Sam Raimi certainly has a voice and a style, and even if he’s not fully embracing his gory Evil Dead beginnings these days, there’s still a campy charm to his films. He understands what his audience expects and what they want from a Sam Raimi movie. Too many people weren’t fans of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, but I enjoyed it largely because Raimi brought so much of his own flavor to the film. It felt like Marvel was dabbling in horror, and that willingness to lean into the strange helped it stand out.
Of course, it wasn’t Raimi’s first time helping to reshape a genre. His Spider-Man films with Tobey Maguire helped launch a new generation of superhero movies alongside Bryan Singer’s X-Men, and his fingerprints remain easy to spot no matter what genre he’s working in.
Enter Rachel McAdams. She may never have fully claimed Scream Queen status, but she has quietly built a career working alongside some major horror filmmakers. One of the best examples remains Wes Craven’s Red Eye. While not a full-blown horror film, it was packed with tension, and McAdams, alongside Cillian Murphy, made sure every second of its time-sensitive premise felt urgent.
McAdams plays Linda, a frumpy, tuna-loving assistant who has spent years doing the actual work while waiting for the promotion she was practically promised. When her boss retires, however, the company is handed over to his son, played by Dylan O’Brien. He has little interest in honoring his father’s commitments and would much rather reward one of his buddies than the woman who has been holding the operation together.
Still, a major business trip to Japan is approaching, and he reluctantly brings her along because, frankly, the company would fall apart without her.Linda sees it as one final chance to prove herself.He’s never going to promote her.Not even if she were the last person on Earth. As fate would have it, she just might be.
Their plane suffers a catastrophic failure mid-flight, and after a spectacular crash, Linda and her boss emerge as the only survivors. Stranded on what appears to be an uninhabited island, the balance of power shifts almost immediately. He’s badly injured. She’s not. Once again, she’s the one doing all the work.
What follows has more than a hint of Misery running through its DNA. O’Brien becomes increasingly dependent on her, while Linda’s years of resentment simmer just beneath the surface. They argue. They bicker. He heals and starts believing he can survive without her. Unfortunately for him, everything that can go wrong continues to go wrong.
Meanwhile, Linda starts becoming a little more comfortable with the idea that she may not need anyone’s approval anymore.As the film progresses, it starts going gloriously off the rails.The thing is, Sam Raimi is one of the few directors who can successfully conduct a train after it has already left the tracks. He thrives when his stories tumble down the rabbit hole. The darker things become, the more playful he gets, blending horror, comedy, and outright absurdity into something uniquely his own.
McAdams is fantastic here, and I honestly can’t remember the last time she was this good. The film is largely a two-person showcase for her and O’Brien, but she absolutely owns it. Watching her slowly stop caring about what anyone thinks is endlessly entertaining. After all, she’s the one finding food, catching fish, building shelter, and keeping them alive. He’s the one who needs her.The tables have turned, and McAdams squeezes every ounce of entertainment out of that premise.
That’s not meant to diminish O’Brien, who continues to seek out increasingly challenging projects. I loved him in Twinless last year, and he does strong work here as well. But this is McAdams’ movie from beginning to end.
I also had a great time with the audio description. The plane crash sequence is one of the film’s highlights, and Raimi has a lot of fun setting up several of the passengers beforehand, only to pay those moments off in increasingly wild ways once disaster strikes. Thankfully, the description track captured those details well. There’s a particularly funny moment regarding getting a tie stuck, which made me laugh out loud, not just an internal chuckle or a smirk, so that’s something.
My main criticisms for the film lie deep within the spoiler territory.I would explain them to you, but I don’t want to spoil things for you. In case you look at the grade and think, wow this review is glowing, why isn’t that score higher? There is a character who is introduced more as a concept, almost like furniture in a room, that surprisingly out of nowhere turns into a far bigger player than anyone could have guessed based on the initial meeting. That whole thing, didn’t work for me. Everything else, tons of fun.
Send Help is certainly worth answering, as Rachel McAdams might just be giving the performance of her career, or at least the most fetch. Sam Raimi is having a blast taking this film to some truly unexpected places.
Fresh: 7.7/10
