Dead Mail Stars On What Drew Them to the Quirky SXSW Horror Script

If you look at the cast list for Dead Mail on IMDb, it isn’t small. There are a lot of actors in it, and some scenes that take place at trade shows where the production had to wrangle a dozen people or more into a space. Still, the indie thriller is really all about two guys: Trent (John Fleck) and Josh (Sterling Macer, Jr.). Dead Mail, which hails from filmmakers Joe DeBoer and Kyle McConaghy, stars Macer (Bones) and Fleck (True Blood) as a hostage and his keeper, respectively — with Macer’s character trying to win his freedom by sneaking out a desperate, bloody letter and the hopes for his survival falling on the shoulders of the local post office. 

The dead letter office, usually tasked with reuniting shippers with their lost, high-value parcels, is the potential last stop for his letter, and the tense, unsettling movie unravels from there. It’s a movie with a hyper-specific tone and vision, and one that the filmmakers credit the actors with making possible.

“I got introduced to Kyle first through Susan Priver, a producer on the film and an actress in it as well. And we met for lunch at Birds Restaurant on Franklin Avenue in Hollywood, California,” Fleck told ComicBook.com. “I think that was even before I read the script, but then I read the script and I go, ‘Oh my God, what a blessing. Thank you.’ And then I remember I was in New York and that’s when I think we had a Zoom and I met with Joe the first time and Joe and Kyle were there. And I am a performance artist, so I sing and I used to have a five octave voice, which I still have about a three and a half. So I sang, one of the songs, Dido’s ‘Lament,’ that was mentioned in the script. And I think that cinched it, one of the things that cinched it, and they cast me. So anyways, the rest is history.”

Macer was equally impressed with DeBoer and McConaghy, saying that he sought them out to work with after seeing McConaghy’s directing reel.

“I really honestly do not think that there’s as innovative a duo or a co-directing team since the Coen Brothers as far as potential,” Macer said. “I know you guys, you’re cringing when you hear that, and I’m telling you.”

For his part, DeBoer was indeed cringing — and asked not to be compared to the Coen Brothers on the record, but Macer doubled down.

“No, don’t take that off the record, because I honestly think that there’s that level of potential with the uniqueness of how they approach story,” Macer said. “There’s a lot of great filmmakers out there, but there’s not a lot who have a unique sort of aesthetic. And so that’s what’s been really fun is, we’ve subsequently worked on another film with Kyle, BAB, now Dead Mail, and hopefully we’ll be working together some more.”

For his part, McConaghy said that the directors were just as impressed with Macer, and used his interest as proof of concept that a script was working.

“We had this script slits and we’re like, ‘What if Sterling could play one of these characters? The star character, wouldn’t that be amazing?’” the director said. “But it seemed like a long shot, and Sterling’s such an established actor. So the fact that he read it and was willing to attach himself to it, yeah, we felt so lucky and it was really cool that that happened.”

Added Fleck, “I remember we had a little readthrough rehearsal one afternoon at Kyle’s place and I, coming from a theater world, a performance art world, whatever, I come in big and I had these preconceived notions and I just had to strip them all away and just keep it simple and get to the heart of — what is this guy doing? And let go of all the, ‘this is who this character is’ and not play a character, but get to the essence of it. The first day of shooting, when we showed up and it just kind of fell together, I was so grateful for Joe and Kyle for leading me down the path of self-realization and simplicity…and working with Sterling. Hello? Bing, bing, bing. It was a great chemistry there.”

Here’s the official synopsis for Dead Mail: 

“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.”