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Simon Rumley’s ‘Johnny Frank Garrett’s Last Word’ is Finally Coming Out (Trailer)
In Simon Rumley’s supernatural vengeance thriller Johnny Frank Garrett’s Last Word (read our review), when a young man is executed for committing murder, he leaves behind a curse letter in which he promises to take vengeance on all those connected to his trial.
The thriller, starring Green Lantern‘s Mike Doyle, Bitch Slap‘s Erin Cummings, Devin Bonnée, and The Boondock Saints‘ Sean Patrick Flanery, is finally set for release on March 14th after premiering at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas last year.
Trace Thurman wrote in his review, “Johnny Frank Garret’s Last Word has a high concept premise that holds a lot of promise, but the execution is so poorly done that I can’t in good faith give it a recommendation,” while also adding that the film “is a dull exercise in pretension whose only true saving grace is the fact that it runs at a mercifully brief 95 minutes.” Ouch.
“Based on true events. Amarillo, Texas, Halloween, 1968, Sister Tadea Benz, a 76 year old nun is raped and murdered in her bedroom in her convent. A teenager from the wrong side of the tracks, Johnny Frank Garrett, is arrested but claims innocence. His trial is a farce and he is sentenced to death. On the day of his execution, Garrett writes a curse letter saying his spirit will return and kill not only those involved with his sentencing and death but the members of their families too. Sure enough, soon after, those involved in the execution start dying and it is left to one of the jurors to try to solve the riddle of who actually killed Sister Tadea Benz to save his son.”
Simon Rumley is one of the UK’s leading independent directors and has been making genre films for the last 10 years, explains the SXSW program. His films include The Living and The Dead, Red White & Blue and The Abcs of Death. He is currently in post on Crowhurst and in prep in Austin for his next film, Fashionista.
After scaring up a strong theatrical run, Oddity director Damian McCarthy’s Hokum heads home to Digital this week.
Settle in for a spooky supernatural chiller as Hokum arrives on all Digital platforms to rent or own beginning June 2, followed by a Blu-ray/4K Ultra HD Combo and DVD release on August 11, 2026.
Adam Scott (“Severance”) stars in Hokum as reclusive novelist Ohm Bauman. When he retreats to a remote Irish inn to scatter his parents’ ashes, the staff’s tales of an ancient witch haunting the honeymoon suite take hold of his mind. Disturbing visions and a shocking disappearance draw Ohm into a nightmarish confrontation with the darkest corners of his past.
Peter Coonan (“The Alienist: Angel of Darkness”), David Wilmot (“Station Eleven”), Florence Ordesh (“Departure”), Michael Patric (“Frontier”), Will O’Connell (“Game of Thrones”), Brendan Conroy (“Bodkin”), and Austin Amelio (“The Walking Dead”) also star.
Get a peek at the upcoming physical media release below, including a few special features.
Spooky Pictures’ Roy Lee (Weapons) & Steven Schneider (Insidious) produce alongside Image Nation’s Derek Dauchy (Late Night with the Devil), Tailored Film’s Ruth Treacy, Julianne Forde, & Mairtín de Barra, and Cweature Features’ Ken Kao & Josh Rosenbaum.
I wrote in my review for Bloody Disgusting, “A quaint Irish hotel with a deeply haunted history awaits an American writer in McCarthy’s third outing, continuing his streak for folkloric tales of supernatural karma and spine-tingling terror with a dark sense of humor.”
What’s next from Damian McCarthy? He’s currently writing a haunted house movie, but recent comments suggest he may be moving into other genres beyond that upcoming project.
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