Full Trailer for Crazy Midwest Indie Horror ‘Dead Mail’ Set in the 80s

Full Trailer for Crazy Midwest Indie Horror ‘Dead Mail’ Set in the 80s

by Alex Billington
March 30, 2025
Source: YouTube

“Tell me what delights you…” Shudder has revealed their official trailer for the wacky, grainy indie horror film titled Dead Mail, created by Midwest filmmakers Joe DeBoer & Kyle McConaghy. This first premiered at the 2024 SXSW Film Festival a year ago (here’s the festival teaser), and it also played at TIFF, FrightFest, Screamfest, Grimmfest, Night Visions, and the Splat!FilmFest last year. After a great fest run, it’s ready for streaming on Shudder later in April. An ominous, bloody support note finds its way to the desk of a seasoned dead letter investigator at a 1980’s midwestern post office. As he begins to piece together the letter’s origins, it leads him down a violent, unforeseen path to a kidnapped keyboard engineer and his eccentric business associate. The film features Sterling Macer, Jr., John Fleck, Susan Priver, Micki Jackson, Tomas Boykin, and Nick Heyman. Reviews from fests have been quite positive: “a gripping script and a fictional story that feels ripped from a viral Netflix doc [make] Dead Mail definitely worth hunting down.” Worth a look based on this kind of effusive praise and also because it looks as totally crazy as a Park Chan-wook film.

Here’s the official trailer (+ poster) for DeBoer & McConaghy’s horror film Dead Mail, from YouTube:

You can watch the festival teaser for DeBoer & McConaghy’s Dead Mail right here for the first look again.

On a desolate, Midwestern county road, a bound man crawls towards a remote postal box, managing to slide a blood-stained plea-for-help message into the slot before a panicking figure closes in behind him. The note makes its way to the county post office and onto the desk of Jasper, a seasoned and skilled “dead letter” investigator, responsible for investigating lost mail and returning it to its sender. As he investigates further, Jasper meets Trent, a strange yet unassuming man who has taken up residence at the men’s home where Jasper lives. When Trent unexpectedly shows up at Jasper’s office, it becomes clear he has a vested interest in the note, and will stop at nothing to retrieve it… Dead Mail is co-written and co-directed by filmmakers Joe DeBoer & Kyle McConaghy, making their second feature after directing BAB and a few other tiny films previously. Produced by Zachary Weil & Brett Arndt. This initially premiered at the 2024 SXSW Film Festival last year in the Visions section, and it also played at TIFF in the fall. Shudder will debut DeBoer & McConaghy’s Dead Mail horror streaming on Shudder starting on April 19th, 2025 this spring.

Find more posts in: Horror, Indies, To Watch, Trailer