Dead Mail Is a Grimy Retro Horror Thriller Well Worth Seeking Out

In a random Midwestern town in a nondescript moment in the 1980s, a man wrapped in chains bursts out of a home and crawls toward a blue mail collection box, barely managing to slip a scrap of paper in before he’s recaptured by a blurry figure behind him. Thus begins Dead Mail, a refreshingly unconventional horror film made in a deliberately downgraded analogue style that perfectly captures both its setting and the quirky mood that runs through it. Instead of immediately following up on that grabby opening, Dead Mail—which unfolds with a great attention to detail, including retro cinematography and production design that feels completely organic and correct to its world—then introduces us to Jasper (Tomas Boykin), a dead letter investigator who’s the superstar employee of his postal branch. Not that you’d know it by looking at him; he keeps to himself in a back room, methodically tracking down the proper owners of valuables that would otherwise have been lost in the mail. But his dete ... Read full article.