Dead Mail (2024)

This 80's style thriller is currently showing on Shudder and it's about Josh who is a keyboard engineer of sorts, working his magic on a Moog-type synthesiser and trying to break new ground in what sounds it can produce. He's at some kind of demo/event when he's approached by Trent (our Mr Fruit-loop for the duration) who asks if he'll go into partnership with him. Trent has the money to buy all the latest tools and Josh, the expertise.

Lured by the offer of a decent workshop and means to further his work, Josh goes to Trent's home and sets up a workshop, where he gets to work. All's going well until Trent discovers a letter that Josh has received, offering him a job in Japan with Yamaha. They talk about it and it's clear that Josh wants to go. He's sorry to leave Trent in the lurch but the offer is too good to turn down. This is not part of Trent's gameplan, so he locks Josh up in his basement and forces him to work.

The film starts with a flash-forward so it's no spoiler to tell you that Josh gets a bloody letter out into the postbox outside Trent's house appealing for help as he has been held hostage but is grabbed in the process by Trent, but just too late. Then the story gets picked up in the local sorting office for post, specifically Dead Mail department as it wasn't addressed, where the letter is found and although the staff don't really take it seriously, one does, then another, and the detection (without any help from the police) story begins to unfold. Meanwhile, Trent is on a mission to retrieve the letter before any harm is done to his plan - and will take no prisoners in the process!

The timeline skips about quite a lot during the first half of the film, but during the remainder, the gaps get filled in, references to the lopped timeline fall into place and it starts to portray a chronological one by two-thirds through. It ends up being quite gripping in its own way, so don't give up in the first half as the characters in the story are richly portrayed and acting from the cast very good.

It comes across as a low-budget outing (and perhaps it was) but I rather think that it was more that effort was made to make it a period-piece, before automation, computers, mobile phones - where digital detection was most likely via a dial-up modem and nerd sitting in front of text-based old monitors, where the sorting office staff try to get help tracking down Josh and Trent. So yes, hang in there through the slow delivery and you'll feel satisfied by the end with some suspense at the tail of this decent story, well told.

Contrary to what the credits would have you believe it's not a true story, but made to feel so, Coen Brothers style! I don't know any of the people involved in the creation and delivery of this film - Joe DeBoer, Kyle McConaghy, Sterling Macer Jr., John Fleck or Tomas Boykin but I reckon they've done a decent job between them and it's well worth a watch if you can get to it.