Send Help Review: Sam Raimi & Rachel McAdams Movie Is an Insane Ride
Send Help is your new favorite horror/dark comedy hybrid, courtesy of director Sam Raimi, in the vein of Drag Me to Hell. Raimi’s remarkable style, with energy, humor, and pure chaos infused into his horror, is all over this film. This film gives you all-out insanity from start to finish in this exceptional tale of two mismatched coworkers who crash-land on a deserted island.
Rachel McAdams stars as Linda Liddle from Strategy & Planning. She’s one of the most talented, charismatic movie stars of the past few decades, and the posters advertise her as such, making her look like a pure action heroine. But when the movie begins, Linda couldn’t be farther from McAdams’s public persona. It’s a testament to how talented McAdams is, as she starts the movie as this unassuming, lowly employee. She has no idea how to socialize with her fellow coworkers, and she lives only with the company of a pet bird and reruns of Survivor. She is designed to give off the vibe of someone you would know at your own workplace—a middle-aged hard worker eating tuna sandwiches at her desk. This movie knows that with a character like this, it’s about the journey. And the person Linda ends up is vastly different from how she is at the start.
Dylan O’Brien is designed to be her opposite in every way. He plays Bradley Preston, who inherits the company from his CEO father. O’Brien plays the entitled nepo baby perfectly. He’s spoiled, privileged, and he has no real interest in giving Linda the promotion his father promised her. You can see him relishing this role as a completely unlikable person, just like you can see McAdams having fun as this underdog whom you can easily root for.
Bradley reluctantly brings Linda along to a company trip to Bangkok, which quickly goes awry when the plane crashes into the sea. The only survivors? An overlooked employee and her a-hole boss. It’s heartbreaking to watch Linda put in so much work for a company that doesn’t deserve her, but after Linda and Bradley wash ashore, the rules of the office have changed. Their only goal is survival. And who better to keep them alive than the employee who’s studied every episode of Survivor?
Send Help is a love letter to anyone who has ever hated their boss. The screenplay from writers Damian Shannon and Mark Swift feels personal. Bradley overlooks all of Linda’s hard work in the office, and he continues to do so, even after she saves his life and provides him with shelter. It’s hilarious to see how he remains undeserving and unappreciative of all his help, and then seeing him suffer without it. He’s forced to appreciate an employee he had no respect for because if he doesn’t, she can leave him to die at anytime. Satisfying doesn’t even begin to describe it.
Raimi brings back that trademark energy he’s known for. Much like he did in his Evil Dead films, he puts us in the POV of a predator attempting to snack on Linda. It’s part of this brutally bloody action sequence that doesn’t hold back. This movie is Raimi unchained, with the full R rating. There’s a vomit sequence that will make fans of his 2009 horror movie Drag Me to Hell very happy. He throws in the jump scares and wackiness that you expect from him, and it’s great to see him back. It’s also lovely to see him reunite with McAdams again so soon after Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Ever since I saw her set fire to a bunch of demons and deliver the one-liner, “Go back to hell!” in that film, I had a good feeling about this.
Send Help has an absolute blast turning the tables on these two characters. This is a film about power dynamics and how that balance shifts in times of crisis. It’s so fun to see the powerless employee take the power back from this brash CEO. He needs to put himself in positions that he would normally never be in at the office, and Linda particularly starts to revel in the control she has over him, especially after how he used to treat her in the past. Seeing her become a stronger character is wickedly entertaining.
This film knows exactly how to push its characters to dark, unexpected places, all with a striking sense of humor. It’s so funny to see these two interact because they do not like each other at all. But even in this hopeless situation, they both share a common goal, and one of the best scenes in the movie is one where we learn about both of their backstories and how they ended up as the people they are. There’s something beautiful about the idea of these two needing to unite to survive, but it’s Raimi, so no one stays safe for long.
SCORE: 8/10
As ComingSoon’s review policy explains, a score of 8 equates to “Great.” While there are a few minor issues, this score means that the art succeeds at its goal and leaves a memorable impact.
Disclosure: ComingSoon attended a press screening for our Send Help review.
Source: Comingsoon.net