Is this a horror movie? Usually, if I ask that question, it means a movie is not a good choice for the October Horrorshow. Just because a movie has horror elements in it, does not make it a horror movie. A case in point, much disputed, is The Silence of the Lambs. I do not think of that as a horror movie. I think of it as a thriller, or a police procedural. Sure, when Hannibal Lecter rips someone’s face off and wears it, that’s horrific. The iconic character Leatherface in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre wears someone’s face, and there’s no doubt that is a horror flick. But the use of horror in Silence is in service to the story, and not the purpose of the story.
Such is the case with Dead Mail, the 2024 film from writing, directing, and composing team Joe DeBoer and Kyle McConaghy. It uses elements of psychological horror. It uses digital filters meant to evoke the look of horror films from the 1970s and ’80s. The plot features an insane killer. And yet…I’m not convinced it’s horror. Dead Mail definitely falls under the broad classification of ‘genre’ flick, but DeBoer and McConaghy didn’t craft a film that fits into a little box. So, in recognition of that, I’m opening up the little box of the Horrorshow and letting this film in. We’re all just making it up as we go along, anyway.
Taking place in 1980s Peoria, Illinois, the film opens in horrific fashion. A bound, chained, and bloodied man crawls out the front of a nondescript ranch home, clutching a hastily scrawled message which he hopes will lead someone to his kidnapper, and to his rescue. As he drops the note into a mailbox, his kidnapper drags him back into the house. The mailbox is emptied and taken to the local sorting facility before the kidnapper can do anything, and the note winds up in the dead letter office. There, reserved and enigmatic postal investigator Jasper Lawrence (Tomas Boykin), begins the hard work of tracking down the note’s origins.
It’s a pretty good setup. Also, by this time, viewers will know that this movie is going to step into the absurd and nonsensical from time to time. Jasper is the very picture of the career postal worker who has spent a lifetime in windowless offices in cinder block buildings. But, a deeper backstory is present. Jasper lives at a local men’s home, the 
kind of place where ex-cons, or those deep in recovery, or simple financial failures, wind up. He also has a pipeline to a Norwegian intelligence officer (Nick Heyman), whom he uses to help track down wayward packages’ destinations. This backstory isn’t explored, but it adds quite a lot of depth to Boykin’s solid performance. Alas, don’t get used to Jasper. He doesn’t survive the first act. His story is a blind, useful to get events rolling.
The bulk of the film, in fact the entirety of the lengthy second act, is told in flashback. It is a detailed and harrowing story that follows Trent Whittington (veteran That Guy John Fleck), a psychopath with an unhealthy love of synthesizers; and Joshua Ivey (Sterling Macer Jr.), a sound engineer who is working hard to develop realistic woodwind sounds from a synth, something that was an elusive goal at the time the film takes place, apparently.
Trent becomes Joshua’s partner and benefactor, providing him with whatever equipment and technology he needs to develop the woodwind synth. Joshua has eyes on the future, and makes arrangements to license the IP to a foreign company and then relocate to their facilities to continue development. It’s a solid business decision, and one that will be to Trent’s advantage, as well. But, Trent is a psychopath, remember. He doesn’t want any other hands on this wonderful invention. He showers Joshua with more expensive equipment and more effusive praise, but it’s in vain. So, Trent’s only recourse is to kidnap Joshua and force him to work in one of the most frightening basements in movie history. Whereas the aforementioned Silence had a busy basement set evocative of dungeons, gothic mansions, and plain old midwestern clutter, the basement in Dead Mail is liminal, all right angles and poor lighting that creates menacing shadows.
The relationship between kidnapper and victim continues to deteriorate, leading up to the events in the film’s open.
The final act, no longer in flashback, follows postal employees Bess and Ann (Susan Priver and Micki Jackson), as they pick up where Jasper’s investigation left off, and try to find the mystery ranch house from the desperate note.
Dead Mail has a fantastic story. There’s not much fault to be found. It’s simple, has punch, and doesn’t stray. What could become a problem for viewers is pace. Dead Mail is what is referred to as a ‘deliberate’ movie, which is a fancy way of saying ‘slow.’ If there are two words critics, both professional and amateur, are pressured into avoiding like the plague, it is ‘boring’ and ‘slow.’ We’re supposed to be more sophisticated than that. Well, Dead Mail is not boring, but slow is an appropriate descriptor. The film runs 106 minutes, and it feels like tighter editing would have been beneficial. Nothing ruthless, either. Just trimming some of the more lingering stuff.
There are multiple deaths in the film, but the movie is devoid of gore and light on blood. Spectacle does not appear to be something DeBoer and McConaghy were interested in. Anticipatory tension is this movie’s bread and butter. Trent is unpredictable. Both Joshua and the viewer have no clue as to where Trent’s moods will take him. The only thing that is clear is that cooperation on Joshua’s part is no guarantee of safety. In that, the screenplay, and Fleck’s interpretation of the character, make Trent a very menacing film villain.
Dead Mail is a film that is heavy on style. In fact, it has so much style that, at first, it looks like little room was left for substance, but viewers will be disavowed of that notion quickly. As strange as it all is, Dead Mail is also a strong character study; of Trent, Joshua, and, briefly, Jasper. It might not give viewers the kind of Halloween season adrenaline jolts which we crave, but it is still very heavy on the heebie jeebies. Check it out.