Elder horror: ‘The Rule of Jenny Pen’ is a nightmare in the nursing home

John Lithgow is at his most menacing in this twisted tale of geriatric torment and terror.

By James Verniere/Boston Movie News

Not since “The Substance” have I seen a work as memorably nasty as “The Rule of Jenny Pen.” Set in New Zealand and co-produced by its two leads, John Lithgow and Geoffrey Rush, and directed by New Zealander James Ashcroft, co-writing with Eli Kent and venerable New Zealand author Owen Marshall, the film is a thriller about the Royal Pine Mews, a cursed nursing home. The curse comes mainly in the form of Dave Crealy (a terrifying Lithgow sporting dazzling, blue contact lenses), a resident who wanders the corridors and wings of the Mews at night, sporting a baby puppet with glowing eyes and little hands. Dave has named “her” Jenny Pen, and he uses the puppet to terrorize his victims. He forces them to say that “Jenny rules” and then makes them prove their devotion.

Dave becomes fixated on Stefan Mortensen (Rush), a once-proud District Court judge who, after a stroke, is now wheelchair-bound with a paralyzed arm and speech issues. Due to bad investments, the judge has ended up in this “shit hole” (as one patient describes the Mews). Meanwhile, Dave has been terrifying and torturing the judge’s roommate, Tony “Gunner” Garfield (New Zealand veteran George Henare), a former rugby player who is infirm and helpless before him.

Grim, right? And more than a little Grimm, as well. “The Rule of Jenny Pen” has the heft of a dark Kiwiland fairy tale with definite similarities to the Stephen King classic “The Shining.” The Mews is a double of sorts for King’s immortal Overlook Hotel. As you will see, Dave is a variation on a theme of King’s mad-driven, aspiring writer and bad daddy, Jack Torrance. With the help of a passkey, Dave has the run of the place, and he prowls at night, passing notable photos on the walls. In one sequence, Dave helps a confused woman resident, who thinks her family is coming to pick her up, to flee the Mews alone at night, where a big, bad wolf almost certainly awaits, if not a big mud puddle.

“The Rule of Jenny Pen,” which takes its place among such monster-doll movies as “Chucky,” “Annabelle,” “Child’s Play,” “Devil-Doll,” and more (although it is more realistic), will frighten older audiences more. Author Marshall is 84 and knows the terrain. The nursing home is a geriatric haunted house, where the residents resemble reanimated cadavers, an insane asylum for dementia-wracked elders, and a veritable pandemonium of disgusting noises: chomping, slurping, wailing, wheezing, farting, choking, and retching. One resident stands at the front counter, repeatedly ringing the bell (it tolls for us). The half-mad patients are just two steps from totally insane Dave. Judge Stefan likes to flaunt his education, quoting works such as Dylan Thomas’ death-haunted memory poem “Fern Hill.”

After playing killers in “The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai” (1984), “Raising Caine” (1992), and on TV’s “Dexter” (2009), Lithgow is blood-chilling as Dave. The evil that drives him allows Lithgow to do away with the niceties. Dave steals an old lady’s panties and candy and hides her dentures. He does a truly demonic jig, singing along to the 19th-century East End pub song “Knees Up Mother Brown.” Isn’t Schubert one of Stanley Kubrick’s favorite composers? Music supervisor Amine Ramer (“TV’s “Shantaram”) laminates the hellish tension. Dave is a freak of nature, not unlike the animals the patients like to watch in nature films. In “The Rule of Jenny Pen,” old people most fear the predator known as Time, which devours them all eventually, like Goya’s Saturn. Lithgow is touted to become the new Albus Dumbledore in an upcoming “Harry Potter” TV series. Does he have a scary doll or a calico familiar? This is the second Marshall short story adapted by director Ashcroft. “Coming Home in the Dark” (2021) was the first, a psychological thriller I plan to seek out.

‘The Rule of Jenny Pen’

Rating: R for violent content, including sexual assault and some language.

Cast: John Lithgow, Geoffrey Rush, George Henare

Director: James Ashcroft

Writer: Ashcroft, Eli Kent, Owen Marshall

Running Time: 1 hour, 43 minutes

Where to Watch: AMC Boston Common, AMC South Bay, AMC Braintree, AMC Liberty Tree Mall and others

Grade: A-