As he’s gotten older, John Lithgow has played so many kindly characters it’s easy to forget how good he can be at playing bad, as he’s done in Dexter and Cliffhanger. Following his strong performance as a shady Cardinal in Conclave, Lithgow returns for the psycholigcal horror film The Rule of Jenny Pen, in which he terrorizes residents at a retirement home.
The film is based on Owen Marshall’s short story, and directed by James Ashcroft who co-wrote the script with Eli Kent. Lithgow stars alongside Geoffrey Rush, another actor who we’re accustomed to rooting for but is also quite good at playing villains as he did in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.
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.
IFC Films and Shudder will release The Rule of Jenny Pen into theaters on March 7th.
