Stephen King Thinks This Underseen 2024 Horror Movie Is One Of The 21st Century's Best

James Ashcroft's 2024 film "The Rule of Jenny Pen" is one of the more disturbing horror movies of recent vintage, but it's not particularly well-known. The movie stars Geoffrey Rush as Stefan Mortensen, a stern and bullying judge who suffers a stroke early in the story. To regain his physical faculties, the bitter Stefan goes to a care home for the elderly, a process he loathes. He hates his roommate Tony Garfield (George Henare) and is appalled by everyone else. Stefan is not a kind or open-minded person.

But he's a sight better than Dave Crealy (John Lithgow), another resident. Dave seems flustered and childlike in front of the home's staff, who regard him as harmlessly eccentric. He always wears a baby doll puppet on his hand, a doll he calls Jenny Pen. At night, though, Dave sneaks into the bedrooms of people who can't get out of bed and torments them. He insults them, throws urine on them, and forces them to lick Jenny Pen. Dave then points out that if his victims complain, he can just shift back into "clueless old man" mode and counter-accuse his victims of stealing, as he can easily plant stolen items on his infirm victims. He's a bully of the highest order, and it later comes to light that Dave has resided at the home for decades, having started as a staff janitor.

Dave is a legit supervillain, having made a home for himself in a place where he can be as cruel as he wants to all the befuddled residents he encounters. He knows exactly when and how to abuse the elderly. In a 2025 poll for The New York Times, Stephen King listed "The Rule of Jenny Pen" as one of the best movies of the 21st century so far.

To be sure, "The Rule of Jenny Pen" is an obscure choice, but Stephen King clearly wanted to make sure people paid attention. The other movies on his list are all widely acknowledged as modern stone cold classics, including Clint Eastwood's "Million Dollar Baby" and its fellow Best Picture Oscar-winners "The Departed," "Oppenheimer," and "No Country for Old Men," along with "Brokeback Mountain," "Black Hawk Down," "Children of Men," and "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" He also listed the Korean zombie thriller "Train to Busan," which has reached all the world's most fervent gorehounds by now.

In contrast, "The Rule of Jenny Pen" is mostly unknown. It barely got a theatrical release in the United States, but King was on its case right away. In a since-deleted 2024 post on X/Twitter, King wrote: 

"I watched one of the best movies I've seen this year. It's called 'THE RULE OF JENNY PEN,' and I urge you to watch it when it appears on Shudder. Geoffrey Rush stars, with John Lithgow as a geriatric psychopath with an evil hand puppet."

King, it should be noted, was born in 1947, right in between John Lithgow (1945) and Geoffrey Rush (1951). It's possible that he related to "The Rule of Jenny Pen" because it deals directly with the plight of people as they get older. A lot of the movie's horror comes from Stefan's body having betrayed him. His stroke leaves him unable to communicate, and his intelligence is now completely disregarded by the people around him. What's more, the phenomenon of senior citizens not being believed is all too real. If they claim they're being abused, a caretaker can simply write it off as early-onset dementia. 

What might strike a viewer hardest about "The Rule of Jenny Pen" is its overriding sense of sadness. There is an air of futility in the air, as any attempt to stand up to the Dave character — and the chilling Jenny Pen — fails. No one believes the elderly, and those who are not physically capable of defending themselves merely have to lay still and accept any humiliations visited upon them. What makes the film unnerving is its implication that anyone who lives long enough could be condemned to this fate, i.e. spending the final years of their life being tormented by a twisted old man who cackles as he makes us lick his puppet.

And to mitigate any suspicions: No, Jenny Pen never comes to life in the film. "The Rule of Jenny Pen" isn't a killer doll movie like "M3GAN." Dave is the real villain here, and John Lithgow gives a terrifyingly great performance as a grizzled monster — sporting creepy blue contact lenses — who has no urge to stop being a sadist. I shan't reveal how the film ends, but I will say that its conclusion does not feel as cathartic as you would hope. There is a moment of triumph, but it's sardonic at best. The movie is, overall, very bleak.

Most critics did like "The Rule of Jenny Pen," though, as evidenced by its 72% critical rating on Rotten Tomatoes. (I gave it a positive review, myself.) Mind you, no critic was so bold as to call it one of the best films of the 21st century the way Stephen King did, but it's certainly worth checking out.