Dead Mail

I recently watched Dead Mail (2024) on Shudder. The story centers on a mysterious piece of mail with no address that arrives at a small-town post office for investigation. A strange man soon shows up, determined to retrieve the letter-by any means necessary. The plot then rewinds, tracing the origins of the message and revealing why it's so important to him.

Co-written and co-directed by Joe DeBoer and Kyle McConaghy-who previously collaborated on Bab-the film stars Sterling Macer Jr. (Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story), John Fleck (Waterworld), Micki Jackson (Drumline: A New Beat), and Tomas Boykin (The Munsters).

I really enjoyed watching this concept unfold. The premise felt fresh, and the cinematography had a gritty, grindhouse quality at times. The acting was excellent, with strong and authentic performances throughout. The villain is particularly well-crafted-menacing and manipulative in just the right ways. The violence is sharp, sudden, and suits the characters' motivations. In some ways, it reminded me of The Gift.

Overall, Dead Mail is a solid addition to the horror genre, with enough originality to keep you engaged. I'd rate it a 6.5-7/10 and recommend checking it out at least once.

I enjoyed this movie despite the absurdity of the plot. Some people have complained about the acting but I saw nothing wrong with it. The actors playing Trent and Jasper were especially strong. This is one of those plots where seemingly insignificant details come together at the climax, and no loose ends were left dangling. The cinematography and look of the film fit the vibe perfectly, giving it a retro 80's feel. I understand that a lot of people will find this movie slow and boring, but I was interested throughout. Give it a shot, you'll know in the first 20 minutes if you want to consider watching or not.

I get that people want to give this flick medium ratings because it is very much a niche indie film that isn't for everyone. But I think objectively as a horror fan Dead Mail deserves props for various elements, ranging from the grainy realistic 1980s atmosphere (and weirdly accurate details like those big buckets of cheap Neapolitan ice cream) to the truly original plot points about sound engineering in the late 20th century and nerdy info on how cool and sleuthlike dead mail was prior to the world wide web.

I also think that the writers/director did their research on serial killers such as Richard Ramirez frequenting a low-income shelter for men during his murder spree, and Jeff Dahmer with his predilection for victimizing poor black males that he justified with his disturbed inability to form healthy gay relationships.

"Dead Mail" was actually a better film than I'd expected, and for that it gets points. It starts off with a very interesting scene of a bloody, chained man crawling to a mailbox to toss in a blood stained scrap of paper, and then stopped and pulled back into a house by a panicked kidnapper. It then switches to the post office, where a man named Jasper is a miracle worker when it comes to locating the people for whom dead mail was intended to go. Jasper-in spite of living in a halfway house-seems to have a Russian agent contact who he gets information from as well as other people who are capable of bringing up detailed facts and figures. I used to work for a company where my job was to try and locate lost equipment we'd rented out and it was fun and interesting, but I wish I'd had Jasper's contact list.

So at this point I'm assuming the movie is going to be about Jasper finding the man at the beginning before he gets killed. Instead, it switches to the story of how the man was kidnapped and why and the continuation of that story without Jasper. That's where I became much less interested. I liked Jasper and I wanted to know his story, not the kidnapped guy's story.

That disappointment notwithstanding, it still was a reasonably interesting film, with decent cinematography and performances. But the kidnapper's weirdness was only good enough for numerous "WTF??" moments, and I really didn't feel much for the victim. The only one I was emotionally attached to was-you guesses it-Jasper, and he had a very short story arc. And the ending was rather unfulfilling, and didn't clarify what happened to the postal worker who went to the house and got caught. Ultimately it was an okay film that had promise, but took a wrong turn.

Slow-burn thriller. It reminds me a little bit of the movie Misery. Minus the Misery's whit and lively dialogue. It's just dark and gritty. I liked it.

It has a dark, gritty film like look, uses synth sounds to create a creepy atmosphere...I'm sure I'm not artsy enough to get all the nuances in a casual watch but all of it together kept me watching.

The cast is small, sparse dialogue but that's part of its charm. It was fun to see them show their work a little with how they obtained info. Whereas today we have hackers and the internet to get us what we need.

The villain is an odd duck and I can't quite figure out his why but this movie has a beginning, a middle, a complete and satisfying end.