Arrogant Judge Stefan Mortensen (Geoffrey Rush) suffers a near-fatal stroke, leaving him partially paralysed and confined to a retirement home. Mortensen soon encounters another resident Dave Crealy (John Lithgow) who secretly terrorizes the home with a game called ‘The Rule of Jenny Pen’.
This psychological thriller is a pretty hard watch, not because it is bad, but because it is much more grounded than most horror movies. You can imagine yourself in Stefan’s position and that makes it quite uncomfortable viewing. Not that there are no plot holes. Although Dave tries to portray himself as harmless, permanently brandishing his hand puppet, Jenny Penn, and carries out most of his sadistic acts at night, away from prying eyes, he does do some brazen things, like physically assault a lot of residents during dance therapy, that strangely seems unnoticed. The complete lack of security cameras and the staff only turning up at opportune moments – missing Dave’s bullying and appearing when it looks like he is being victimised – stretches credibility.
However, both leads are impressively believable, with Lithgow creating one of the more chilling characters of recent years. Also, director and co-writer James Ashcroft conveys the parallels between how Dave creates fear amongst the residents and the terror of slowly encroaching dementia that a number of them are suffering from.
Rating: 6.5 out of 10