‘Rule of Jenny Pen’ Lets Screen Icons Shine

John Lithgow has a tendency to nibble on scenery.

Or, in the case of “Cliffhanger,” devour it without mercy. He even admits as such.

Now, at 79, the actor has the perfect marriage of those impulses with “The Rule of Jenny Pen.” It’s a fiercely original tale where he’s joined by Oscar-winner Geoffrey Rush.

Together, they spin a morbid web of aging, loneliness and creepy hand puppets. “Pen” never works up into a genre lather, but the results are never less than engaging.

Judge Stefan Mortensen (Rush) suffers a massive stroke behind the bench as the story opens.

He’s deposited into a nursing home where workers strain to restore his mobility. Stefan is understandably glum, but his despair goes beyond the stroke’s aftermath.

He appears lonely, for starters. No one visits to brighten his mood. No flowers or cards adorn his bedside. He’s forced to share a room with a fellow patient (George Henare), an indignity he refuses to hide.

Worst of all, another patient haunts his room at night, dancing about with a silly puppet permanently affixed to his hand.

That’s Lithgow’s Dave Crealy, a senior with plenty of life left in his body. He’s a regular at the center, using his “Jenny Pen” puppet to sing songs and interrupt the lives of everyone in the facility.

He’s a first-class bully and no one will stand up to him, not even the center’s staff. And he uses Jenny Pen as his enforcer.

It’s scarier than it sounds.

How can Dave run around unchecked? It’s a question the film doesn’t fully address, although there are hints along the way. That’s more than enough to set this duel in motion.

Rush’s character is wholly convincing, from his arrogant mien to the stroke’s cruel side effects. He’s trapped in his body, unable to fend off Dave’s increasingly violent visits. Rush’s face conveys the depths of his misery and, later, horror.

The screenplay shrewdly lays out enough of Dave’s back story to justify his actions. Stefan’s plight offers a bleak mirror image of Dave’s pain.

One character might learn from the errors of his ways. The other chooses the very worst lessons from his past.

Fascinating.

Tonight at @GlobeCinema see the New Zealand horror THE RULE OF JENNY PEN as part of our Off the CUFF Series! Tickets are available online in advance and at the door.https://t.co/hHRJ3s0g8m pic.twitter.com/KvJgcEppob

— Calgary Underground Film (@CUFF) February 26, 2025

Director James Ashcroft (“Coming Home in the Dark”) uncorks morbid visuals from a stark setting. Jenny Pen becomes a larger-than-life presence, a horror movie tic teased out for maximum impact.

The puppet’s empty eyes are the embodiment of cruelty.

“Jenny Pen” isn’t a quick burn. The story is in no rush to get to the next adrenalized set piece, and the pacing can be problematic, even for a cagey genre yarn.

Lithgow’s performance is near-perfection. He’s older but no less vivid in his ability to create a monstrous figure, one whose devotion to cruelty is a work of brutal art.

The facility appears clean and moderately well run, but there’s a machine-like efficiency which offers another layer of unease. The indignities of aging are never far from the screen.

Two wonderful actors. A story we haven’t seen before. Direction that makes the most of its setting and themes. What’s not to relish about this “Rule?”

HiT or Miss: “The Rule of Jenny Pen” may be the year’s most original horror film, one aided and abetted by two actors at the top of their games.

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