The philosopher Immanuel Kant once said, “out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made.” Arguably, then, old age warps us even further. This certainly seems to be the case at the Royal Pine Mews Care Home, the fictional New Zealand setting for much of “The Rule of Jenny Pen,” a new film from the director James Ashcroft.
Ashcroft, who adapted the film with Eli Kent from a short story by Owen Marshall, begins the tale with Geoffrey Rush as Stefan Mortenson, an imperious judge. He excoriates a young woman connected with a criminal case: “You’re not a victim here.” These words will come back to haunt him.
During his final ruling, he suffers a stroke, which lands him in Royal Pine Mews. While he’s partially paralyzed, he’s still mentally sharp enough to be able to correct a fellow patient who misquotes Shelley’s poem “Ozymandias.” But he’s not quite prepared to handle another patient, Dave Crealy (played by a purposefully twitchy John Lithgow), who intimidates Stefan and other patients with the help of a puppet he’s made out of a baby doll (from which, among other things, he’s removed the eyes, to make it even more creepy) that he calls Jenny Pen.
Ashcroft’s prior feature, “Coming Home in the Dark” (2021), was a relentlessly discomforting and ultimately harrowing tale of a family vacation gone wrong. With this film he expands his palette, serving up a double dose of horror: Crealy’s torture of Stefan, and Stefan’s seemingly inexorable mental deterioration. The director remains near-merciless in his approach, never shying away from showing his vulnerable characters (and the tormentor played with twisted relish by Lithgow is, ultimately, as unprotected as any of the others) in states of utter abjection.
The Rule of Jenny Pen
Rated R for themes, language, intense horror. Running time: 1 hour 43 minutes. In theaters.
