Director: Sam Raimi
Writers: Damian Shannon, Mark Swift
Stars: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Bruce Campbell
Synopsis: Two colleagues become stranded on a deserted island, the only survivors of a plane crash. On the island, they must overcome past grievances and work together to survive, but ultimately, it’s a battle of wills and wits to make it out alive.
With Send Help, Sam Raimi demonstrates what he does best, expertly toeing the line between horror and comedy. The horror master returns with his first feature since the wildly overrated Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, delivering his strongest film since Drag Me to Hell.
This is Raimi’s reentry into the genre that made him a household name is an exhilarating horror-thriller, featuring a terrific performance from Rachel McAdams. Yes, with Send Help, Sam Raimi reminds us why he’s a horror master – suspenseful, vicious, and wickedly funny.
The film follows Linda Liddle (Academy Award-nominee McAdams), an employee in the planning and strategy division of a Fortune 500 company. Her work is so highly regarded that her boss is preparing to promote her to Vice President. However, things take a downturn when he dies and his yuppie, silver-spoon-fed son, Bradley (Twinless’s Dylan O’Brien), is handed the CEO position.
Of course, Bradley promptly surrounds himself with his frat-boy buddies, proving the boys’ club is alive and well. Among them are Chase (Seagrass’s Chris Pang) and Donovan (Blonde’s Xavier Samuel), the latter of whom steals Linda’s work and is handed the promotion meant for her, simply because she doesn’t present herself as the kind of corporate shark who wheels and deals as a power broker on the golf course.
Bradley wants to show Linda the door, but the COO (Far from Heaven’s Dennis Haysbert, underutilized here) insists on keeping her on board, warning that the Bangkok merger could fall apart without her. Linda is forced to join the boys on a private jet, where, while she’s hard at work, they discover an old online audition video of her trying to land a spot on the latest season of Survivor.
The joke, however, is on them when the plane crashes in a sequence so steeped in dark comedy it might as well be Vantablack, killing everyone on board except Linda, who washes ashore on a deserted island. While searching her new home for food and supplies, she stumbles upon an injured Bradley and nurses him back to health, leaving the two of them to fight for survival.
Raimi’s Send Help is a viscerally felt horror flick with a savage original script from Damian Shannon and Mark Swift. The experience begins to work on many levels, like watching the love child of Cast Away, Swimming with the Sharks, and Misery. A survivalist desperation character study that doubles as a razor-sharp corporate satire. No, there are no boardrooms to swing an ax of corporate cruelty, or to make deals with handshakes on the golf course.
Here, a smarmy O’Brien is psychologically dismantled by McAdams’ Linda, who proves that her kindness is not a weakness. The result is a tropical oasis-style chess match that’s deeply unnerving. Raimi builds tension into a power struggle that becomes a wild, darkly funny ride. Here, power is valued over empathy, with kindness seen as a strategy rather than a virtue.
By refusing to let either character be fully trusted, the script creates a diabolically entertaining viewing experience in which every interaction feels like a psychological ploy, and the outcome is never predictable. Just as compelling is the way both characters evolve, crossing each other like passing ships, one sliding from good to bad, the other discovering a measure of their own humanity.
Send Help is worth watching because it does what the very best horror-thrillers do: it elevates a psychological two-hander in which so much is revealed that you’re never quite sure who to root for. Raimi’s precise control of the camera, paired with sharp thriller mechanics and impeccable comedic timing, is just as effective as the film’s bitter, razor-edged back-and-forth dialogue.
While the ending may feel a touch too clean, the larger themes of knowledge, competence, and emotional control come vividly alive through Rachel McAdams’ thrilling performance. Raimi understands that their fate isn’t a prison, it’s an opportunity. Survival is no longer the temptation.
Power is.
You can watch Send Help only in theaters starting January 30th!
