Cinematography:
Kyle McConaghyCast:
Sterling Macer Jr., John Fleck, Susan Priver, Tomas Boykin, Nick Heyman, Michael Cambridge, Micah Fitzgerald, Joseph Lopez, Micki Jackson, Aaron Phifer (more)Plots(1)
On a desolate, Midwestern county road, a bound man crawls towards a remote postal box, managing to slide a blood-stained plea-for-help message into the slot before a panicking figure closes in behind him. The note makes its way to the county post office and onto the desk of Jasper, a seasoned and skilled "dead letter" investigator, responsible for investigating lost mail and returning it to its sender. As he investigates further, Jasper meets Trent, a strange yet unassuming man who has taken up residence at the men’s home where Jasper lives. When Trent unexpectedly shows up at Jasper’s office, it becomes clear he has a vested interest in the note, and will stop at nothing to retrieve it. (South by Southwest Film Festival)
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Reviews (1)
Among other things, Dead Mail elicits a feeling of fondness in how it conscientiously uses an image filter and framing in an attempt to conceal its modest roots, which it never fully accomplishes because of its poor production resources. But that only adds more points in favour of this magnificent indie thriller, which serves to confirm the axiom that the basis of a good film is a meticulous screenplay. The makers of Dead Mail get by with a few characters and settings, around which they build an ingeniously layered narrative in which every small detail is put to good use. And that includes the whole fetishistic synthesiser storyline, which is superbly incorporated into the narrative and the building of the atmosphere and suspense, while also serving to present the characters. Like Alfred Hitchcock’s best subtle thrillers, Dead Mail is entertaining in the way it tells its story, superbly presents various perspectives on a particular situation and, mainly, precisely yet unpretentiously lays the groundwork for suspenseful sequences in which viewers hold their breath along with the investigators, victims and perpetrators.
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