every bit of character motivation for the audience. A lot of nicely used inference and hinting abounds, making for a more thoughtful kind of chiller. Once Dave’s past is revealed – in a rather low key manner – more questions are raised, but the answers aren’t necessary. The film has explained enough, and no further elaboration will help to understand Dave’s evil. No amount of profiling could ever provide and adequate excuse. He’s just a terrible person with a rich backstory looming at every turn.
And Lithgow absolutely kills it here, with Dave Crealy joining the ranks of some of the actor’s most memorable villainous turns in the likes of Cliffhanger, Raising Cain, Ricochet, and Blow Out. With dead-eyed pinpoint pupils, a raggedy grin, and an ear-splitting, hyena pitched laugh, Lithgow exudes menace and ill will at every turn. So few actors can play both pious nobility and stomach churning evil like Lithgow can, and The Rule of Jenny Pen will go down as one of his finest moments, even if the film only manages to be underrated or nothing more than a cult hit. A sequence where a frantic Dave has to drop the pretence of appearing pathetic and frail to undo a major screw up on his part includes some of his best wordless acting.
Rush provides a sometimes equally menacing adversary, and although the character lacks the physical ability to fight back against Dave, the actor portrays his stroke victim as someone strongly holding onto their razor sharp intellect. Scenes where Rush and Lithgow go tit-for-tat when it comes to torturing the other are pitch perfect. A lot of credit also has to go to Henare, who has almost as much to do as the leads, especially heading into the final act. The task of selling the ravages of aging and the fear that goes hand in hand with losing control of one’s body and mind fall mostly on the shoulders of Rush and Henare, with both bringing a lot of humanity to an otherwise cold, dark film.
Although quite of bit of The Rule of Jenny Pen is the sort of traditional paranoid thriller where the villain tries to make the protagonist look crazy, Ashcroft mounts all of his menace in a stately, actor friendly way. The banality of a sparsely decorated rest home has never looked as surreal and menacing as it does here, but it also never distracts from the fact that this is a character rich cat and mouse piece. It’s not surprising that this is birthed from a short story and co-written by someone with a stage background. There’s a reasoning to The Rule of Jenny Pen that’s just as bracing as the purposefully scary and shocking bits. If this doesn’t end up being one of the best horror films of the year, it would have to be the best year in the genre’s history.
The Rule of Jenny Pen opens in select theatres on Friday, March 7, 2025. It will be streaming on Shudder at a later date.
