Arrow Video Frightfest Review: Red Letter Day

Inventive, gory and a lot of fun (for the most part), Red Letter Day is one of those disposable horror flicks that merely sets out to give you a good time – and delivers.

With more than a whiff of The Purge about it, the film throws the audience one curveball of a question – if you were offered the chance to kill someone, in fact HAD to kill them – would you do it?

The twist is that the person you have been asked to dispatch has, conveniently, also been asked to kill you, which sort of puts the pressure on I’m sure you can agree.

These commands come via a mysterious invitation from collective ‘The Unknown’ and, after the film opens with scenes of domestic squabbling that any family will recognise, Cameron McGowan picks up the pace and, from there on, barely pauses for breath.

True, some of the acting leaves a lot to be desired, but McGowan masks the low budget by keeping locations to a minimum and ramping up the paranoia. Clearly made by horror fans for horror fans (one character proclaims Re-animator as his favourite film, while proudly displaying posters for The Town That Dreaded Sundown and the like on his walls), Red Letter Day ticks most of the boxes and is, undoubtedly, a film best consumed with a festival audience.