By MICHAEL GINGOLD
With those two heavyweights in the leads, this is one of the year’s most anticipated fright features.
IFC Films will release THE RULE OF JENNY PEN exclusively to theaters March 7; it premiered at last year’s Fantastic Fest, where it won Best Director and Best Actor awards. Directed by James Ashcroft and based, like Ashcroft’s previous COMING HOME IN THE DARK, on a short story by Owen Marshall, it was scripted by Eli Kent and Ashcroft and stars John Lithgow, Geoffrey Rush, George Henare, Nathaniel Lees, Thomas Sainbury, Ian Mune and Irene Wood. The synopsis: “Arrogant Judge Stefan Mortensen [Rush] suffers a near-fatal stroke, leaving him partially paralyzed and confined to a retirement home. Resistant to the staff and distant from his friendly roommate, Mortensen soon clashes with seemingly gentle resident Dave Crealy [Lithgow], who secretly terrorizes the home with a sadistic game called ‘The Rule of Jenny Pen’ while wielding his dementia doll as an instrument of cruelty. What begins as childish torment quickly escalates into far more sinister and disturbing incidents. When Mortensen’s pleas to the staff go unanswered, he takes it upon himself to put an end to Crealy’s reign of terror.”
