Send Help – The BRWC Review
The latest film from horror and superhero visionary Sam Raimi, Send Help, hits theaters as a survival thriller with Raimi-esque scares. Written by the team that brought audiences a range of films from Baywatch to Freddy vs. Jason, Send Help blends dark laughs with terror as Linda Liddle (Rachel McAdams) and Bradley (Dylan O’Connor) fight to stay alive in the remote South Pacific. The premise alone lends itself to terror, but through the lens of Raimi returning to his mid-budget, high-concept roots of The Evil Dead, Send Help takes on a life of its own with genre-blending gusto.
Linda is quirky, endearing at times, but off-putting at others. She works hard, is a numbers whiz in corporate strategy, and is a massive Survivor fan; she is next in line for a significant promotion. Bradley underestimates Linda, passing her over for the new VP job in favor of his college buddy Donovan. Yet Bradley, in all his confidence, tells Linda, “Prove me wrong.” En route to close a deal in Thailand, the entire corporate team falls victim to a gruesome plane crash, save for Linda and Bradley. Out of the office and into the wild, Bradley is at the mercy of Linda. No amount of corporate speak or golf course skills has prepared him for the elements, and now Linda is the one in charge.
On the surface, Send Help can look like Misery meets Lord of the Flies. Bradley injures his leg in the crash, and he must rely on Linda to stay alive. However, recontextualizing the story post-reality-TV boom and, more importantly, post-Survivor adds a wrinkle to the narrative. The Survivor nods are more than set dressing and namechecks, but a catalyst to Linda’s agency in the story. Using a show like Survivor as a means to Linda’s actual survivor tale is an excellent, “show-don’t-tell” approach to storytelling. The choice reveals her personality outside the corporate world; what has her mocked by the executives leads to a power shift when stranded.
Watching Rachel McAdams as Linda, it’s impressive to remember she is the same performer who brought Regina George to the big screen. She also won hearts and garnered tears in The Notebook. McAdams plays Linda with a blend of strangeness and charisma that endears but still unnerves. But it fits her career and showcases her range. Having previously starred in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, seeing her take on a horror-adjacent role aligns with her work with Raimi. Dylan O’Connor, as a legacy-hire CEO, plays into his confidence and creates sympathy for an unlikable character. Both translate their performances into Raimi films, giving just enough nuance to make audiences wonder, “Am I cheering for the right person?”
Mark Swift and David Shannon hit the balance of black comedy and edge-of-your-seat scares in Send Help. Combined with Raimi’s visual style, the trio blends gruesome, gross violence with offbeat humor and the pacing of a good video-store-era gem. It’s the tone of a thriller with the gore of a horror. Swift and Shannon populate Linda and Bradley with personality choices ripped from modern Survivor, but blend them in a way organic to the story. Told within the wild world of Sam Raimi, Send Help is unpredictable until the closing credits, but it feels earned in every scene. Swift and Shannon weave in foreshadowing with ease, as nothing is without reason, from the books on Linda’s shelves to a knife allegedly washing up on shore.
Predictability has been the furthest thing from Raimi’s radar since he first stormed cinemas with The Evil Dead in 1981. Even though the majority of the 21st-century Raimi has brought audiences superhero films, he has remained visionary across genres. From Spider-Man 2’s epic train battle to Drag Me to Hell’s closing moments, Raimi is a director of style that becomes substance. But Send Help is not Doctor Strange zombie-dreamwalking in Multiverse of Madness, a note of horror inside another genre. Send Help is classic Raimi, more akin to Drag Me to Hell or even Darkman in its quirky, indie-inspired filmmaking. The atypical story structure of Evil Dead II, the irreverent humor of Army of Darkness, and the final-act twists across Raimi’s work all permeate Send Help in a way only he could.
Send Help finds balance and blends genres with ease. It comments on corporate life without being preachy. It gives enough information to guess twists without becoming predictable. And it provides McAdams and O’Connor with a vehicle to expand their repertoire without alienating their best qualities. Swift and Shannon, with Raimi, create symmetry throughout the story, wasting no space in the script or on screen, everything building to the cathartic, bloody frenzy of the final 15 minutes
Send Help is the latest in the growing trend of mid-budget films that push creative boundaries and achieve box-office success. From Oscar-worthy dramedies from A24 and Neon like Marty Supreme and Anora to elevated horror like Longlegs and Midsommar, it’s electrifying to see Sam Raimi joining the mid-budget renaissance with something as unique as Send Help. The film plays on a few familiar tropes, but through the sharp storytelling of Sam Raimi and the seamless performances of the leads, Send Help shines in all its survival-horror glory.
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