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5

What if Batman and The Joker were in the same old folks home.

1

I have absolutely no f*cking idea what I just watched….. but I think I liked it.

For starters, the vibes this film had were like nothing I’ve had before. That easily could’ve been because our cast were 70+ years old and the setting was in a nursing home the entire time, but like what even. I guess a couple words that come to mind when describing would be incredibly creepy, awkward, tense and just down right weird. 

The horror in this is also very different. You have a “villain” that’s not your typical villain. It’s almost like the bully you had in high school that now bullies everyone in their retirement home. John Lithgow plays this bully asshole, over the…

2

Looks like I’ll be bullied by a puppet when I get old. 👍🏼

2

Believable; comedic; dark; deranged; gross; horrifying; underdeveloped; well-acted; well-made.

7

Say all you want, but the real villains in this film are the officers—because where the hell are they? How could this crazy old man just come and go everywhere, do all of that for so long, without getting caught even once?! Are they all deadass??!! And every time they show up, it’s always at the wrong time. Let me just burn this place down once and for all.

—2025 Ranked

Review by Katie Walsh

hagsploitation for boys!

Review by B E R T ★★★★ Liked

What Ever Happened To Baby Jane? (Male Version)

6

Who rules?

Lithgow and Rush battle it out for assisted living supremacy and it’s so much fun. Lithgow doing high knees with a creepy ass hand puppet, tormenting the residents until they pledge fealty to said puppet (Jenny Pen), and then forcing them to “lick her asshole”—was not exactly what I was expecting for this flick, but I kind of loved it. And it’s one of those specifically weird things that I feel like has to be based on a true story, like an incident that actually happened to the screenwriter while visiting someone at a nursing home. Just the vibe I get. Fun flick. 

Degrees of Kevin Bacon: 1
1. John Lithgow and Kevin Bacon in Footloose

2

You get the general idea of this film’s tone during the establishing shot of John Lithgow laughing maniacally at a screen like DeNiro in Cape Fear.

That tone is “unsettling”.

It’s also dark, depressing, and sobering. As I’ve often said, the most real of all horrors is the horror of growing old. If we are fortunate enough to live that long, will we be disabled? Senile? Or worst of all… alone? This film explores these horrors in a very real way. And then there’s Lithgow, whose character might be the only one that’s truly “living” here.

Symbolism rears its head, and I think a simple poster shown briefly about how “we don’t stop playing because we get old, we get old because we stop playing” tells us something about the film’s intended message.

Never stop playing, my friends!

Review by ᴬⁿᵗʰᵒⁿʸ ★★★

I would’ve shoved that doll so far up his ass.🔥

4

Perfectly fine but could and definitely should have been far more. The plot itself is far too unexplained and reserved for my liking. It's still well made, acted and entertaining, but the idea that the entire danger or threat is just an old guy with a creepy doll and a god complex, who's apparently untouchable, just isn't as interesting as I'd liked it to have been.

Decent flick that does it's job, but that's all. I definitely would have liked it to have been a lot bolder and more memorable, or even scarier considering it's a horror.

| Mammappeeps Review |

| 2025 Ranked |
My Last Review: | Secrets & Lies |

Review by Matt Neglia ★★★ Liked

THE RULE OF JENNY PEN delivers a unique psychological horror story set within the confines of a care home, where John Lithgow gives a truly unsettling performance as a patient who terrorizes the other residents, with Geoffrey Rush’s character bearing the brunt of his twisted abuse. Director James Ashcroft has a strong vision for this bullying
story, which is unflinching in its horrific depiction of aging and the negligence of institutional care, elevated by two captivating performances from Lithgow and Rush. The only drawback is that it culminates too early and spins its wheels far longer than necessary.