Send Help is Sam Raimi’s latest horror-comedy flick, starring Rachel McAdams as Linda Liddle and Dylan O’Brien as her boss, Bradley Preston, where their disgruntled dynamic is tested as they are left stranded on a desert island following a plane crash. Some may recognise director Raimi from his efforts on the first three Evil Dead films, but Send Help proves he doesn’t need demons to create a compelling film. The monsters here are entirely human.
The opening twenty minutes are, in contrast to the rest of the runtime, fairly simple.
We are introduced to Linda, who, while certainly sweet, is socially outcast in her office due to her... colourful demeanour. As much as her interactions can be cringe-inducing, what is more challenging to watch is how her colleagues treat her, with this disrespect spearheaded by her boss, Bradley.
Needlessly condescending and cruel, O’Brien does a great job establishing a figure so dastardly hateable yet still familiar and ordinary. He’s a figure that wouldn’t be at all out of place in the upper echelons of your average workplace: a man who thinks he’s God, lauding his power over everyone he can, particularly his female employees.
What makes Send Help so compelling is in how, following an excellently directed plane crash sequence—the sound design is extraordinary—this ordinary power dynamic is flipped completely.
This ordinary power dynamic is flipped completely
Bradley, who has not a lick of practical skills and who washes up with an injured leg, tries to recreate the workplace dynamic, but it’s Survivor-superfan Linda who holds all the cards.
If you underestimated her on account of her quirky demeanour, think again, as she turns herself into an icon up there with the smartest, most competent survival film leads, expertly adapting to the new surroundings.
Both actors are outstanding at embodying the shifting dynamics, and it’s both fascinating and totally hilarious to see how their relationship evolves alongside them.
McAdams especially delivers one of her finest performances—with her Oscar-nominated turn in Spotlight (2015) among them—as such a dynamic character; someone who sometimes frustrates you but ultimately has to be rooted for, and her portrayal of her character’s drastic transformation is just incredible.
Character drama is not all that Send Help provides: brutal, blood-soaked thrills come aplenty, with violent life-or-death situations around every corner. Everything from the plane crash to the ocean to the wildlife to the food they eat, even each other, poses a threat to their ever-precarious fight to cling to life until rescue comes... if it comes.
The constant tension of making it from one day to the next is underpinned by the very real possibility that help may never arrive.
On top of gnarly, gory mayhem, the twists and turns help keep everything feeling fresh.
Expect the unexpected going into Send Help, because director Raimi isn’t interested in a predictable, straightforward story.
Many moments caught me completely off guard as the film went in a direction I never would’ve seen coming, with a few shockers coming in the second half that are bound to blow you away for all sorts of reasons.
All that wouldn’t mean much if the conclusion weren’t effective. Fortunately, we have an early contender for one of the best endings of the year.
It’s subversive and satisfying and serves as a perfect way to cap off one of the best horror films in recent memory. If you’ve got a spare few hours, there are a few ways you can spend them this month, like going and seeing Send Help... just make sure you can handle all the blood, since this film is not for the faint of heart.