An obsession with keyboards, investigative postal workers, a database-hacking optician and a lone kidnapper, all wrapped up in an 80s videotape aesthetic: what must have seemed like a completely absurd concoction at the script stage is exactly that in its cinematic manifestation. And yet in Joe DeBoer and Kyle McConaghy’s Dead Mail it miraculously blends into a mystery thriller as coherent as it is quirky and unique. An ominous, blood-stained message with a plea for help ends up in the undeliverable-mail department and proves the starting point for an incredible story as captivating as an entire orchestra of finely tuned synthesizers. (me)