News

Praised by Stephen King as “one of the best movies I’ve seen this year,” The Rule of Jenny Pen will be released on Blu-ray on July 8.

John Lithgow and Geoffrey Rush star in the New Zealand psychological horror film, currently streaming on Shudder.

Special Features:

Behind the Scenes of The Rule of Jenny Pen

Arrogant Judge Stefan Mortensen (Rush) suffers a near-fatal stroke, leaving him partially paralyzed and confined to a retirement home. Resistant to the staff and distant from his friendly roommate, Mortensen soon clashes with seemingly gentle resident Dave Crealy (Lithgow), who secretly terrorizes the home with a sadistic game called The Rule of Jenny Pen while wielding his dementia doll as an instrument of cruelty.

What begins as childish torment quickly escalates into far more sinister and disturbing incidents. When Mortensen’s pleas to the staff go unanswered, he takes it upon himself to put an...

Based on Owen Marshall’s short story, “The Rule of Jenny Pen” (2025) blends the evocative drama of its setting, which is life at an elder-care home, with the standard horror thrills of a dangerous killer on the loose. James Ashcroft, who also co-wrote the screenplay with Eli Kent, explores the pangs of aging without compromising classic horror tropes. And when you have Geoffrey Rush and John Lithgow magnificently raising hell, there is no option but to work wonderfully well as a film.

The Rule of Jenny Pen (2025) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:

Stefan Mortensen (Geoffrey Rush), a formidably strict judge, does not mince words when delivering his judgment. The film starts with Stefan berating a mother who could not protect her daughter from being molested. To Stefan, not standing up is culpable. Things take a sharp turn for Stefan as he suffers a stroke, rendering him paralyzed. The state enrolls him...

I love it when John Lithgow gets creepy.

News Story Title

Coming to Shudder this Friday, March 28th, is The Rule of Jenny Pen, starring John Lithgow and Geoffry Rush. I'm jazzed about this because I love when Lithgow gets all weird, creepy and dangerous like his roles in Dexter and arguably The Old Man. When someone who seems so loveable bares their teeth, it's always a good time.

The Rule of Jenny Pen was written by Eli Kent and James Ashcroft, who also directed.

Arrogant Judge Stefan Mortensen (Rush) suffers a near-fatal stroke, leaving him partially paralyzed and confined to a retirement home. Resistant to the staff and distant from his friendly roommate, Mortensen soon clashes with seemingly gentle resident Dave Crealy (Lithgow) who secretly terrorizes the home with a sadistic game called "The Rule of Jenny Pen” while wielding his dementia doll as an instrument of cruelty. What...

Welcome to IndieWire After Dark, where we pick a new theme for our midnight movie programming every month!

Join us on Friday nights (and special occasions!) to explore some of the strangest fringe films available at any hour in the Streaming Age.

The scariest puppet this side of the “Saw” franchise, Jenny Pen is an early frontrunner in the race for 2025’s favorite new horror icon. She’s the reason for the season and the inspiration behind this month’s IndieWire After Dark lineup — Two Midnight Movies (and a Muppet!) That Influenced “The Rule of Jenny Pen.”

A labor of love from filmmaker James Ashcroft, puppeteer Paul Lewis, and star actor John Lithgow, the titular prop drew on a slew of sources. The movie is based on a story by Owen Marshall, which was optioned by Ashcroft and his co-writer Eli Kent more than a decade ago, and it’s...

Dig deeper into Jenny Pen’s heritage with IndieWire After Dark! In March 2025, our weekly midnight movie club is revisiting three of the fringe film influences that inspired “The Rule of Jenny Pen.”

Where do babies come from? Under “The Rule of Jenny Pen,” the answer isn’t as simple as having unprotected sex or getting a visit from the stork. No, the brainchild of director James Ashcroft and puppeteer Paul Lewis has an especially complicated birth story and answers to more artistic parents than most.

Part David Lynch, part Muppet, the titular Jenny Pen debuted in theaters on March 7. She’s a Pisces who is laying early claim to the title of 2025’s favorite new horror icon, thanks to the midwives over at IFC Films and Shudder. (“The Rule of Jenny Pen” will stream exclusively on the horror platform and AMC+ starting on March 28.)

The centerpiece to a toxic...

Stars: John Lithgow, Geoffrey Rush, George Henare | Written by James Ashcroft, Eli Kent | Directed by James Ashcroft

Directed by James Ashcroft, chilling care home horror The Rule of Jenny Pen is adapted from a story by New Zealand author Owen Marshall. Co-written by Ashcroft and Eli Kent, it’s a terrifying tale of bullying and elder abuse that’s all the more frightening for its plausibility.

Geoffrey Rush stars as Stefan Mortensen, an elderly, cantankerous judge who has a devastating stroke while passing a verdict and ends up half-paralysed and confined to a care home. Already infuriated by having to share a room with former rugby star Tony Garfield (George Henare), Stefan’s problems only get worse when they are both terrorised by long-term patient Dave Crealy (John Lithgow), who is never seen without a baby-faced, hollow-eyed therapy puppet on his hand, named Jenny Pen.

Unfortunately, no one in the...

There’s a wave of new and intelligent life at the indie box office this weekend post-Academy Awards after the traditionally slow, slow period for new openings. There have been a smattering of interesting films (Universal Language for one) but things have absolutely picked up with a George R.R. Martin short story on screen, a nursing home creep-out starring John Lithgow and Geoffrey Rush, the latest Atom Egoyan film, a duo that landed really well at Cannes, a Bruno Dumont sci-fi, a Bruce Labruce sex romp, an Italian box office hit and more.

Moderate-wide: Vertical opens action fantasy In The Lost Lands on 1,365 screens as the distributor continues a push to dot its schedule with more moderate-wide releases. Directed by Paul W.S. Anderson and based on a George R.R. Martin short story of the same name, the pic stars Milla Jovovich, Dave Bautista and Arly Jover. Log line: A...

Whenever you get veteran stars on the level of John Lithgow and Geoffrey Rush in leading roles on screen, attention must be paid.

This teaming, and opportunity for Lithgow (79) and Rush (73) in an industry that doesn’t often offer this kind of chance for its veteran stars. is rare. But in director James Ashcroft’s creepy nursing home drama The Rule of Jenny Pen they get one and go for it with no brakes applied. It is deliriously delicious to watch, if sometimes difficult to digest.

Actually, it is almost impossible to see this film and not compare it to the swath of horror films offered to veteran golden age stars, well past their prime, in the 1960s with everything from Hush Hush Sweet Charlotte to Lady in a Cage, Dead Ringer, What’s The Matter With Helen? and on and on. But the movie that comes firmly to mind...

How often have you wanted to turn to a rude movie patron and yell “Will you shut the fuck up?”

John Lithgow does just that to his The Rule of Jenny Pen co-star Geoffrey Rush in a PSA for Alamo Drafthouse.

In the humorous clip below, Lithgow performs Shakespeare’s Richard II while Rush is a nuance to society who can’t stay off his phone in the theater.

Praised by Stephen King as “one of the best movies I’ve seen this year,” The Rule of Jenny Pen hits theaters this weekend from IFC Films.

A former judge (Rush), confined to a secluded rest home and trapped within his stroke-ridden body, must stop an elderly psychopath (Lithgow) who employs a child’s puppet to abuse the home’s residents with deadly consequences.

George Henare, Nathaniel Lees, Thomas Sainbury, and Ian Mune round out the cast.

The New Zealand production...

Editor’s Note: This review was originally published during Fantastic Fest 2024. IFC Films opens “The Rule of Jenny Pen” in select theaters Friday, March 7, with a Shudder premiere on March 28.

When recommended a beach-read by a roommate he doesn’t want, the academic Judge Stefan Mortensen (Geoffrey Rush) scoffs, “All those books say the same thing.”

10 years after Julianne Moore won her Oscar for “Still Alice,” moviegoers could argue something similar about an indie drama casting an elite actor as a dementia patient in rapid decline. Those audiences will be the least prepared for “The Rule of Jenny Pen” and may feel its singular wrath stronger than most. That’s an enviable position to be in for one of recent memory’s more unusual thrillers — even if its lack of narrative convention veers more vexing in the end.

Directed by James Ashcroft, this punishing dark genre blend acquired by Shudder...

James Ashcroft’s tyrannical elder care horror tale carries a psychological sting. The New Zealand filmmaker adapts Kiwi writer Owen Marshall a second time after his debut Coming Home in the Dark, “Jenny Pen” a more unlikely nightmare. Performance titans Geoffrey Rush and John Lithgow confront themes of bullying, manipulation, and power struggles that echo relevance outside old folks’ homes—but the setting remains unique. Ashcroft and co-writer Eli Kent script unsettling helplessness within a facility where residents should feel cared for, instigating delicious chaos using a plastic-headed baby doll known as the menace Jenny Pen.

Rush stars as the honorable Judge Stefan Mortensen, who finds himself at Royal Pine Mews Care Home after suffering a debilitating stroke. His roommate is legendary rugby gunner Tony Garfield (George Henare), but Mortensen isn’t keen to make friends. He’s convinced he’ll rehabilitate, then move back to the big city—lofty...

Three decades on from Brian De Palma’s gleefully unhinged psychological thriller Raising Cain, John Lithgow has once again found a cinematic role to showcase his panache for exuding deranged evil. New Zealand director James Ashcroft’s The Rule of Jenny Pen, following up his Sundance-selected Coming Home in the Dark, finds Lithgow as Dave Crealy, a nursing-home resident who delights in unleashing a torrent of psychological and physical torment against cohabitants of the facility, most notably newly arrived Stefan Mortensen (Geoffrey Rush). While loogies are hawked and bags of piss thrown about in the film’s more absurdly mounted sequences, Ashcroft is digging into the underbelly of such facilities as caretakers ignore genuine feelings for the geriatric in order to maintain the status quo of keeping people temporarily happy and sedated. While the result is a half-entertaining showcase for Lithgow, a satisfying point to this interminable deprivation never manages to emerge.

The namesake for James Ashcroft’s The Rule of Jenny Pen is a creepy hand puppet. Her eye sockets are empty, turning what’s otherwise a nondescript, cherubic face into something sinister. Adored by Dave Crealey (John Lithgow), she’s part of a therapy program in an elder care facility, but the therapy isn’t working, what with the man incorporating the doll into the physical and sexual abuse that he visits upon the other residents.

A more conventional film might have suggested haunted goings-on, obfuscating where Dave ends and Jenny Pen begins. But Ashcroft’s thriller, which he and co-writer Eli Kent adapted from Owen Marshall’s short story, is all Dave, and Lithgow is phenomenal as the aging psychopath. Throughout, the actor’s body language exudes violent entitlement whether Dave is greedily hunched over his mealtime sludge or yanking on a man’s catheter.

Though he’s at the opposite end of life,...

John Lithgow (Conclave) and Geoffrey Rush (Shine) are currently doing the press rounds for their psychological horror film The Rule of Jenny Pen, which will be getting a theatrical release, courtesy of IFC Films, on March 7th – and during their Jake’s Takes interview, they were asked for their thoughts on the horror films that were coming out when they were getting their careers started in the 1970s and ’80s. This allowed us to get some nice horror references from Lithgow and Rush, with my favorite moment being when Rush admits that the original Friday the 13th, released in 1980, gave him a panic attack when he saw it in the theatre!

Rush said, “Friday the 13th gave me an attack in the theatre. I had a serious panic attack watching that film. But I was more drawn towards Alien. Alien, when it came out, just came out of nowhere, and you went,...

The Rule Of Jenny Pen brings together a freaky doll, John Lithgow and Geoffrey Rush. Here’s a trailer to prove it.

Here’s a film that we didn’t know we needed until the trailer arrived. It also includes a contender for the scariest toy of 2025. The titular monkey from The Monkey and the robot kid from M3GAN 2.0 might have to settle for playing second and third fiddle to this strange creation, because it has a secret weapon up its tiny sleeve: John Lithgow.

The freakish puppet is set to be wielded by Lithgow to terrifying effect in The Rule Of Jenny Pen. The film will see Lithgow star opposite Geoffrey Rush and of course, the talented doll, (we don’t want to get on the wrong side of that monstrous creation!) in a single location psychological thriller.

Here’s the synopsis:

‘Confined to a secluded rest home...

John Lithgow plays an elderly care home tyrant out to drive an arrogant and partially paralyzed judge, played by Geoffrey Rush, insane in the official trailer for The Rule of Jenny Pen, which dropped Monday.

The psychological thriller from director James Ashcroft, set to hit theaters March 7, has Lithgow playing Dave Crealy, a retirement home resident out to terrorize fellow residents with a sadistic game called “The Rule of Jenny Pen,” which includes a dementia doll wielded as an instrument of cruelty.

“Who rules?” a creepy Crealy, doll in hand, at one point in the trailer asks a tormented Judge Stefan Mortensen (Rush), who is bed ridden after suffering a near-fatal stroke. But the teaser foreshadows Mortensen soon engaged in a deadly struggle with the care home bully after his pleas for help to staff go unheeded and he looks to end Crealy’s reign of terror.

The Rule of Jenny Pen,...

Last month, we heard that John Lithgow (Conclave) and Geoffrey Rush (Shine) star in a psychological horror film called The Rule of Jenny Pen, which will be getting a theatrical release, courtesy of IFC Films, on March 7th – and now, with the release date just a few weeks away, IFC Films has unveiled a trailer for the film! You can check it out in the embed above.

Directed by James Ashcroft, who made his feature directorial debut with the 2021 horror thriller Coming Home in the Dark, The Rule of Jenny Pen has the following synopsis: Arrogant Judge Stefan Mortensen (Rush) suffers a near-fatal stroke, leaving him partially paralyzed and confined to a retirement home. Resistant to the staff and distant from his friendly roommate, Mortensen soon clashes with seemingly gentle resident Dave Crealy (Lithgow) who secretly terrorizes the home with a sadistic game called “The Rule of Jenny Pen” while...

Unfriendly Friend Demo: "Hey. Dakota here.

I'm a high school student. My friends and I decided to explore St. Mercy Hospital, an old place abandoned for decades. Things got weird fast.

You can step into my shoes in this RPG adventure horror game.

Here's what you're in for:

My choices? They matter. A lot. And trust me, the consequences are... let's say "varied." This place? It's terrifying. Dark corners, weird noises, and everything about it screams danger. Puzzles. Because apparently being scared wasn't enough. We get to be scared And stuck. I'm carrying around more random junk than I'd like to admit. But hey, you never know when a rusty scalpel might save your life. Oh, and there are stories everywhere. In journals, on walls, in whispers. This hospital's got a lot to say.

Look, I'm not here to sell you on some epic adventure. This is my nightmare, and for some reason,...

Academy Award Nominee John Lithgow plays a psychopath armed with a creepy puppet who terrorizes a retirement home in The Rule of Jenny Pen, and the brand new trailer highlights his character’s unsettling menace.

The Rule of Jenny Pen releases in theaters on March 7, 2025.

Academy Award Winner Geoffrey Rush (Pirates of the Caribbean franchise) stars opposite Lithgow’s villain as the unlucky target of his ire.

In the film, “Arrogant Judge Stefan Mortensen (Rush) suffers a near-fatal stroke, leaving him partially paralyzed and confined to a retirement home. Resistant to the staff and distant from his friendly roommate, Mortensen soon clashes with seemingly gentle resident Dave Crealy (Lithgow), who secretly terrorizes the home with a sadistic game called “The Rule of Jenny Pen” while wielding his dementia doll as an instrument of cruelty. What begins as childish torment quickly escalates into far more sinister and disturbing incidents. When Mortensen...

We all get what’s coming in the end with the official poster for The Rule of Jenny Pen.

Praised by Stephen King as “one of the best movies I’ve seen this year,” the film hits theaters on March 7 from IFC Films and will stream on Shudder later this year.

Geoffrey Rush stars as a former judge, confined to a secluded rest home and trapped within his stroke-ridden body,who must stop an elderly psychopath, played by John Lithgow, who employs a child’s puppet to abuse the home’s residents with deadly consequences.

George Henare, Nathaniel Lees, Thomas Sainbury, and Ian Mune round out the cast.

The New Zealand production directed by James Ashcroft from a script he co-wrote with Eli Kent, based on the short story of the same name by Owen Marshall. The three creatives previously collaborated on Coming Home in the Dark.

Keep an eye...

This March looks to be another good month for horror, with the theatrical releases of the sci-fi horror thriller Ash and the horror comedy Death of a Unicorn. Also joining the March lineup is the horror flick The Rule of Jenny Pen, and IFC Films has released a new teaser trailer to get people talking and excited about the upcoming movie.

Coming from IFC Films and Shudder, The Rule of Jenny Pen premiered at Fantastic Fest in Austin, Texas, in September 2024, and was later screened at the Sitges Film Festival in Spain in October of that year. Now, it's about to be available for a wider audience with its U.S. theatrical release on Friday, March 7, 2025. Like many other movies, it's based on another piece of work. It's a feature adaptation of New Zealand author Owen Marshall's short story of the same name.

James Ashcroft co-wrote the screenplay with...

Lauded by Stephen King as "one of the best movies I've seen this year" in 2024, James Ashcroft's The Rule of Jenny Pen pits a former judge recovering from a stroke (Geoffrey Rush) against a sadistic resident with a creepy doll (John Lithgow) within the increasingly eerie confines of a retirement home. Ahead of its March 7th theatrical release via IFC Films and Shudder, we have a look at the unnerving teaser trailer for The Rule of Jenny Pen that warns that "we all get what's coming to us in the end."

Below, you can watch the teaser trailer for The Rule of Jenny Pen, and in case you missed it, read Rocco T. Thompson's Fantastic Fest review of the film!

Synopsis: Arrogant Judge Stefan Mortensen (Rush) suffers a near-fatal stroke, leaving him partially paralyzed and confined to a retirement home. Resistant to the staff and distant from his friendly roommate,...

Called “one of the best movies I’ve seen this year” by Stephen King last year, Shudder and IFC Films’ The Rule of Jenny Pen has released its first official teaser trailer this week.

The Rule of Jenny Pen is coming to theaters on March 7. The film will make its at-home debut on Shudder at a later date this year. While you wait, watch the teaser trailer below.

The teaser soaks you in the bizarre dread of the movie set inside an assisted living facility, introducing the characters played by Hollywood veterans John Lithgow and Geoffrey Rush.

In the film, “A former judge goes toe-to-toe with an elderly psychopath (John Lithgow) who is using a hand puppet to terrorize the residents at an assisted living facility.”

Here’s the full plot synopsis…

“Arrogant Judge Stefan Mortensen (Rush) suffers a near-fatal stroke, leaving him partially paralyzed and confined to a retirement home.

John Lithgow (Conclave) and Geoffrey Rush (Shine) star in the psychological horror film The Rule of Jenny Pen, which will be getting a theatrical release, courtesy of IFC Films, on March 7th – and with that date swiftly approaching, a batch of stills from the film have arrived online, and along with a teaser poster. You can take a look at the images here in this article.

Directed by James Ashcroft, who made his feature directorial debut with the 2021 horror thriller Coming Home in the Dark, The Rule of Jenny Pen has the following synopsis: Arrogant Judge Stefan Mortensen (Rush) suffers a near-fatal stroke, leaving him partially paralyzed and confined to a retirement home. Resistant to the staff and distant from his friendly roommate, Mortensen soon clashes with seemingly gentle resident Dave Crealy (Lithgow) who secretly terrorizes the home with a sadistic game called “The Rule of Jenny Pen” while wielding...

Praised by Stephen King last September as one of the best horror movies he saw last year, Shudder and IFC Films’ The Rule of Jenny Pen finally has a release date here in early 2025.

The Rule of Jenny Pen is coming to theaters on March 7. The film will make its at-home debut on Shudder at a later date this year. In the meantime, find the official poster below.

Stephen King summed up the movie in his own words last year by saying, “Geoffrey Rush stars, with John Lithgow as a geriatric psychopath with an evil hand puppet.”

In the film, “A former judge goes toe-to-toe with an elderly psychopath who is using a hand puppet to terrorize the residents at an assisted living facility.”

Directed by James Ashcroft and co-written by Eli Kent and Ashcroft, this year’s The Rule of Jenny Pen follows Ashcroft’s acclaimed feature debut Coming Home in the Dark.

When you purchase through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

If you are a horror fan then there is a big chance that you might have heard about the horror streaming service Shudder, and if you have its subscription you might be wondering what’s in store for you in December 2024. Don’t worry there is a host of new and old horror movies coming to the service in the upcoming month and we have listed the 10 best movies coming to Shudder in December 2024.

Coming Home in the Dark (December 1) Credit – MPI Media Group

Coming Home in the Dark is a psychological horror thriller film directed by James Ashcroft who also co-wrote the screenplay with Eli Kent. Based on the 1995 short story of the same name by Owen Marshall, the 2021 film follows a high-school teacher and his family on a road trip but they are soon captured by...

When Stephen King takes to Twitter to rave about a horror movie, horror fans across the world scramble to get their hands on it. The latest King-approved horror movie is titled The Rule of Jenny Pen, and while King wants you to watch it, that’s not actually possible… yet.

Stephen King took to Twitter this week to rave about The Rule of Jenny Pen, a psychological thriller that just premiered at Fantastic Fest last week. The good news? It’s coming to Shudder in 2025, with the streaming service just announcing the news a couple weeks back.

King tweets, “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.”

Check out King’s...

The seminal horror author Stephen King has become a go-to source for many when it comes to upcoming movies to get excited about. And the writer behind the likes of The Shining and It has now hyped-up a movie in the horror genre, taking to social media to urge audiences to watch The Rule of Jenny Pen (2024) when it lands on the streaming platform Shudder in 2025. King even calls the thriller one of the best movies hes seen this year, with this tale of a judge who, after being confined to a retirement home following a stroke, must stop an elderly psychopath who uses a child's puppet to terrorize the other residents. See what King had to say about The Rule of Jenny Pen below.

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.

Horror has always had an issue with old people. The genre tends to view the geriatric body as an object of fear rather than tackling the realities of the aging process itself in all its complexity. For every Relic (2020), a film that treats the ravages of time and decay with respect, there’s The Front Room (2024), a horror yarn predicated on the seemingly acceptable prejudice that old people are just plain scary and gross. But James Ashcroft’s Fantastic Fest opener, The Rule of Jenny Pen, is the all-too-rare horror thriller that treats aging with all the dignity it deserves without ignoring the abject, all too relatable terror of losing yourself to the relentless march of time.

The film opens with Judge Stefan Mortensen (Geoffrey Rush) suffering a public stroke as he’s handing down a sentence. Humiliated, but in need of rehabilitation, he checks into Royale Pine Mews, an...

Shudder has announced today that they’ve acquired the rights to psychological thriller The Rule of Jenny Pen, directed by James Ashcroft and co-written by Eli Kent and Ashcroft, and starring John Lithgow and Geoffrey Rush.

The rights will cover North America, UK and Ireland. The Rule of Jenny Pen will world premiere at Fantastic Fest 2024 later this month, and will debut on the streamer in 2025.

The film follows “arrogant Judge Stefan Mortensen (Rush), who suffers a near-fatal stroke, leaving him partially paralyzed and confined to a retirement home. Resistant to the staff and distant from his friendly roommate, Mortensen soon clashes with seemingly gentle resident Dave Crealy (Lithgow) who secretly terrorizes the home with a sadistic game called “The Rule of Jenny Pen” while wielding his dementia doll as an instrument of cruelty. What begins as childish torment quickly escalates into far more sinister and disturbing incidents. When Mortensen...

Shudder has acquired the rights to “The Rule of Jenny Pen,” a thriller about a stroke-ridden judge trying to stop an elderly psychopath that stars Oscar-nominee John Lithgow and Oscar-winner Geoffrey Rush. The film was directed by James Ashcroft, who co-wrote the screenplay with Eli Kent.

The deal covers distribution in North America, the U.K. and Ireland. Shudder is owned by AMC Networks and is a streaming service focused on horror, thriller and supernatural movies and shows. “The Rule of Jenny Pen” will have its world premiere at Fantastic Fest 2024 later this month, and will debut on the streamer in 2025.

Ashcroft made his feature debut with “Coming Home in the Dark,” which world premiered at the Sundance Film Festival. Lithgow has appeared in such films as “Terms of Endearment,” “Cliffhanger” and “The World According to Garp.” On TV, he won Emmys for his work on “Dexter,” “Third Rock From the Sun” and “The Crown.

Occasionally a film comes along where both the writing and the acting strike such a magical chord that you lose yourself in the sublime beauty of the movie and the performance. Millie Lies Low is one of those films, and Ana Scotney as its titular character turns in one of the most refreshing performances to hit the screen this year. Director Michelle Savill, who also co-wrote the film with Eli Kent, culls from her own personal experience to serve up the character of Millie in great fashion. If Millie seems familiar, that’s because she’s somebody we all can relate to.

The plot is relatively straightforward: Girl gets in a mess. Girl braves that mess. Girl tries to get out of that mess. Follow along. Millie has a panic attack on an airplane at the Wellington airport and disembarks before the flight takes off to New York City. Bad move.

What a joy it is to come across great talent. In that respect, this very well may be a breakout year for filmmaker Michelle Savill. The New Zealand writer/director’s debut comedy/drama, Millie Lies Low, garnered plenty of attention on the festival circuit. The story, based on her own experience, tracks Millie, a would-be architect (Ana Scotney), whose bout with anxiety finds her morphing into a social-media bragger. Millie resorts to posting fake content until she figures out her life, which is suddenly in free fall. That may be so 21st century, but Savill’s keen insights into the human condition and impact of anxiety creates a compelling and charming tale worthy of our attention.

“A lot of my work, like this film, is inspired by personal experiences,” shared Savill. “I was heading to a festival in France for a short film I’d made, Ellen Is Leaving.

It is New Zealand-based Māori filmmaker James Ashcroft’s second feature following his debut.

Geoffrey Rush and John Lithgow are set to star in James Ashcroft’s thriller The Rule Of Jenny Pen, based on the short story by New Zealand author Owen Marshall, that will shoot later this year. Charades is handling international sales and CAA Media Finance domestic rights.

Set within the confines of a aged care facility, Rush stars as a conceited judge who suffers a near fatal stroke that sees him placed in convalescence where he refuses to cooperate with the facility’s staff or communicate with his roommate.

Millie Lies Low Review — Millie Lies Low (2021) Film Review from the 29th Annual South by Southwest Film Festival, a movie directed by Michelle Savill, written by Michelle Savill and Eli Kent, and starring Ana Scotney, Rachel House, Sam Cotton, Jillian Nguyen, and Chris Alosio. No one can fully anticipate how they might react [...]

Continue reading: Film Review: Millie Lies Low: Story Ending Goes Flat After Karma Goes Haywire [SXSW 2022]...

Millie Lies Low SXSW Film Festival Narrative Spotlight Section Reviewed for Shockya.com by Abe Friedtanzer Director: Michelle Savill Writer: Michelle Savill, Eli Kent Cast: Ana Scotney, Rachel House, Sam Cotton, Jillian Nguyen, Chris Alosio Screened at: SXSW Film Festival Online, LA, 3/16/22 Opens: March 13th, 2022 Everyone experiences disappointments in their lives. The impact of […]

The post SXSW 2022: Millie Lies Low Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

Stars: Daniel Gillies, Matthias Luafatu, Miriama McDowell, Erik Thomson, Billy Paratene, Frankie Paratene, Alan Palmer | Written by James Ashcroft, Eli Kent | Directed by James Ashcroft

From Black Sheep to Deathgasm to Housebound, New Zealand has a pretty good relationship with horror, even if it leans towards the comedy side sometimes (this is no bad thing of course!) but Coming Home In The Dark is anything but a comedy movie.

It doesn’t take long to realise this either as the opening scenes show two guys come across a family in the beautiful but scarcely populated New Zealand wilderness. These two guys aren’t very nice people and are soon taking the family on a terrifying road trip.

Coming Home In The Dark is brutally violent but you’ll never numb to this violence. It isn’t plastered across every minute of the movie, there’s meaning, thought and reasoning behind each and every hit.

Coming Home In The Dark Directed by James Ashcroft Written by Eli Kent and James Ashcroft Starring Daniel Gillies, Erik Thomson, Miriama McDowell, Matthias Luafutu Dark Sky Films Will Release Coming Home In The Dark In Select Theaters and VOD On October 1st **Sundance Film Festival 2021 – Official Selection** “As an exploration of the …

The post New Trailer Available For Sundance Shocker Coming Home In The Dark – In Theaters And VOD October 1st appeared first on Horror News | Hnn.

Perhaps the most surprising thing of Coming Home in the Dark is seeing Daniel Gillies with a Kiwi accent and appearing to pull it off. Not as surprising is that he appears to be playing a bad guy with some nuance; something the actor has done very effectively for much of his career.

James Ashcroft's feature film debut, which he co-wrote with Eli Kent, stars Erik Thomson and Miriama McDowell as Hoagie and Jill respectively. The couple is on an idyllic outing at an isolated coastline with their sons when they are taken hostage by a pair of drifters, Mandrake and Tubs (played by Gillies and Matthias Luafutu).

While at first Hoagie and Jill assume the encounter was random, it soon becomes clear that Mandrake and Hoagie have history and the encounter was not accidental.

::...

Coming Home in the Dark Trailer — James Ashcroft‘s Coming Home in the Dark (2021) movie trailer has been released. The Coming Home in the Dark trailer stars Daniel Gillies, Erik Thomson, Miriama McDowell, Desray Armstrong, and Matthias Luafutu. Crew James Ashcroft and Eli Kent wrote the screenplay for Coming Home in the Dark. Matt Henley [...]

Continue reading: Coming Home In The Dark (2021) Movie Trailer: A Family is Kidnapped on Vacation in James Ashcroft’s Thriller Film...

James Ashcroft, the Māori Kiwi actor-turned-director who made a splash with horror flick Coming Home in the Dark, has signed on to direct Devolution, Legendary’s adaptation of the Bigfoot horror novel written by World War Z author Max Brooks.

Ashcroft will also polish the script with his writing partner Eli Kent.

With Devolution, Legendary is hoping to make horror piece that has something to say about the state of humanity when the veneer of civility is stripped away and nature takes over.

The story sees a tech-focused, “green” community in the deep forests of Washington State that is left isolated by a natural disaster. The social ...

James Ashcroft, the Māori Kiwi actor-turned-director who made a splash with horror flick Coming Home in the Dark, has signed on to direct Devolution, Legendary’s adaptation of the Bigfoot horror novel written by World War Z author Max Brooks.

Ashcroft will also polish the script with his writing partner Eli Kent.

With Devolution, Legendary is hoping to make horror piece that has something to say about the state of humanity when the veneer of civility is stripped away and nature takes over.

The story sees a tech-focused, “green” community in the deep forests of Washington State that is left isolated by a natural disaster. The social ...

An expensive new car slouches on the side of a deserted country road, unoccupied and unattended, while one passenger door hangs open, creaking disconsolately in the afternoon breeze. It’s the kind of opening image that immediately warns you the film to come is up to nothing good, or at least nothing pleasant: “Coming Home in the Dark” never tells us who was behind the wheel of that abandoned car, though it gives us enough indirect detail to paint a pretty vivid, stomach-turning picture of what went down. At first glance, New Zealand filmmaker James Ashcroft’s unforgiving, tightly wound debut appears to be a nihilistic horror excursion in the blood-leaking vein of “Wolf Creek,” before its torture-porn trappings give way to a moral weight as unanticipated by the characters as it is by the audience.

Though it’s plenty nasty and nervy enough to earn its spot in Sundance’s Midnight program,...

In rural New Zealand, Hoaggie (Erik Thomson) rides in the passenger seat. His wife, Jill (Miriama McDowell), is driving and their sons Maika (Billy Paratene) and Jordan (Frankie Paratene) are in the back. It’s the middle of nowhere in New Zealand: scenic, sure, but totally isolated. It’s a good place for a family picnic too, and it fits the bill for a few minutes. That’s when a greasy dude named Mandrake (Daniel Gillies) and his mute lackey, Tubs (Matthias Luafutu), show up. Mandrake seems to know that Hoaggie is a teacher, and he seems a little too laid back as he attacks the family with pure, unhinged sadism. The fact that he goes on to take the family for an all-night joyride from hell is just a way to salt the wounds.

For a while, Coming Home in the Dark works because it doesn’t just lean into the brutality.