Playing at the ongoing SXSW Film Festival is the latest genre offering from Simon Rumley, the director behind The Living and The Dead, Red White & Blue and The Abcs of Death.

In Rumley’s supernatural revenge thriller, Johnny Frank Garrett’s Last Word, 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.

Devin Bonnée stars as the title character, which is based on a true story.

“Everything in this film is based on reality. The lead character, Adam, is a fictional juror but all the facts that are mentioned in the film are true,” Rumley tells Bloody Disgusting in an exclusive interview, adding this incredible revelation: “The curse letter is true too; I’ve held it in my hand and it’s about 8 pages of angry invective.

“Much like Making of a Murderer and West of Memphis, this story is imbued with tragedy,” he adds. “It starts with a 76 year old nun being raped and then murdered and then it continues with a 17-year-old boy with learning difficulties being arrested for a crime that he most likely did not commit for which he is then sentenced to death and lacks the resources the extricate himself for that judgement. This film is more based upon the genre elements of the story so within that context all the deaths are very close to the actual facts, too…

“The old adage that life is often stranger than fiction definitely applies here…”

The movie was set in motion after the release of the documentary “The Last Word by Jesse Quackenbush,” Rumley tells us, adding that one of the producers, Peter Facinelli, bought the rights to it and it went from there.

“The documentary is much more based on the legal procedures and injustices which littered Johnny Frank Garrett’s trial whilst the feature concentrates more on the curse letter that he wrote on the night of his execution and the impact that had on the Amarillo residents who sentenced him to death.”

What’s interesting about Last Word is that the protagonist is clearly guilty of making a bad decision; Rumley speaks to having a hero that’s also deserving of his punishment.

“That’s a good point and although I didn’t write the script, it’s the kind of thing that interests me,” Rumley tells us. “In Red White & Blue all the characters were partly to blame for what happened to them, but the outcomes were way more severe than what they should have been. I guess a lot of people will have seen 12 Angry Men where all the jurors believe the character in question was guilty apart from one and that one manages to change all their minds. In this film, the situation is reversed, and it was stunning to watch Making of A Murderer where it was revealed that at the initial jury count, 7 people thought Steven Avery was innocent, 3 guilty and 2 weren’t sure. Whatever happened in that room, the guys who thought he was guilty did a very good job of making the others change their minds. This film is a similar situation and you can see when the verdict is read out that our lead character is unhappy about it and about his decision…

“I guess the question in any revenge film is whether the characters are deserving of their punishment and, I suppose, that’s for the audience to work out themselves.”

Rumley on whether or not Garrett is an anti-hero:

“There are two aspects to Johnny Frank Garrett. The person who was arrested and sentenced to death and then this monster which comes back to kill everyone. Although the first Johnny wrote the curse letter that informed the second Johnny, they’re still, different entities. So, in a strange way he is an anti-hero. I thought this was an interesting juxtaposition for this kind of film and one of the things we’re ultimately keen on showing is our sympathies to the young Johnny (who was arrested and given a truly dreadful trial, which seems to fly in the face of what the law is about and why it exists).

The films that inspired Last Word range from Final Destination to Insidious.

“Well, the films we initially discussed were Final Destination, Sinister and Insidious, so, I watched those again. I’m a massive fan of the first two, and I think Insidious was very effective at what it set out to achieve,” he explained. “In the end, the film became something completely different and more focused on the emotional journey of the father. The other film I’d just watched was West of Memphis and Werner Herzog’s Into The Abyss both of which deal phenomenally with subject matter which has similarities…”

On why he thinks a film like Last Word will resonate with general audiences:

“Everyone loves escapist drama and invented stories but there’s something jaw drapping about stories like that of Johnny Frank Garrett and the men who were the subject matter of West of Memphis.”

Midnighters, World Premiere

Johnny Frank Garrett’s Last Word
Sunday, March 13, 12mid, Alamo South Lamar
Tuesday, March 15, 11:45pm, Stateside
Saturday, March 19, 4:30pm, Alamo South Lamar