Aotearoa director James Ashcroft made a splash with his debut, 2021 psychological thriller Coming Home in the Dark. Now we get to see his follow-up, the Stephen King-approved The Rule of Jenny Pen. It’s another NZ-set thriller, taking place in an aged care facility in which the film’s international stars John Lithgow and Geoffrey Rush join many familiar homegrown faces.
Seen from the perspective of Rush’s character Stefan Mortensen, a judge who’s suffering debilitating strokes, it’s a story that sees the inhabitants of generic Aotearoa rest home tormented by bullies in their midst—the sadistic Crealy (Lithgow) and the puppet he wields (or is that vice versa?) Jenny Pen.
