Dead Mail

Joe DeBoer and Kyle McConaghy’s quirky thriller made its debut at the 2024 South by Southwest film festival where it scooped up enough fans to qualify as a cult item. Though the film has elements of “torture porn,” there’s also a Hitchcockian twist to the plot: a man held captive in a basement has just enough time to get his call for help into a mailbox; will it work? Starring Sterling Macer Jr. and John Fleck, the devil is in the details and worthy of anyone interested in low-budget films with big brains.