Review: The Mailman Delivers Death in ‘Red Letter Day’

DREAD/Epic Pictures

You probably have a love-hate relationship with the mailman. You love him for bringing you your many parcels from your online shopping haul. Then you hate him for bringing you your credit card bill. At least he hasn’t brought you a letter telling you which of your neighbors you need to murder before they murder you, though. Yet.

That’s what Melanie (Dawn Van De Schoot) and her family have to deal with in Red Letter Day. Taking the terrifying-because-it-could-totally-happen elements from movies like The Purge, this flick is a satirical look at how easily people turn against each other and resort to violence, for pretty much no reason whatsoever.

Recently divorced Melanie, her son Tim (Kaeleb Zain Gartner), and daughter Madison (Hailey Foss) haven’t lived in Aspen Ridge long. However, they’ve lived there long enough for teenage Tim to develop a crush on his mom’s friend, Alice (Arielle Rombough), for nineteen-year-old Madison to fall for an older, stereotypical metalhead, Luther, (Roger LeBlanc), and to figure out who the neighborhood weirdo is (it’s the guy who walks his cat).  

So when the family receives letters claiming they have been matched with someone online, based on having polar-opposite views on an unspecified topic, and they must kill this person before they kill them, that’s when sh*t hits the fan. To quote Melanie later on in the movie: “What a f*cking day.”

It’s not difficult to find your target, as they live within 5km. And, as we all share our private information with anybody and everybody on the World Wide Web, their address is right there in black and white. 

So, obviously, it doesn’t take long before people start murdering their neighbors, because their mail told them to. And it doesn’t take long for it all to go viral, with a group calling themselves The Unknown taking claim to starting this ‘revolution’. Because why settle for anonymously trolling folks on the internet, when you can use your uninformed, menial viewpoint as a motive for murder?

As well as being a satirical look at the state of the internet-led, hate-fuelled world we live in, Red Letter Day is also a graphic, gory as hell horror movie. The idyllic suburban setting and muted, autumnal colors make for a brilliant contrast when the weapons start flying and the blood starts flowing, and our protagonists have to fight for their right to party live. 

It’s never said in the movie, but anyone with an ounce of sense watching is surely thinking ‘but they could just ignore the letters?!’. But that’s the point. A lot of the anger, hate, and violence in the world could be stopped if there weren’t such humongous egos flying around. And that is why, as well as being a smart, funny, and blood-soaked horror movie, with some great acting and a gorgeous set, Red Letter Day is pretty damn scary. Could you trust your neighbor not to kill you? 

Red Letter Day is released through Dread Central’s DREAD/Epic Pictures and will be out on VOD and Blu-Ray, as well as selected cinemas Nov. 5.


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