Short Horror Film Review: Letters of the Dead

 

Plot: Two friends play with a haunted letterbox that lets them connect with dead spirits

It's the season of using odd objects to contact the dead. Gone are the days (thankfully) when there were movies about teens spending their time playing with the ouija board and pissing off spirits who just wanted to be left alone.

But then there are spirits who have some unfinished business or have a secret that needs to be revealed. Then, odd objects like the embalmed hand from TALK TO ME  comes as the perfect solution for spirits to enter the world again.

Unless they are just plain evil and want to unleash their fury, then that becomes another story altogether.

Buried Hatchet Productions continue with their love for antiques with yet another horror short based on them.

This time the antique item is a letterbox that becomes the reason that a terrifying story is unfurled.

LETTERS OF THE DEAD Plot

Liam and Jessica are friends who are spending the day comfortably in a house filled with antiques.

Jessica reveals that she got some items from her grandfather after he passed away. Liam isn't too thrilled about the antique letterbox sitting on a table. It looks ominous.

Jessica encourages him to put a letter into the box to contact the spirits. She's literally done it twenty times. She says this twice and we should wonder if she really did do this twenty times.

Reluctantly, Liam follows her instructions and writes "Dear BL—" on a blank sheet and inserts it into the box.

The very next instant a letter pops out and by the looks of it, it's a pretty old one.

Liam reads it in a monotone but Jessica wants him to add drama as he reads about a lover being betrayed by a woman he was in love with. Even though the lovers had decided to commit suicide together, only the man had and the woman had watched him die.

The man further explains his fate and talks about his head being severed as he hit sharp rocks. At this point Liam's eyes have gone white and his face looks twisted.

Jessica pulls the letter away from him and Liam returns to normal. She lauds him for putting on an eager performance but Liam tells her that he had not read the letter dramatically and that someone else had made him speak that way.

Jessica doesn’t believe him and for some reason gets up and leaves in a huff.

The story demanded she make an exit but clearly Jessica needed a better reason to leave her friend who was clearly rattled by the experience.

As soon as she leaves, Liam is left alone with the letterbox and he stashes it away in a closet. Still reeling from the incident, he tries to relax but that is when the closet door flies open.

The letterbox is no longer inside but on a table. And then it is gone again.

An arm reaches out and places the letterbox on a ledge and then opens it to reveal a severed head inside.

Liam panics but that is when the lights go off and he finds hands creeping up on him as the words from the letter are whispered to him.

In the next instant, Liam finds himself on the edge of a cliff from which he falls.

The letterbox sits on the table, awaiting the next person willing to use it.

The short movie ends.

Letters of The Dead is imaginative, creepy and tense. There is a lot of thought gone behind using the props and the set effectively. The lighting manages to create an eerie atmosphere and the background music perfectly complements each scene.

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