Shudder Acquires Mumblegore Thriller ‘Dead Mail’

This week Shudder announced the acquisition of ‘80s Midwest horror thriller Dead Mail from directors Joe DeBoer and Kyle McConaghy. The highly anticipated film, which made its world premiere at the 2024 SXSW Festival, stars Sterling Macer Jr., John Fleck, Susan Piver, Micki Jackson, Tomas Boykin, and Nick Heyman.

Read the full synopsis below:

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 desk of Jasper, a seasoned ‘dead letter’ investigator at a 1980s 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.

DeBoer and McConaghy said, “When we started this film, we certainly had no idea it would end up somewhere as legitimate and boundary-pushing as Shudder.  We’re beyond excited to be included alongside so many fantastic films, and as a bonus, our midwestern extended family will finally have an excuse to start their Shudder 7-day free trials.”

“Dead Mail showcases the immense talent of Kyle and Joe in what is a unique, arresting highly entertaining, darkly comedic film with color-drenched 80s nostalgia as the backdrop,” said Emily Gotto, Senior Vice President of Acquisitions and Production at Shudder. “It’s just the type of bloody and offbeat thriller that lives on Shudder.”

In her review of the film from SXSW 2024, Dread Central’s Mary Beth McAndrews wrote,

“Dead Mail takes contemporary ideas about the 1980s and nostalgia and twists them into a neo-Fargo narrative about being in the wrong place and the wrong time, small-town violence, and trying to just find a friend.”

Written and directed by DeBoer and McConaghy, Dead Mail is produced by Zachary Weiland Brett Arndt with Roy Lee, Steven Schneider, Adam Goldworm, and Susan Priver as Executive Producers.

Dead Mail will make its exclusive streaming debut on April 18 on Shudder as part of the streamer’s annual Halfway to Halloween celebration.

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