The Rule Of Jenny Pen (2025)

Set in New Zealand. After he suffers a stroke in his courtroom, a judge (Geoffrey Rush) is put in a nursing facility to recuperate. However, the facility's residents are being terrorized by a psychotic bully (John Lithgow) with a plastic doll called Jenny Pen. Based on a short story by Owen Marshall and directed by James Ashcroft (COMING HOME IN THE DARK). Ugh! I'd heard some really positive things about this horror flick so I was hugely disappointed at how stupid it was! Lithgow's psycho ex-janitor isn't frightening at all, just tiresome and annoying. What kind of nursing home has no night staff and allows its residents to walk around freely all hours of the night and enter other patients' rooms? The film's poorly conceived screenplay allows Lithgow free reign at the nursing home and its staff only appear when the script needs them. For example, Lithgow terrorizes everyone in their TV room but only when Rush bops him with his cane then suddenly the staff come out of the woodwork. Lithgow is too over the top and campy to be taken seriously but not over the top or campy enough to be fun! With George Henare and Ian Mune.