James Ashcroft’s debut Coming Home in The Dark (2021) is one of our bleakest contemporary thrillers and his sophomore feature The Rule of Jenny Pen (2025) is equally as dark. When it isn’t lingering in the frailty of the elderly or the sad reality of those same people being abandoned by their loved ones, it’s chock full of psychological & physical abuse at the hands of genuine madman. But don’t let that scare you away! The Rule of Jenny Pen is a brilliantly deranged slice of cinema with one hell of a scumbag for a villain.
Ashcroft and his writing partner have a real knack for bringing author Owen Marshall’s deliciously sadistic antagonists to life (Marshall being the original writer of the short stories which Ashcroft’s two features are based). John Lithgow, no slouch in the pantheon of evil bastards delivers a wickedly wacky performance as a retirement home predator (honestly, terrorist might be more fitting), tormenting his fellow residents indiscriminately. Daniel Gillies’ Mandrake in Coming Home in The Dark is a black hole of a human being but Lithgow’s Dave Crealy is a viciously unpredictable hyena in the cardigan. And as Geoffery Rush’s wheelchair bound Stefan Mortensen declares, “When there are no lions, the hyenas rule”.
“A brilliantly deranged slice of cinema with one hell of a scumbag for a villain”
Rush’s Stefan is recovering from a stroke that knocked him right out of his judge’s bench and straight into to a nursing home wheelchair. To hear him say it, he’s only in the home temporarily while he recovers but as his condition worsens, there’s a very real fear that this might be where he spends the rest of his days. An unfortunate but not awful fate…if it weren’t for Crealy, whose made it his mission late in life to terrorize the residents at night with a puppet, like he’s some kind of demented Batman villain. The staff think Crealy is just some harmless old coot with dementia, but everyone else knows to steer clear of him and his puppet “Jenny Pen” lest they becomes to newest targets in his sick game.
It’s been a minute since we’ve last seen John Lithgow go fully baddy, and his performance as Crealy is as disturbing as his turns in Ricochet (1991) or Blow Out (1981), not to mention Dexter (2009). The blue contact lenses he’s asked to wear throughout the film are a bit of a choice but beyond that he’s a callous and cruel menace, like an evil troll that’s been let loose on the world. Lithgow absolutely relishes in the maniacal insanity of this character, and if he wasn’t so unapologetically wicked, you’d practically be cheering for him and that fiendish little puppet of his. Lithgow is sure to get all the headlines but it’s Geoffrey Rush (House on Haunted Hill) and his supporting star George Henare (Once Were Warriors) who really bring the whole story home. Naturally, they are our Forces of Good, but the complexity and vulnerability of their characters is carried by each actor like a lifetime of overpacked luggage in every pained expression.
The Rule of Jenny Pen is a wild ride. Somehow, despite a monstrous villain that yanks on catheter tubes and leads dementia patients to their doom, the most unnerving aspects of the movie are how the elderly are dismissed, and how something as simple as a bath can be a death sentence. John Lithgow’s Dave Crealy (practically a John Waters character on bad acid) is a chaotic evil we haven’t seen the actor embody in far too long, and he absolutely kills.
Director James Ashcroft is quickly becoming one of the most trusted names in the psychological thriller game, batting 1000 in the Lets F*ck Up The Audience Arena. Shot brilliantly by cinematographer and frequent Matt Healy, The Rule of Jenny Pen is an eye-popper of a film and has an oppressively grim atmosphere that feels like a living nightmare in substance and in spirit. Which is to say, this one is going to punch you right in the throat if you have any elderly family members in retirement homes…or if you’ve been pushing down those dark thoughts about what your own twilight years are going to look like.
“Lithgow absolutely relishes in the maniacal insanity of his character […] a chaotic evil we haven’t seen the actor embody in far too long”
James Ashcroft’s The Rule of Jenny Pen, from IFC Films, hits theatres March 7. Let us know what you thought of this twisted tale (and what you’re evil puppet would look like if you were a psychotic retirement home villain) over in the Official Nightmare on Film Street Discord. Social Media is a cesspool. Come chat with the cool creeps.
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