The Rule of Jenny Pen ★★★

IN 2021 an excellent horror/drama from New Zealand called Coming Home in the Dark was released.

It was writer/director James Ashcroft’s first feature and he has followed up in 2025 with something almost as good.

The Rule of Jenny Pen is from the same genre, based on a short story, and features excellent lead performances from two actors we don’t see enough – Geoffrey Rush and John Lithgow.

Rush, whom we last saw in the 2019 remake of Storm Boy, plays Judge Stefan Mortensen who winds up in a nursing home after having a stroke in court.

Currently confined to a wheelchair he is determined to eventually make it back to full health.

Mortensen is basically a snob and elitist who doesn’t want to socialise with anyone else. He is particularly angry about having to share a room with former rugby player Tony Garfield.

Lithgow, whom we saw more recently in last year’s hit Conclave, is long-term resident Dave Crealy who appears to have dementia and hangs out with a bunch of other residents playing with hand puppets.

But during the night Crealy is revealed to be a bully who prowls the rooms stealing and mentally and physically harassing the other residents.

After Mortensen openly challenges Crealy their dispute slowly elevates to become a deathly struggle.

Rush and Lithgow have a great time hamming it up in their parts, being called upon to become more and more physical and vicious as the story unfolds and tensions escalate.

A nice little dose of ‘gallows humour’ that is thoroughly enjoyable.

Watched on Apple TV.