This curious and weird film didn’t work for me. If it weren’t for the unique premise and the acting chops of Geoffrey Rush and John Lithgow, I’d be rating it lower, possibly much lower. And I feel bad about that since the flick is just so different.

It stars Rush as a judge in a rest home. The home is ruled by the iron fist of Jenny Pen, a baby doll puppet on the hand of a maniacal overlord played by an unhinged Lithgow. The nurses and staff don’t believe he’s as sadistic as the residents say he is. But he is.

These two elder statesmen do a great job (though I think Lithgow’s New Zealand accent is uneven). They make the movie, especially Lithgow leaning into his bad guy persona. I normally think of him as a warm presence (except for a handful of movies and that one season of Dexter) so it’s grand to see him just lose his mind in a modern film.

And the premise… an old age home tormented by bully resident. Not too dissimilar to the even crazier Bubba Ho-Tep but still pretty unique as far as modern horror goes. I love the premise, I just didn’t care for the execution.

In fact, up to the first scene where we realize how insane Lithgow and Jenny Pen (the puppet) are, I was rather into the film. But I think once they give us what the movie’s got, there’s not much else to give. There’s a couple clever tricks and murders here and there but mostly it’s jus the same crazy routine over and over again. The film just lost me in the telling.

I’m hoping it works better for you though. Apparently it’s working for enough people that I bet it will. I wish I was in that group since there’s neat stuff going on in the film… and yet when I hit pause late and night with the intent of picking it up the next day, it took me hours to finally switch over to Shudder and hit play. It just didn’t have the oomph to draw me back in.

Score: 72