PLOT: Confined to a secluded rest home and trapped within his stroke-ridden body, a former Judge must stop an elderly psychopath who employs a child’s puppet to abuse the home’s residents with deadly consequences.
REVIEW: Jonathan Lithgow may just be the most versatile actor working today. He manages to be loveable goofballs and awful killers with an ease that inspires disbelief. He fully commits and has you believing whatever he wants. So it’s exciting to see him returning to the horror genre in The Rule of Jenny Pen, a film where he takes up the mantle of main villain. Because if there’s one thing that’s terrifying, it’s elderly abuse. But rather than focusing on that, and really getting under the viewers skin, this film is more interested in giving us creepy shots of a doll that go nowhere.
The Rule of Jenny Pen follows Judge Stefan Mortensen after he suffers a stroke in court. He’s shipped off to a rest home to recover. But while laid up, he notices that one of the other residents has been tormenting the others. He does so while carrying around a creepy hand puppet which he refers to as Jenny Pen. The immediate question becomes: is this supernatural? Is Crealy even in control of his own mind? Unfortunately, the doll is nothing more than a tool for creepiness and metaphor. This is simply a tale of elder abuse and the terrible things that human beings are capable of, which makes the doll element feel like a red herring.
There’s a great parallel between the pompous judge that Stefan was in life, with the feeble man who can’t even rely on his own mind in the nursing facility. Stefan has clearly been able to talk his way out of and around any event that he sees fit. But now, no one believes him, and he can hardly even trust his own faculties. The film certainly plays off of our fears about being placed into a retirement home and having all sense of free will taken away. Is that truly living? However, this is only focused on in a superficial way, with more time spent making the doll seem important. Thankfully, Geoffrey Rush is phenomenal in the role and give nuance to otherwise simple moments.
John Lithgow‘s performance as Dave Crealy is wonderfully maniacal. He’s managed to play some all time great villains and this may just be the most evil of them all. There are no redeemable qualities in Crealy and he truly evokes an intense desire to see him get his comeuppance. I can’t remember the last time I felt hatred for a character, and he continued to do despicable acts after despicable acts. From his crooked, yellow teeth to his hunched over posture, Lithgow really loses himself in the role. It made me wonder why they felt that he needed a creepy doll on his hand to further hammer home the point of his lunacy. It could have worked if they then didn’t go for absurdist imagery with it, undercutting the personality aspect.
While I really enjoyed the tormenting angle, as it really plays off of universal fears, the more abstract horror doesn’t really work here. There’s some montage that felt like it was added late in the process, just meant to give us some creepy imagery. After all this buildup with Crealy and the awful things he’s done to the old folks in this place, the story goes out with a bit of a whimper. The audience is robbed of a truly satisfying payoff and instead it simply feels like a joke without its punchline. I think this can sometimes happen with horror when its looked down upon.
While The Rule of Jenny Pen boasts some great performances from both Lithgow and Rush, it tries to do too much. Rather than focusing on the horrors of elderly abuse and this madman, there’s too much mystery around this stupid doll. The horror feels a bit plain and uninspired, relying more on silly tropes like a creepy doll and authority not listening to reason. I really enjoyed several elements of Jenny Pen and think there’s an awesome movie within the story, it’s just presented in a way that make it feel skippable.
THE RULE OF JENNY PEN IS IN THEATERS ON MARCH 7TH AND STREAMING ON SHUDDER ON MARCH 20TH, 2025.
