I watched The Rule of Jenny Pen and it was...OK. Not really a horror movie, barely a thriller, more of a regular drama I guess. It's a bit slow, but still pretty well carried by Geoffrey Rush and Lithgow. Lithgow's accent is pretty low-rent, but it doesn't bother me as much as it normally would, since he's a pretty convincing lunatic anyway. It's a bit slow in places, and I was watching a better version of the movie in my head as it was going on.
There's no real twist or revelation in the movie, but it does make sense within its own milieu which already puts it head and shoulders above most movies nowadays.
It's a bit annoying, since essentially most of the problems in the movies could've been solved with a cell phone, and it doesn't really explain why the people in the movie don't have them. I mean, granted, they are octogenarians, but that doesn't mean much these days, especially since Rush's character is a recently retired professional.
It also is somewhat boring in the first half since Rush does that thing in ALL harassment movies, where he just tattles and doesn't really fight back, and hopes the system takes care of him. Like, yes, that's probably what most people would do, but we've seen it SO many times. Eventually he does go on the offensive at about the halfway point, and that's where the movie gets quite a bit better, when we're actually seeing Rush vs. Lithgow in all its glory.
All the stuff in the trailer IS in the movie, so it's not a bait and switch or anything, but really the only "horror" in the movie comes from Rush's dementia/stroke-induced decay.
All in all I'd probably give it a 2.5/5. There's probably a 3.0/5 movie in there, if they edited out some of the slower parts. They keep trying to somehow tie the theme in the old folks home back to Rush's career as a judge, but it doesn't make any sense, since he apparently was a good (or at least non-corrupt) one, and Lithgow's character is demonstrably, unequivocally evil. It's not great or a classic, but there are definitely worse ways to spend 90 minutes. Try not to spoil yourself on the ending if you do watch it, because I was pleasantly surprised. By far the best Shudder movie I've seen, despite the fact that there's no real horror in it.
Music nerds might have a chuckle as the local university string quartet decides to do a show for the old folks and they wind up playing Shubert's Death and the Maiden, which seems like a dubious choice.