Movie Review: “Send Help”

Plot: Corporate strategist and amateur wilderness survivalist Linda Liddle (Rachel McAdams) has been struggling in the corporate world for years. Although excellent at her job, others have consistently swooped in to take the credit. Regardless, Linda’s eyes remain on the prize as a long-promised promotion is finally within her grasp. However, when young, arrogant, and verbally abusive Bradley Preston (Dylan O’Brien) takes over as CEO from his father, Linda is swept aside in favor of Bradley’s friend Donovan. Defiant, Linda fenagles her way on a business trip to Bangkok to prove her worth. Unfortunately, when the company jet is struck by lightning and crashes into the ocean, Linda is left stranded on a remote island with only an injured Bradley for company. With the power dynamic inverted, Bradley suddenly finds himself at the mercy of Linda. Yet as Bradley soon begins to learn, Linda might not be that merciful, and what starts out as a paradise descends into a nightmare.

Review: The career of director Sam Raimi is one of the great Hollywood success stories. Michigan-born and the son of humble merchants, Raimi began his film career in earnest at age sixteen when he first met long-time friend and collaborator Bruce Campbell. Over the next several years, using guerrilla filming techniques and acquiring funding in every way possible, Raimi and crew filmed, edited, and released The Evil Dead. A landmark moment in the history of horror cinema, The Evil Dead went on to spawn a franchise that exists to this day and influence an entire generation of filmmakers. Success soon followed at a larger scale with the original Spider-Man trilogy and more recently, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

While I respect, love, and admire Raimi’s big-budget films, I always feel like he works best when operating at a smaller scale with a limited budget. So, when I read that Raimi was returning to his low-budget horror roots after 17 years away, I was overjoyed. Yet I couldn’t help but wonder if, after so much time, Raimi still had the goods when it came to a genre he helped redefine.

Thankfully, I needn’t have worried.

Relentless, fearsome, fierce, and—dare I say it—fun, Send Help delivers an entertaining horror romp that reminds us how masterful Raimi can be. Led by two dynamite performances from Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien, Raimi’s film also sports a scintillating script from screenwriters Damian Shannon and Mark Swift. Send Help is a searing takedown of tech bro culture and toxic masculinity, and highlights the still-relevant gender divide in the corporate industry. Yet neither of these elements is presented in a preachy or didactic manner. Rather, Shannon and Swift showcase the absolute buffoonery of a male-dominated world where dudes routinely fail upward. At first glance, for example, one could dismiss Bradley and Donovan’s (Xavier Samuel) overtly chauvinistic and frat boy personalities as being too stereotypical in nature, except people of Bradley and Donovan’s ilk still very much exist in the Year of Our Lord 2026.

The male-dominated hierarchical structure that Raimi sets up allows us to easily empathize with Linda…at least initially. McAdams’s Linda is the very definition of “put upon.” A widower, she lives alone with only her bird for company, consistently watching others take credit for her excellent work. McAdams’s performance easily engenders heartfelt sympathy, especially after an early incident where Bradley publicly embarrasses her in front of her co-workers. It’s only when Linda and Bradley arrive on the island that Linda comes into her element. Finally put into a situation where she possesses real power, Linda harnesses her survival skills and revels in the realization that she’s finally in control. Yet going from helpless to powerful can have profound consequences. Linda’s evolution is equal parts horrifying and exhilarating as we watch our protagonist transform into something almost unrecognizable by the end of the movie.

Meanwhile, Dylan O’Brien’s Bradley proves the perfect foil for McAdams’s Linda. The consummate douchebag, O’Brien plays this role to the hilt and clearly has a blast doing it. His chemistry with Adams is electric, although decidedly non-sexual, which presents a surprisingly refreshing dynamic. Yet much like Linda, our feelings toward Bradley evolve over time as his helplessness escalates. As smug and callous as Bradley can be, he doesn’t deserve a fair amount of the pain Linda deliberately causes him, especially something significant late in the film. By the final and satisfying climactic clash between Linda and Bradley, I couldn’t help sympathizing with him.

Beyond the relationship between Linda and Bradley, some phenomenal horror set pieces in Send Help harken back to director Sam Raimi’s roots. The explosion and subsequent crash of the plane go on for an anxiety-inducing length of time, and a specific death involving a business tie was particularly harrowing. There’s also a phenomenal sequence where Linda stalks and kills a boar that’s only hinted at in the trailers. Trust me, the actual scene is even more intense. It showcases Raimi’s quintessential tracking shots courtesy of some excellent cinematography from DP Bill Pope. Yet these two examples pale in comparison to a decidedly wicked moment halfway through the movie involving a paralyzed Bradley and a knife-wielding Linda. I won’t spoil it, but suffice it to say that the visuals, coupled with the sound design, made me squirm. It’s a scene that will live rent-free in my head forever.

If I had one major gripe about Send Help, it was that the ending was abrupt and a little bit predictable. Those who were expecting something a little more mean-spirited, ala Drag Me To Hell, will be disappointed.

Nevertheless, my issues with the ending notwithstanding, Send Help is a wildly entertaining return to form for director Sam Raimi. It harkens back to his early era of filmmaking, and I sincerely hope we receive more movies in the vein of Send Help from him for years to come.

My rating system:

1 God Awful Blind Yourself With Acid Bad

2 Straight Garbage

3 Bad

4 Sub Par

5 Average

6 Ok

7 Good

8 Great

9 Excellent

10 A Must See

Masterpiece

Send Help: 8/10