The Rule of Jenny Pen

The Rule of Jenny Pen (2024)

Runtime: 102 minutes

Directed by: James Ashcroft

Starring: Geoffrey Rush, John Lithgow, George Henare, Ian Mune, Thomas Sainbury

From: Several different New Zealand companies

Well, this was an uncomfortable watch. The film concerns elder abuse, after all. I tuned into the one streaming channel on Shudder that plays content 24/7. A film was about to end & I was curious as to what would be next. This-a recent theatrical release-was that.

It’s a New Zealand film where Geoffrey Rush is a irritable judge who suffers a stroke and recovers in a bad nursing home where John Lithgow (yes, he uses a New Zealander accent) is crazed villain Dave Crealy who carries around a hollowed-out baby doll named Jenny Pen. The staff thinks Dave is a harmless old coot but he uses that doll to terrorize the other members of the nursing home, asking them to do something WTF to the doll among other upsetting behavior that humiliates them into submission. Dave isn’t quite as hilariously over the top as Lithgow’s Earl Talbot Blake was in the insane 1991 movie Ricochet… he still laughed like Max Cady in a movie theater while

The movie is not one I’ll view again; besides mistreatment of senior citizens being a difficult topic for many people, the horrors/fears of assisted living is a real-life fear for many, & Crealy’s behavior skeeved me out. I was also reminded of Mom being in hospice before she passed away, visiting my grandfather in a nursing home (he was stricken w/ Alzheimer’s), my aunt was in assisted living recovering from surgery and my grandmother was in a nursing home before she passed away at the age of 99… places like that I hope not to visit again anytime soon, although I’ll never know if Dad takes a turn for the worse—he’s fine now but you never know.

My trepidation of such places aside, Jenny Pen was an effective horror film which had no gore and only a few moments of strong cursing. The scares derived from the scenario and a lead who entered the location in a wheelchair and he physically/mentally deteriorated as this tyrant tormented all the other patients. What performances from Rush & Lithgow, along with George Henare, a former rugby player who roomed with our lead.

The Rule of Jenny Pen won’t be for all tastes; however, those that enjoy dark psychological horror films may find this to be of interest.