By Marc S. Sanders
The best way to get back at your boss? I guess you could hope for the slim possibility of surviving a plane crash with him. Then he has no choice but to surrender to your survival instincts on a desert island off the coast of Thailand. That might deliver a more effective act of vengeance than bad mouthing him online or deleting a promising report that could advance his Fortune 500 company into greater profitability.
In Sam Raimi’s latest horror/slapstick adventure, it’s a blessing for the mousy computer nerd known as Linda Liddle (great name for Rachel McAdams’ character) that she didn’t end up in a skyscraper with twenty terrorists on Christmas Eve. She likely would not have been as resourceful as she is within the dense jungles of an island populated by wild boar, bugs, and assorted feastings with conch and berries. Linda is a huge fan of Survivor. She even went as far as submitting an audition tape demonstrating her abilities to live off of the outdoor elements. She didn’t get on the show, but her efforts are about to pay off.
Bradley (Dylan O’Brien) is now her boss after inheriting the position from his deceased father. He’s a chauvinistic and conniving jerk. He disregards Linda and overlooks her for a deserved promotion following seven years of accomplished desk work under dad’s leadership. The frat buddy who’s only been with the company for six months, and steals credit for Linda’s hard work, cuts in line.
A business trip aboard a private jet nosedives into the ocean leaving only Linda and Bradley as the washed up survivors. He has a badly injured leg and no knowledge of working in the outdoors. On the other hand, Linda quickly builds a fire and shelter while also rummaging for various sources of food and water, including a bloody hunt for wild boar.
From this point, Sam Raimi has lots of fun with his signature scare jumps and zoom-ins to startle you, prompting screams of laughter like you did when you saw Evil Dead and Drag Me To Hell. This thriller veers down paths least explored. A premise like this could never occur so conveniently in real life, but I had a blast watching Send Help, particularly because this bonkers script from Damian Shannon and Mark Swift can never, ever be trusted. With Raimi as director, these guys rely on your expectations that stemmed from a million other pictures like The Blue Lagoon or Castaway. Though I was surprised not to hear a single reference to Tarzan or Gilligan’s Island. Standard romance and crazed killer material has hardly ever been served up like it is here. The creators of Send Help manipulate you with fresh and shocking ideas.
Bravo to Rachel McAdams, the marquee actress listed above the title, for braving a tremendous, completely unglamorous role. She is stunning at going against type. She presents a clumsy, insecure outcast with no fashion sense and an ugly mop of a mess of hair. She’s even got a hideous looking zit on her cheek. Mean Girl Regina George would have a field day tormenting poor Linda. This script gives the actress so much to do. An incredible monologue at the midway point leans towards the twisty ending, but also allows for an illustrious recollection, on an intense level comparable to Quint’s USS Indianapolis anecdote from Jaws. McAdams is truly one of the most unsung actresses working today. Just a skilled performer with a wide berth of range and no two of her characters ever look the same. In Send Help, she’s offering hard hitting drama and suspense as well as ridiculous comedy. She goes to limits that Jack Nicholson and Gene Hackman provided during their careers. Rachel McAdams is the second coming of Kathy Bates from Misery.
Dylan O’Brien is a new actor for me. He’s a perfect cad, with a silver spoon of privilege wedged deep down in his throat. You hate this bastard he plays right from the start bringing what sounds like a ho hum script to alert life. Against McAdams, there are echoes of Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner in both Romancing The Stone and The War Of The Roses. This new couple go to both extremes of those opposite sides of a romantic face off.
Sam Raimi builds a playground for these pawns to roam around in where they get poisoned, vomited on, attacked, splattered with blood, and put in various stages of peril. He’s almost playing a board game as he uses Linda and Bradley to spell out the rules and boundaries that must be observed while they wait to be rescued. To win will mean they either work together or go against each other.
Send Help veers in so many different directions that it’s nothing but outlandish fun where you ask what could possibly happen next. You think you’ve seen this movie a dozen times before, but then it is daring enough to invent its own twists. With only a cast of two you’re conflicted by who you should root for. This story is completely expansive in imagination, and daring in execution.
Having recently seen Backrooms, I applauded the idea, but I frowned on a stapled conclusion that settles for the monster chasing the poor victim. Send Help breaks conventions set up in the first half. It was such a pleasure to not have everything figured out, where the filmmakers took me on a ride far beyond a merry go round. The scenario is implausible, but the character instincts and circumstances are marvelously intelligent, compelling and totally surprising.
This might be on my top ten list for 2026.
2 UNPAID MOVIE CRITICS!!!! 