By Geno McGahee
The peaceful community of Aspen Ridge has a problem. The people of the neighborhood have been issued red letters asking them to kill one of their neighbors, while that neighbor has been issued a letter to kill them. RED LETTER DAY is a film that has some of THE PURGE built in with its own angle and vibe and is currently on Blu-Ray from Epic Pictures and it’s quite a fun trip.
Melanie Edwards (Dawn Van de Schoot) lives in the small community with her two teen children, Madison (Hailey Foss) and Timothy (Kaeleb Zain Gartner). The mailman delivers red letters with instructions to kill other neighbors, which is initially seen as a joke, but the levity goes away soon as things get serious.
Melanie is instructed to kill her friend, Alice (Arielle Rombough). She goes over and visits with Alice and her husband, Lewis (Michael Tan), and things fall apart quickly. This film began to remind me a lot of THE SHELTER episode of THE TWILIGHT ZONE. The group that has sent out these letters sends out a message, concerning society and their hatred of it, and their plan to destroy it is working.
Chaos ensues everywhere with paranoia plaguing Aspen Ridge. The Edwards fight for survival against a town gone mad and it just keep escalating. Melanie has to fight for her family and uncover the group behind the red led letters, leading to a shocking conclusion to a really fun film.
RED LETTER DAY is a gory, fun, quick-paced film that takes from THE PURGE, but is unique in certain areas. I really liked this film. The acting was very good and the gore was over the top, which was a great contrast to the beautiful look of the neighborhood. I recommend it!
