Dir: Sam Raimi
Cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien
With a committed McAdams and O’Brien at his disposal, Sam Raimi’s “Send Help” shines brightest as a wildly entertaining survival thriller, only to lose its footing in the final act when the cult filmmaker’s horror roots take over and cloud the narrative
Sam Raimi is not just one of my personal favourite filmmakers; he has also carved out a legendary status over the past four decades as a cult icon. Renowned for his unapologetic use of gore and guerrilla filmmaking techniques, Raimi burst onto the scene in the early 1980s with his scrappy, low-budget horror film “The Evil Dead”. What essentially began as a college project has since become a touchstone of independent cinema, celebrated for its inventive blend of horror and slapstick and for introducing the world to Raimi’s wild visual flair and his charismatic leading man and best friend , Bruce Campbell. Nearly half a century later, that humble debut has spawned a sprawling franchise, leaping from film to TV, comics, and video games, with a fresh chapter, “Evil Dead Burn”, even set to arrive later this year.
After cementing his reputation as a cult horror maestro, Raimi began to explore new cinematic territory. The 1990s saw him tackle everything from the gunslinging showdowns of “The Quick and the Dead” (1995) to the Oscar-nominated noir suspense of “A Simple Plan” (1998) and the heartfelt drama of baseball in “For the Love of the Game” (1999). Proving his versatility, Raimi finally claimed the mainstream spotlight with his blockbuster adaptation of the Marvel comic book “Spider-Man” in 2002, a triumph that also led him to helm two wildly successful sequels.
At the dawn of the 2000s, comic book movies and Marvel itself were on shaky ground. Alongside hit franchises like “Blade” and “X-Men”, Raimi’s “Spider-Man” trilogy helped ignite a superhero renaissance, paving the way for the genre’s eventual domination with the rise of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Raimi later returned to the Marvel fold, directing “Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” in 2022, which, despite the expected studio meddling, still pulsed with his unmistakable visual flair and horror-tinged imagination.
For his latest project, “Send Help”, Raimi dives back into horror for the first time since the sensational supernatural chiller “Drag Me to Hell” in 2009, and I, for one, am thrilled to see him return to the genre that made him a household name all those years ago. The story centres on Linda Liddle (Rachel McAdams), a timid and overlooked corporate strategist who, after being promised a VP role by her former boss, is snubbed by his bratty son Bradley (Dylan O’Brien), who hands the coveted position to his old college buddy Donovan (Xavier Samuel) instead.
Impressed by Linda’s boldness in challenging his decision, Bradley gives her a chance to prove herself by joining him and his team on a business trip to Thailand to seal a major merger. En route, things take a drastic turn when their private jet crashes into the Gulf of Thailand, with Linda narrowly escaping the wreckage and washing up on a remote island, only to discover that Bradley is the sole other survivor. As she nurses him back to health and builds their shelter, the tables begin to turn. Once conscious, Bradley’s ego clashes with Linda’s resourcefulness, sparking a fierce battle for dominance as their power dynamic of the corporate hierarchy is upended in the wild.
After a seventeen-year break from horror, Raimi storms back with the kind of fearless bravado few directors would dare attempt today. Though the script itself is inherited from screenwriters Damian Shannon and Mark Swift, Raimi stamps it with his trademark: wild pan zooms, buckets of blood and bodily fluids (vomit included), and a gleeful embrace of slapstick. He once dubbed “The Evil Dead” and its even zanier sequel, “Evil Dead 2” (1987), “The Three Stooges” with blood instead of custard pies, and that twisted sense of humour is still on full display here decades later. Both McAdams and O’Brien are sensationally cast against type, both seizing the opportunity to show off their sharp comedic timing. O’Brien, especially, is a riot as the entitled, grinning nepo-baby Bradley, with an accompanying shit-eating grin, making him the perfect “love-to-hate” foil for Linda.
Yet McAdams’ deglamourized, battered Linda is far from a simple underdog. What begins as a story of female empowerment, with the overlooked strategist finally getting the better of her misogynist boss, soon spirals into something far darker and more unpredictable as Linda’s past and her ruthless drive come to light. This narrative twist keeps the film sharp and suspenseful, even if it echoes the social power shifts of Ruben Ostlund‘s “Triangle of Sadness” (2022), which also explored upheaval after a maritime disaster.
Technically, the film does stumble at times, however. The pivotal plane crash and a gory wild boar encounter look oddly unconvincing, a let down given Raimi’s history of gloriously grotesque practical effects. The pacing also wobbles in the middle, with the ongoing power struggles repeating a bit too often. Still, the film’s unpredictability and the electric chemistry between McAdams and O’Brien keep things lively.
My biggest gripe with “Send Help” is, unfortunately, its final act, which stumbles into an underwhelming, oddly misjudged last twenty minutes. What starts as a sharp, darkly funny survival thriller suddenly veers into the kind of over-the-top, gross-out violence you’d expect from Raimi, but here it feels too cartoonish given the compelling narrative that had preceded it. As much as I love his signature style, it clashes with the nuanced character work that came before, resulting in an ending that wraps up too neatly and abruptly, stripping away the complexity and leaving both Linda and Bradley acting out of character.
The Verdict:
Though the finale stumbles with a lack of inspiration and uneven tone, Sam Raimi’s “Send Help” bursts with the director’s signature flair, delivering a wildly entertaining survival thriller. Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien bring infectious energy to their roles, making the ride all the more unforgettable.
Send Help is now showing in UK Cinemas
Dan Loves Film 
Always terrific reviews!
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Thanks man!!
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