Dead Mail (2024)

Dead-Mail-(2024)
Dead Mail (2024)

This interesting film is an American indie film that centers on Kyle McConaghy and Joe DeBoer. The movie is set in the 1980s but still portrays many elements of the 1970s- as it represents that grimy, 70s exploitation drama(s) (Flynn or Peckinpah) within the 80s analog nostalgia. Another interesting work created by the great duo, Kyle McConaghy and Joe DeBoer depicts ‘Dead Mail’, where the first few seconds of the film itself show a man literally struggling out of a bungalow and chained. Just before being dragged back in by a figure, he managed to grab a postbox and insert a bloodstained note into it. Since this note lacks an address, it finds itself in the hands of a mail processing center, and due to countless coincidences, Jasper specializes in ‘mail without a letter’ and takes over the investigation to figure out where this note came from and where the captive is. Such an engagement is only the start of a culmination storm of weird and fragmented storytelling that brings forth objects on the screen that convey an almost sinister image of a middle-American locality. What is particularly enjoyable about the casting is that every side character is given a distinctive look, which is important from the very beginning like filling in the gap, and the audience quickly becomes invested thanks to the well-chosen leads.

There are influences of the Coen brothers throughout the plot with the selection of eccentric characters and their farcical inept focus of the crime conspiracy, however, it does struggle when it comes to the active periods of the film, which include, for instance, the breathtaking cold open, as the camera is in hand and the dust is reminiscent of the time of Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead. All the pieces come together thanks to my remark that this is quite a peculiar work, rather uniquely difficult to qualify, which comes across very vividly for the first time as the first scene is quite intense in its shock and horror but then is rather calm after that. McConaghy and DeBoer’s attempts later on to build up tension leave something to be desired as does the narrative flow and strategy as the action just seems random and disjointed for the last 30 minutes with 105 minutes so long when structurally, this should be a 90 minute blast.

While the genre aspects of this film seem to have no material attempts to be realized in-depth, the terrific sense of style and place that is inherently present in Dead Mail is worth mentioning. It is not a cozy universe by any means, yet it is somehow the kind of universe one can get addicted to, and it is definitely an area of accomplishment to build such an authentic sense of environment and space on this kind of budget. This variant of Americana from the 1980s is a void, colorless space, rendered in every known pun-intended brown color palette. Payton Jane, the production designer, does a stunning as well as a frustratingly strange job of establishing the appearance of this world visually. The wallpapers in the movie are a gallery of works in themselves one sticking out more than the other, and all looking weird and forcing the viewer to look at them even the bathroom wallpaper (yes, there is such a place in the movie) has a wallpaper of the ceiling!

The same goes for the photography and editing, a rough blend of hand-held and static perspectives, alongside a jarring cutting pattern aids in the creation of an overtly 1980’s style film that feels authentic to the era.

Add perhaps some of the best fake 16mm filter aesthetics I’ve ever seen (I never thought for even a second that this was a digital film), and the best compliment I could pay myself would be that if I was flipping through channels late at night and stumbled onto it without any context, I would probably never doubt that this is some obscure B-movie from 40 years ago, and perhaps that is what McConaghy and DeBoer are aiming for.

While ’80s nostalgia is probably at its highest and markets are flooded with related content, Dead Mail has a fresh perspective on a bygone era as there are no neon lights, cliched music, or children riding bicycles about. Josh, one of the main characters of the film, works with synth keyboards, however, he does not so much enjoy a square wave of his time as he does try to imitate other instruments through the devices. The film says a lot about this process, calmly documenting the nerdy and rather tedious processes of Jason and Trent’s creative work, and this approach is true for the soundtrack as well. The film has a completely synthesized soundtrack and where Gorgio Moroder would have been ideal, the track that holds the film together is actually a sparse one, quite discordant in style, elaborating the abject horror infused throughout. This captures yet another more obscure influence in Dead Mail relating to a more obscure source a picture of the US Postal Service as a self-organizing group of people who just are very good at what they do.

In viewing the extensive and socially disturbing portrayal of character drama in the film, one cannot help but remain oblivious to those ten or so individuals who exhibit exaggerated pomp and a desire to hold these jobs which today have all but disappeared owing to advances in technology.

Fewer might certainly find this particular title as a huge selling point so if visitors of Cinema Releases feel we have had enough of people behind the cameras trying to recreate history by making a film that looks old, this opinion would not change your mind. Yes, the deliberately winding tale and yes, the dear climax, which to me at least seems very appropriate considering the period for which these exploit dramas summed up in that fashion, will frustrate others. For those who wish to treat themselves to a twisted character portrait, this is the area, encased within filmmakers who appear to be relishing the prospect of recreating this passé analog phantom.

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