Recovering from a stroke at an assisted living facility, a judge (Geoffrey Rush) encounters a psychopathic patient (John Lithgow) who uses a hand puppet to abuse fellow residents.

If hell on earth does it exist, then The Rule of Jenny Pen, clarifies that it likely can be found inside the beige corridors of a closed-off retirement home in New Zealand, where its sad residents deteriorate both mentally and physically at a glacial rate while being kept alive by the best in modern medicine, and suffering through it all in banal silence and despair. Injected into this environment is a good dose of Bosch-like madness, and filmmaker James Ashcroft uses this environment to keep his audience on edge and freaked out of their minds in this chilling psychological horror picture!

At its core, The Rule of Jenny Pen is a predator-versus-prey thriller, drenched in psychological trauma and grotesque power dynamics. It follows the terrifying ordeal of Judge Stefan Mortensen (Geoffrey Rush), a once-revered legal mind now trapped in the clutches of the deranged Dave Crealy (John Lithgow). Crealy, a man who has long since learned to manipulate the system to his benefit, lords over the residents with the help of his sinister puppet, ‘Jenny Pen’ — an entity as eerie as it is inexplicably powerful. The tension between these two powerhouse actors makes for a spellbinding game of cat and mouse, one that unfolds in shocking and unpredictable ways.

Ashcroft crafts a narrative that refuses to let audiences find their footing. The film seamlessly shifts between gut-wrenching horror and pitch-black comedy, keeping viewers on edge with every twist and turn. Just when you think you’ve figured it out, Ashcroft slams the brakes and veers into new, terrifying territory. This unpredictability is what makes The Rule of Jenny Pen such a standout in the modern horror landscape.

Of course, none of this would be possible without the phenomenal performances of its leads. John Lithgow is terrifyingly brilliant as Dave Crealy, embodying a presence that is both grotesque and hypnotic. He revels in his character’s perverse control over his fellow residents, making Crealy one of the most chilling horror antagonists in recent memory. Meanwhile, Geoffrey Rush brings his signature gravitas to Mortensen, portraying a man whose arrogance is shattered as he is forced into Crealy’s twisted game. The battle of wills between these two acting legends is nothing short of mesmerizing, elevating The Rule of Jenny Pen beyond standard horror fare into something truly special.

Ashcroft’s direction ensures that The Rule of Jenny Pen is not just a horror film — it’s an experience. This is the kind of psychological terror that seeps into your brain and lingers long after the credits roll. The film plays with expectations, never giving the audience a moment of respite, and by the time the final act arrives, viewers will find themselves completely immersed in its nightmarish world.

The Rule of Jenny Pen is not for the faint of heart. It’s a horror film that dares to be different, one that thrives on its discomfort and chaos. Ashcroft has crafted something truly special here, a film that is as disturbing as it is unforgettable, which is exactly what horror fans have been wanting!

Image: IFC Films

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Set in Paris in 1964, Final Portrait tells the story of the meeting between acclaimed writer James Lord (Hammer) and master painter Alberto Giacometti (Rush) and the long journey they both took together to craft a piece of remarkable artwork.

I must first say that I myself was unaware of the work of Giacometti when I first saw this film, but following it I research the artist in great depth. I was fascinated to learn of his story and of how he stunned the contemporary art world of the 1950s and 1960s with his extraordinary genius. Tucci is himself a lifelong admirer of Giacometti’s work and in watching this film you feel his passion for this story and the subject that it explores. With Final Portrait he dissect’s the intention and the madness of what it means to create, and how the idea of creation affects both the lives of the artist (Giacometti) and the subject (Lord).

Key to Final Portrait’s success is Tucci’s selection of his principal cast members, Geoffrey Rush and Armie Hammer. With Rush, he taps into Giacometti’s immense self-loathing that plagued the artist for the majority of his life, and the inadequacy that he felt as a creative. As Giacometti Rush is demanding, temperamental, standoffish, obsessive and depressive. Traits that are all with-in keeping with the real-life Giacometti, and while as an audience member I initially saw Rush, by the end of the film I was only seeing Giacometti. The actor’s performance is so good and is so far from Rush’s own general optimistic outlook on life that to not applaud him for his performance would be criminal.

Juxtaposing Rush’s self-loathing as Giacometti through all of this is Hammer’s portrayal of Lord, who while enamoured by Giacometti’s style begins to falter when he see’s how destructive the artist is in his life. But while it would be easy to see it as a depressing tale, Tucci provides the film with plenty of light-hearted moments, as well as the fascinating conversations that follow between Giacometti and Lord as they work together to create Lord’s portrait. Ultimately what Hammer’s Lord comes to understand is that all this anger and frustration is just a part of Giacometti’s process and that this frustration is driven by his desire to create extraordinary works, which the painter invariably did with Lord’s portrait.

While Final Portrait is essentially a character study of two artists and is not driven by action or movement, Tucci does ground his film in a superb setting. His production design, cinematography and costuming mimics the gorgeousness of the French New Wave. Think Chabrol, Truffaut and Godard, French masters of the art of cinema who created works that were completely elegant and packed out with sizzling style. From the inclusion of vintage cars to Hammer’s mod suits and skinny black ties, Final Portrait is packed out with details that will really resonate with film connoisseurs.

If you want to experience a deep meditation on what it means to be creative then Final Portrait is a film worth experiencing. It will make you ponder how you see forms of creativity, and will make you think about what art, and it’s expression, really means to you.

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