A typically quiet suburban community descends into chaos and paranoia after the delivery of mysterious red letters containing deadly instructions.

Funny, a red letter day is supposed to be a day that is pleasantly memorable, but the people in Cameron McGowan’s new horror film, Red Letter Day (2019), experience anything but. Official Selection winner at Frightfest, Cinequest, and the Brussels IFF, Red Letter Day, or ‘Kill Thy Neighbor’, is a blood-red, black-comedy thriller that asks the age-old question: Just how well do you know your neighbors?

As the new family in town, recently divorced mom Melanie (Dawn Van de Schoot), goth daughter Maddie (Hailey Foss), and teen son Tim (Kaeleb Zain Gartner) are making friends and adjusting to life in the idyllic suburban community of Aspen Ridge. One day, the family realizes they have received mysterious letters with detailed instructions for a sick game – kill the person pictured in your letter before they kill you. The unsigned letters are equipped with personal information to help you find your target, and they, in turn, have your personal information to hunt you!

The townspeople know they don’t have to participate, but the problem is that they want to. To make matters worse, the local law enforcement, who are already ineffective and patronizing, are unresponsive to calls for police aid after they are quickly overwhelmed by the number of community participants in the murderous mayhem. An anonymous group, who goes by the name of Unknown, is taking credit for inciting the violence, but Melanie’s family of “good people” chooses to opt out – that is until their idle hands are forced into evil ways.

From its bloody cold-opening, Red Letter Day announces itself as a kill fest; bloody footprints from a would-be savior line the clean sidewalks of a quiet, family community. This movie reminded me of the Purge, however, it is not as deep in my opinion, though more graphic and comedic by nature. Like the Purge, this movie uses social satire as comedic relief, drawing on the Milgram experiment – an experiment designed to measure a person’s willingness to commit violent acts – as the neighbors need only one random letter to feel they have a license to kill. But unlike the Purge, the premise in Red Letter Day specifically points an attacker in your direction, so the danger seems more impending and personal.

The performances were enjoyable to watch, except for a few hiccups in the sincerity, I found I cared whether everyone lived or died, and I thought the secondary characters in particular created memorable moments throughout the movie. Dawn Van de Schoot as the mother, Melanie, was ferocious and it was great watching her fight for her children, though it might have been better if her story arch had taken her from meek character to badass, à la Carol from The Walking Dead, so that there feels like there was some evolution out of this. I felt Red Letter Day fell flat in its purpose since there was no transformation from any character. And it was indeed horrific, as the movie took great pleasure relishing on the drama of each violent act. All this gruesomeness is surprisingly out of one of the supposedly politest countries, with writer/director Cameron McGowan hailing from Canada. The movie feels like an American Twilight Zone episode on steroids. 

As humans, we are always fascinated with the limits of our own depravity – when faced with a choice, is man inherently good, or is he inherently a psychopathic baddie in waiting? Red Letter Day‘s answer to this existential question is definitively the latter, and that the cathartic killing of your neighbor will prompt some social revolution. If you ascribe to this sentiment and are a fan of movies like the Purge, then Red Letter Day will offer that, gory and gruesome takedowns, and a feel-good family-stick-togetherness message for your viewing pleasure.