Director: Sam Raimi
If you’ve been waiting for Sam Raimi to get back to his campy, groovy, gory roots, Send Help is the answer to your prayers. It’s a deliciously hilarious and demented survival thriller that feels like the a spiritual successor to Drag Me to Hell. It’s a riotous, gross-out fable about workplace dynamics that proves Raimi hasn’t lost his touch for tormenting his characters.
The Setup: Employee of the Month
The premise is simple, Linda Liddle (Rachel McAdams) is a timid, overworked numbers whiz who eats tuna sandwiches at her desk and obsesses over the reality show Survivor. Her boss, Bradley Preston (Dylan O’Brien), is a tech-bro nightmare—a “spoiled rich kid” who plans to fire her right before inviting her on a business trip to Thailand.
When their private jet crashes into the ocean (in a sequence that is “crazy violent”), the two wash up on a deserted island. The dynamic shifts immediately: Bradley, nursing a broken leg, is useless, while Linda’s encyclopedic knowledge of survival skills makes her the new boss. What has the makings of a survival story enemies to lovers rom com slowly but very precisely spirals into a dark, psychological hilarious, and absolutely Sam Raimi battle of wills.
McAdams Goes Feral
The absolute highlight here is Rachel McAdams. We’ve seen her play the mean girl before, but never quite like this. She delivers a “fearless, ego-free performance,” transforming from a mousy office drone into an unhinged survivalist warlord. Watching her strut around the beach, building shelters and roasting fish while her boss begs for scraps, is a cathartic “eat the rich” fantasy brought to life.
Dylan O’Brien is equally good as the punching bag. He leans into Bradley’s “entitled incompetence” with such commitment that you love to hate him. And of course, this is a Raimi film, so the visual language is frantic and fun. We get the signature Dutch angles, the aggressive camera push-ins, and an “almost gratuitous amount of glop”—blood, vomit, and other fluids that had audiences “gasping and yelping”. It is “splatstick” at its finest.
A perfect! ending
The ride is absolutely thrilling and hilarious throughout, but what makes it even better is the destination. The film just continues to heat up throughout, getting more and more thrilling at every turn, until it blows up into truly feral classic Sam Raimi horror spectacle.
The final act is the Sam Raimi unleashed that we last saw in films like Evil Dead. It’s his inventiveness and his personality told through the lens, that just makes what could feel predictable into an absolutely breathtaking thrill.
All ending with a stellar match cut that perfectly punctuates the film. It’s been a while since I’ve had a this much fun at th emovies. Thank You Sam Raimi!
Conclusion
Send Help is the most fun theatrical experience you’ll have all year, in a heartily directed, stunningly acted, thrilling and hilarious package. It may take a minute to get going, but when it does it is impossible to look away, a return to form for a director who is clearly having a blast getting his hands dirty again.
Rating: ★★★★☆ (4/5)
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