When a blood-stained note makes its way to the local post office, a “dead letter’ expert stumbles on to a deadly mystery. This fascinating thread and the beloved character of Jasper (Tomas Boykin), the mailroom clerk with a gift for finding the story behind any piece of suspicious mail is intriguing. However, Dead Mail reveals that it opened halfway through the story, so this is more of a long entryway into the world. This is a shame because this would have been a more promising movie and less problematic than what we get.
Writer and directors Joe DeBoer and Kyle McConaghy kill off Jasper and then jump to his killer’s backstory. We see the murderer, Trent (John Fleck), meet fellow synthesizer enthusiast Josh (Sterling Macer Jr.) and form a partnership. Trent decides to invest in Josh’s new idea, which will change the synthesizer game. As they get closer, and as the audience begins to wonder if they might be heading towards a romance, Trent discovers Josh has landed a job that will take him away from him. This is when Trent decides he cannot let Josh go and things get bloody and weirder. This is also where Dead Mail reveals the origins of the bloody note that led to Jasper’s death.
While Dead Mail is not my kind of humor, I appreciate the cast commitment to these bits. I also dug the retro 1980s vibes. The creative team handled the wigs, clothes, props, and locations beautifully with their budget. I knew exactly when this was taking place right from the opening frame. The aesthetic choices are one of the few things that worked in this movie’s favor. I also think Jasper was the most fascinating character, and I enjoyed what Boykin was doing in that role. So when he dies, the rest of the movie feels like it is missing a reason for existing. I loved having a Black male character with hints of a backstory who is the best dead letter expert in all the land. That sounds fun, and I would have gladly spent more time with him solving cases. Especially, because it would have helped us avoid what was to come with Trent and Josh.
It feels like the filmmakers did not think about the optics of having a white guy chain a Black guy up in a bathroom, leaving him to eat off of the floor. Nor did they think about the historical context of white people feeling ownership over Black people and our creations. So, all of this is sitting in the forefront but going unaddressed when Trent locks Josh up. This is probably why it was hard to chuckle at some of the stabs at humor. It also makes it extremely troubling that no real justice is served for these transgressions. Trent does not go to jail but instead drives off to end himself on his own time. He also gets another cute moment where he plays a tape Josh made before their partnership took a turn. Dead Mail really stumbled into Black trauma and then refused to deal with it while never treating the white criminal like a criminal. This is messy and a wildly confusing route to take. He is written as a kooky character we are supposed to like and I do not understand. If he had suffered a single consequence then maybe I would feel slightly differently.
In what seems like an attempt at a bandaid, Ann (Micki Jackson) solves the case of the letter and Jasper’s murder. I love seeing Black women win on film, but because we had Josh chained up in a bathroom, I was worried about what would happen to her as I watched her put herself in so much danger. However, Dead Mail is not interested in a fight or punishing Trent. So, when he sees that she has figured it out, he just drives away, leaving us unsatisfied. Any hope that all these questionable choices were building to something deflates without giving the audience a moment of catharsis.
What makes it even more uncomfortable is I don’t think the filmmakers are aware of these issues. They seemingly set out to create a dead letter investigator and maybe show that they are heavily influenced by the work of the Coen brothers. So, I am very curious how Joe DeBoer and Kyle McConaghy will respond as Dead Mail exits festivals and becomes more accessible to the public. Hopefully, the incoming discourse will help them make different choices in their future projects. While I will not be revisiting this movie, I would be curious to see how they follow it up if they avoid some of these glaring issues.
Dead Mail played at Brooklyn Horror Film Festival on October 17th, 2024.
