{"id":107469,"date":"2024-09-10T05:00:56","date_gmt":"2024-09-10T09:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=107469"},"modified":"2024-09-10T14:00:04","modified_gmt":"2024-09-10T18:00:04","slug":"interview-tiff24-indie-thriller-dead-mail-finds-dark-undercurrent-1980s-midwest-america-synth-soundtrack","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2024\/09\/10\/interview-tiff24-indie-thriller-dead-mail-finds-dark-undercurrent-1980s-midwest-america-synth-soundtrack\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW | TIFF24: Indie Thriller Dead Mail Finds The Dark Undercurrent In 1980s Midwest America To A Synth Soundtrack"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Scene
Scene from the indie film Dead Mail by Joe DeBoer and Kyle McConaghy (Photo courtesy of the Toronto International Film Festival)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Indie thriller Dead Mail, by US filmmakers Joe DeBoer and Kyle McConaghy, begins with the scene of a man, partially shackled, dragging himself to the post box next to the small home he\u2019s burst out of. He\u2019s intercepted, but not before shoving a piece of paper with words written in his own blood into the slot.<\/p>\n

It sets off a chain of events that involve a dead letter office, a surreal kidnapping, and the nature of creativity. Music is key to the story; Josh, the unfortunate man, as it turns out, is a synthesizer engineer, an otherworldly soul obsessed with producing the perfect sound for his instruments. He\u2019s been kidnapped by the even more obsessive Trent.<\/p>\n

The story celebrates the role of those back office heroes like Jasper the dead mail detective, who doggedly tracks down the correct addresses for packages and letters from the scant clues he\u2019s given, and Josh\u2019s meticulous methods of synth sound creation. The lighting and cinematography create poetic scenes out of everyday and even run down locales like the men\u2019s hostel that becomes pivotal to the story.<\/p>\n

An off-beat sensibility permeates the story, and the \u201cthriller\u201d slot doesn\u2019t quite capture its eccentric nature. Essentially, the story of two people tracking each other down is interwoven with scenes that highlight the obsessive nature of creation and other themes.<\/p>\n

The Music<\/h2>\n

Along with the synthesizer pieces, composed by the filmmaker duo, and Four Fantasies for the Synclavier by John Appleton, the soundtrack also includes traditional classical repertoire, such as Purcell\u2019s King Arthur Suite (Act 3 Prelude), Debussy\u2019s Suite Bergamesque, and a handful of pieces by JS Bach, including his Trio Sonata No. 1 in E-flat.<\/p>\n

The synth musical excerpts are used to underpin the shifting moods of the film, helping to turn the innocuous confines of a postal office into the weirdly sinister scene of murders and mayhem. The mood ranges from quirky to foreboding to tension on an operatic score as the action ramps up during about the last third of the movie.<\/p>\n

The movie got its Canadian premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, and LvT asked a few questions of the filmmakers.<\/p>\n