The Rule of Jenny Pen: When Horror Fumbles Its Own Hype

I first heard about The Rule of Jenny Pen when the film was making its rounds on the festival circuit last year, and I’ve been dying to see it ever since. The premise sounded super intriguing, the movie features one of my favorite actors of all time, and to top it all off, Stephen King, arguably the biggest name in the horror genre today, gave the film his stamp of approval. That trifecta was more than enough to earn The Rule of Jenny Pen a spot near the top of my most-anticipated list, so I bought a ticket for opening weekend as soon as I got the chance. I couldn’t wait to find out if this movie lived up to the hype, and now that I’ve finally seen it for myself, I’m sad to report that it’s a huge disappointment.

The Rule of Jenny Pen was directed and co-written by James Ashcroft, and it stars John Lithgow and Geoffrey Rush. In the film, Stefan Mortensen is an elderly judge who enters a nursing home after suffering a stroke in the courtroom, and soon after he arrives, he realizes something isn’t quite right with the place.

One of the residents, a man named Dave Crealy, terrorizes his neighbors, but somehow, the home’s staff are completely oblivious to this guy’s mean streak. He puts on a facade of elderly senility whenever they’re around, but when they’re not watching, Dave turns into an absolute monster. As you can probably guess, he eventually sets his sights on the home’s newest patient, and since the staff won’t do anything about it, Stefan decides to take matters into his own hands.

I ended up not liking The Rule of Jenny Pen, but that doesn’t mean the whole movie was terrible. I actually quite enjoyed the first thirty minutes or so, and that was largely due to the two lead stars. Let’s begin with Geoffrey Rush. He plays Stefan, and he’s fantastic. His character is extremely bitter about his deteriorating condition, and he takes it out on the people around him. At his best, the man is merely apathetically aloof, but at his worst, he’s verbally abusive.

Geoffrey Rush completely sells the poor guy’s plight and his less-than-noble attitude about it, so you almost can’t help but have mixed feelings about him. Sure, Stefan isn’t exactly a likable protagonist, but you can’t really blame him for his less savory qualities. He’s lost a lot of his independence, and he probably feels like he’s lost much of his dignity as well, so you totally understand why he’s lashing out.

In fact, in the midst of everything The Rule of Jenny Pen does poorly, the best thing about this film just might be its unflinching examination of the abasement and humiliation the elderly often experience. For instance, when Stefan gets bathed, you can see the shame and dejection in his face, and when he tries to report Dave for the man’s horrific behavior, the staff pretty much just ignore him and assume he’s going senile.

Those are only a couple of examples, but The Rule of Jenny Pen features a number of similarly heartbreaking moments. The movie can be a bit tough to watch at times, but it’s important that we see the indignities the elderly have to face. We can’t treat them with the love and respect they deserve if we don’t understand their struggles, and this film does a fairly good job of shedding light on the crosses they’re often forced to bear.

Getting back to the lead performances, John Lithgow plays Dave, and he’s not given quite as much to do as his costar. As I said earlier, his character feigns senility much of the time, so Lithgow doesn’t always have to show off his world-class acting chops. But don’t worry, there are plenty of times when the script calls for him to be more than just a decrepit old man, and when it does, he’s excellent.

He pulls off mysteriously creepy and full-on psycho with equal aplomb, so he turns many of his scenes into genuine nightmares. Granted, the score and the camerawork do their fair share as well, but Lithgow’s performance takes the early horror in The Rule of Jenny Pen to another level. He makes it an incredibly atmospheric slow burn that will have you dying to know what this guy’s deal is, so for about the first thirty minutes or so of this movie, I was totally on board.

But as the story wore on, my patience began to wear thin. Dave’s odious antics eventually make him feel more like a high school bully than a legit horror villain, so after a while, I just couldn’t take him seriously anymore. I kept waiting for him to reveal a larger plan or a darker force behind his actions, but that moment never came. This guy is nothing more than an eighty-year-old schoolyard menace, and there are even a few scenes where he asks his victims “Who rules?” and forces them to say “Jenny Pen” and lick the back of his wrist.

See, Jenny Pen is a hand puppet he constantly wears, and the back of his wrist is supposed to be the puppet’s backside. It’s an incredibly juvenile way of showing his dominance over his neighbors, so every time Dave did this, I couldn’t help but think of the famous Billy Madison line “O’Doyle rules!”

I don’t know about you, but I don’t find the idea of a nursing home bully very interesting, so as much as I love Stephen King, I have to disagree with him on this one. Sure, The Rule of Jenny Pen starts strong, but the film quickly runs its promising premise straight into the ground. It ends up being a huge nothingburger, so unless you absolutely have to see this movie for yourself, I strongly suggest giving it a pass.