‘Ghoulish’ horror that even terrified its star John Lithgow coming to Amazon Prime

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A new horror film described as ‘ghoulish’ and ‘creepy’ even terrified its lead star John Lithgow.

The Rule of Jenny Pen sees the Harry Potter star in the role of Dave Crealy, a maniacal man living in a care home making other resident’s time there a misery, tormenting them with his trusty puppet Jenny Pen.

He meets his match when former judge Stefan Mortensen (Geoffrey Rush) arrives at the home to recover from a stroke, soon falling prey to Dave’s reign of terror and struggles to get the staff at the home to listen to his claims.

The film comes to UK cinemas on March 14 before landing on Shudder via Amazon Prime Video on March 28.

Lithgow, who was recently announced as Albus Dumbledore in the upcoming Harry Potter series, shared how even he was left scared by his new horror film.

‘I was scared to death of this. It scared me so much,’ he told Forbes.

John Lithgow as Dave Crealy in The Rule of Jenny Pen. He is sat in a chair holding a hand puppet to his face — The Rule of Jenny Pen even terrified lead star John Lithgow (Picture: Everett/REX/Shutterstock)

‘It was so extreme on the page. I thought it was an amazing piece of work, but it was a scary thing to contemplate until I spoke with James Ashcroft [director].

‘I give my manager, Tony Lipp, great credit because he said, “Stay with this. I think this guy has got something.”‘

It has received high praise from critics, with AV Club dubbing it ‘one of the creepiest, smartest horror films so far this year, and one won’t soon forget Jenny Pen’s haunting, hollow eyes.’

The Daily Beast said: ‘True cinema is John Lithgow terrorizing Geoffrey Rush in a nursing home with his creepy hand puppet.’

IndieWire wrote: ‘What begins as an atypical use of two beloved actors gets more messy than complex in The Rule of Jenny Pen. And yet, the undaunted director, Ashcroft, approaches his vision with palpable conviction.’

Movies Thru The Spectrum added: ‘Darkly funny and effusively creepy, The Rule of Jenny Pen is this generation’s What Ever Happened to Baby Jane, a campy horror thriller that ghoulishly reflects a real-world increasingly governed by deranged bullies demanding we lick their behinds.’

Geoffrey Rush as Stefan Mortensen in The Rule of Jenny Pen. He is sat in a room in front of a washing machine and appears scared — The film has been praised by critics (Picture: Everett/REX/Shutterstock)

In his interview with Forbes, Conclave star Lithgow explained how Ashcroft’s portrayal of retirement homes attracted him to the project.

‘It still creates that world more accurately than you’ve ever seen it before,’ the 3rd Rock From The Sun actor said.

‘Most of us who have passed the age of 50 or 60 know this world from what our parents went through, those of us who were lucky enough to have parents to live to be extremely old.

‘He gave me great confidence, and I felt that this was a project that I wanted to be a part of.’

He added: ‘There is one condition, and that is that there has got to be somebody fantastic playing the judge because this is a two-hander of major proportions, and they got Geoffrey.’

The Rule of Jenny Pen comes to UK cinemas on March 14 before being available to stream on Shudder via Amazon Prime Video on March 28.

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