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 Eli Kent and also directed the film. This is the second short story of Marshall's that Ashcroft and Kent have turned into a movie. They previously worked together on the 2021 psychological thriller Coming Home in the Dark, which is based on Marshall's 1995 short story of the same title. With two adaptations under their belt, we'll probably see more of Marshall's work brought to the big screen by this duo in the future.
In this creepy horror film, Academy Award-winning actor Geoffrey Rush plays a judge named Stefan Mortensen, who, after suffering a stroke, is left partially paralyzed and forced to live in a retirement home. Initially closed off to everyone, including the retirement home's staff and his seemingly friendly roommate, Mortensen soon finds himself in conflict with Dave Crealy (John Lithgow), one of the residents who is secretly tormenting the others with a cruel game using a creepy baby doll. As the sadistic game quickly turns into something much darker, and Mortensen's calls for help are ignored, Mortensen must then take matters into his own hands and stop the terror before it's too late.
Nathaniel Lees, Thomas Sainbury, Ian Mune, Irene Wood, George Henare, Maaka Pohatu, Bruce Phillips, Holly Shanahan, Paolo Rotondo, and many others also make up the movie's cast.
If the teaser and plot haven't convinced you enough to want to watch this film, perhaps learning that Stephen King has given it his stamp of approval will do the trick. We're not making this up! In 2024, King called The Rule of Jenny Pen "one of the best movies I've seen this year." That's pretty high praise coming from a horror legend!
Along with its U.S. theatrical release, The Rule of Jenny Pen will also reportedly be released on Shudder later this year. We'll get back to you with the official streaming release date once it's announced. But for now, the only way you can see this horror film is by heading to the theaters this March.