Set in the 80s, Joe DeBoer and Kyle McConaghy’s SXSW offering, Dead Mail, tells a tangled tale connected to an ominous note. During a routine shift at the post office, a group of workers come into contact with a dead letter that will see all of their lives changed.
DeBoer and McConaghy start Dead Mail strong. A man crawls across the ground. He is covered in blood and clutching a piece of paper that he is desperately trying to get to the mailbox. The letter makes it into the mail, but the camera masks the man’s fate, quickly jumping to the delivery office. It’s an action-packed scene that serves to grab viewer attention. It sets up several mysteries effectively. Who is the man? Why is he covered in blood? What is written in the letter? Many of these mysteries will take time to unearth the answer to.
The action picks up in the office and follows the worker tasked with reuniting the letter with its intended recipient. However, nothing is straightforward and this man finds himself the target of unwanted attention. What makes the narrative of Dead Mail so enthralling is that it is not a linear story. De Boer and McConaghy, who also wrote the project together, have fun moving around in time. Initially the viewer is unaware, but it quickly becomes evident that the story has started in the middle. From the middle entry point the directing duo jump to events both before and after the sending of the note, creating maximum drama.
Trying to figure out where and when the chunk of story that is unfolding is taking place forms part of the enjoyment of Dead Mail’s viewing. As the penny begins to drop as to the configuration of the narrative, everything starts to make sense and the film can be fully enjoyed. However, for a long time, this approach can be confusing and may leave some viewers simply bewildered.
The visual aesthetic of Dead Mail is definitely worthy of praise. Dead Mail is set during the 80s, and looks like it was made in the decade too. There is a grainy texture to the image that immediately positions its viability of having been made forty years ago. The costume and production design also does fantastic work to replicate the bygone era. Their work is more organic than just throwing in key 80s iconography into frame. They instead focus on how ordinary people lived back then, generating more authenticity points for Dead Mail.
Tonally, despite the plots being wildly different, there is an air of Being John Malkovich to Dead Mail. The quirkiness of the narrative ensures that it never loses any attention, but will leave some wishing that it would go harder on these moments. Overall Dead Mail is a striking and twisted story, however its construction may leave some feeling a little cold.
Dead Mail
Summary
Dead Mail demonstrates enough artistry for its puppeteers to keep audiences engaged.
Dead Mail was reviewed at SXSW 2024.
