James Ashcroft’s tyrannical elder care horror story carries a psychological sting. The New Zealand filmmaker adapts Kiwi author Owen Marshall a second time after his debut Coming Residence within the Darkish, “Jenny Pen” a extra unlikely nightmare. Efficiency titans Geoffrey Rush and John Lithgow confront themes of bullying, manipulation, and energy struggles that echo relevance outdoors previous of us’ houses—however the setting stays distinctive. Ashcroft and co-writer Eli Kent script unsettling helplessness inside a facility the place residents ought to really feel cared for, instigating scrumptious chaos utilizing a plastic-headed child doll often called the menace Jenny Pen.
Rush stars because the honorable Choose Stefan Mortensen, who finds himself at Royal Pine Mews Care Residence after struggling a debilitating stroke. His roommate is famous rugby gunner Tony Garfield (George Henare), however Mortensen isn’t eager to make mates. He’s satisfied he’ll rehabilitate, then transfer again to the massive metropolis—lofty ambitions from somebody reliant on a wheelchair and missing half his physique’s important motor capabilities. To make issues worse, Mortensen learns the inhabitants has an antagonist: Lithgow’s Dave Crealy. The faking dementia affected person makes rounds every evening and torments residents, making them worship his garbage hand puppet. Both you settle for Jenny Pen as your god or endure Crealy’s wrath—which Mortensen invokes.
Coming Residence within the Darkish is about visceral and ugly violence; The Rule of Jenny Pen makes your pores and skin crawl. It’s the product of two veteran thespians squaring off in a battle of shambolic wits. Rush’s brash mind versus Lithgow’s perverse egomania. Each actors lose themselves to the wildness of nightly clashes as if the gated territory have been their playground. It’s the character of their interactions—Royal Pine seems like kindergarten. Crealy’s elaborate ruse mirrors a fibbing youngster who causes hurt when chaperones aren’t wanting, whereas Mortensen—the as soon as revered official—is made to look silly by Lithgow’s grasp puppeteer. Performances make it clear how previous canine nonetheless chew, exploiting the carelessness of senior look after chilling societal commentaries.
Cockneys Vs. Zombies and The Manor have introduced conventional horrors to nursing houses (zombies, the supernatural), however few filmmakers settle for the problem of older-age style tales. The Rule of Jenn Pen is the other, diving head-first into Royal Pine as a home of terrors. Crealy wanders round a ghost city at evening the place residents are plugged into screens and catheters, hanging an eerie vacancy. Matt Henley’s cinematography establishes Royal Pine as a haunted home, with Crealy as its midnight specter. What Crealy will get away with is diabolical, whether or not Jenny’s crammed into Tony’s privates or Crealy makes use of his stolen keycard to affect sufferers whose minds have light. We frequently consider horror style “evils” as slasher villains who kill with a vengeance, however Crealy’s controlling behaviors aren’t any much less deviant. Ashcroft might choose a quiet locale for his movie, the place grannies knit and skim, however that doesn’t imply it’s missing any darkness or terribleness.
Instability is the movie’s language, delivered from Mortensen’s perspective. We “blip” as he dazes out, time-traveling by regressing thoughts fogs. Ashcroft permits his story to wobble off its axis, not often stopping any sense of calm (shades of Possum or Berberian Sound Studio). We presume to know what’s actual, as Crealy brags to Mortensen in personal about his mischievous defiance, however Mortensen is—at instances—an untrue narrator. Ashcroft permits insanity to unfold like an an infection by little particulars like gigantic Jenny Pen hallucinations or the tiniest change of her facial options. Crealy’s crooked tooth develop extra jagged, and his eyes a demonic blue as Mortensen’s keep progresses. What begins as a delusional energy play turns into a combat for survival, as Ashcroft cranks the warmth till the knob falls off.
The Rule of Jenny Pen showcases behind-the-camera command, glorious performances, and that horror has no age restrict. Geoffrey Rush performs wounded and cussed, whereas John Lithgow offers himself to the mocking malevolence of a nasty hand puppet. It’s a methodical model of fearfulness that isn’t about leap scares or unnatural forces, however that’s the purpose. James Ashcroft examines totalitarian meanness in locations the place it’s best to really feel probably the most protected: how one man can maintain a neighborhood hostage. That’s all it takes for dictatorships to breed—adopted by the act of braveness that’s required to steer a retaliatory revolution.
The Rule of Jenny Pen releases in theaters on March 7, 2025.
