A new The Jenny Pen Rule The image offers a closer look at the horror film's terrifying puppet character. Jenny Pen follows elderly judge Stefan Mortensen (Pirates of the Caribbean and Finding Nemo star Geoffrey Rush) recovering from a stroke in a nursing home and being tormented by Dave Crealy (Dexter and Free star John Lithgow), who uses a puppet named Jenny Pen to torment his fellow retirees. Directed and co-written by James Ashcroft (Coming home in the dark), the film – which will debut on Shudder in 2025 – marks Geoffrey Rush's first film performance since 2019 Storm Boy.
TelaRant now you can share an exclusive first image of The Jenny Pen Rule. It features Jenny herself, who is a bald doll with wide eyes. She is seen from the side, apparently from the perspective of a character lying in bed. While it's unclear whether this is actually happening or whether it's a nightmare or fantasy sequence, the doll's eyes glow with fantastical menace. See the full-size image below:
Jenny Pen's Rule Is So Much More Than Just a Puppet Movie
It has many deeper and darker themes
While the titular doll from the 2025 horror film – which Stephen King called “one of the best films I saw this year” – it's scary, the trailer for The Jenny Pen Rule reveals that the story around it plays with some deeper themesgenerally based on the idea of aging. One is the idea that elderly men refuse to let go of their youth. For Lithgow's character, this manifests in a love of the game that turns sour, while for Rush's character it involves insisting that one day he will get better and return to work.
[The staff write] both his complaints and Dave Crealy's behavior as a result of his deteriorating mind…
Another of the film's darker themes is the idea that Stefan Mortensen apparently can't communicate his terror to the team in the nursing home. They don't take his concerns seriously, dismissing both his complaints and Dave Crealy's behavior as the result of deteriorating minds, in large part because the truth of the torment the former judge is going through seems so far-fetched.
Jenny Pen's rule is fantastic and mysterious
It seems like not everything in the movie is real
One thing that complicates Mortensen's terror in The Jenny Pen Rule it's the fact that it seems to draw certain elements from horror and fantasy films. Images like Jenny's glowing eyes and a sequence in which her giant face appears behind a smiling John Lithgow appear to be fantasies induced by her long-term torment rather than things that are literally happening. This probably sows doubts in the characterwhich makes the time he was terrorized by the doll and its owner even worse.