Send Help ★★★

It has been since 2009’s Drag Me to Hell that director Sam Raimi has worked in the horror genre and with Send Help, it is so nice to have him back. Send Help follows Linda Liddle (Rachel McAdams), a hard-working woman who works in strategy and planning for a financial management company. The company was recently wracked with the death of its CEO, leading to the elevation of the CEO’s son Bradley Preston (Dylan O’Brien) to the role. Though she was promised a promotion to Vice President by Bradley’s father, Linda is quickly muscled out of the role with Bradley giving the job to one of his fraternity brothers at the company. Bradley makes it clear that he has no respect for Linda, but he does want to use her brains and ability with math to his advantage, so he still invites her to come along on a company trip to Bangkok for a big company merger meeting. On the way there, the plane crashes with only Linda and an injured Bradley surviving. Send Help, in true Raimi style, is an often darkly funny and gory film with frights and entertainment aplenty.

Send Help has naturally drawn comparisons to Misery and Cast Away, though Raimi has pushed back on both and it is clear why. Aside from surface-level comparisons and a few scenes here and there, Send Help is really its own film with Raimi almost using the knowledge of these parallels as a red herring. At every turn where Send Help could follow an approach similar to these films, it flips into another direction. As much as its remote setting – Linda and Bradley believe they washed up on an island in the Gulf of Thailand – naturally provides tension, Send Help is more a study of power and of these characters. Prior to the plane crash, there are plenty of moments that feel like Office Space with Linda being an unfulfilled employee who is unappreciated by her employer, namely Bradley. She works hard and is smart. Her work is often stolen from her, while Bradley is content to use this new job to create a boys club of his fraternity and golf buddies while taking advantage of various other abuses of power (such as sexually harassing interviewees). He is cartoonishly evil, a misogynistic monster who is out to get rid of Linda as soon as possible because she greeted him with a bit of her tuna fish lunch on her lip.

However, as even Linda will tell him, “Monsters are not born. They are created.” Bradley’s life is filled with neglect and trauma that made him this way at work, while Linda’s life is filled with trauma at home that has made this island somewhat of a welcome escape. She loves Survivor and has numerous books about survival in her home library. She has, essentially, been studying for this kind of situation for years and when she lands on this island then finds the injured Bradley on the beach, Linda knows everything she needs to do in order for them to survive. She is in control. She has the power. To some extent, Send Help has one rooting for Linda and feeling “good for her” at numerous occasions. However, Raimi never plays it so simply. These are both murky individuals, molded by their pasts and now their current experiences to become exactly who they are: monsters, emboldened by having power over another individual and having this power satiate their otherwise lack thereof in their daily existence. Just as Bradley abused his power at work because it was the only place he ever had power, Linda abuses it on the island. It is a fascinating dynamic and one that takes Send Help into an exciting direction. Raimi frequently relies on low and high angle shots to establish the power dynamics, as well as blocking that positions either Linda or Bradley to above the other. Their eventual struggle for control and some shocking discoveries on the island lead to some of the best scenes in Send Help, namely one that comes after Bradley has ingested the venom from a blue octopus and Linda uses the numbness as a chance to send him a message about who has the power here. It is a scene that makes one lean forward, locked into the comedy of wondering if this could really be happening and into the uncomfortable feelings the moment creates. McAdams’s expressive face and deliciously scene chewing delivery is remarkable, while O’Brien’s tear-filled eyes and pained expression tell a story all their own.

While Send Help works well in this character-driven area, it has plenty of appeal elsewhere. Raimi knows his way around gross special effects, gore, and dark comedy like few other directors and Send Help is filled to the brim with each. There is a scene with a boar hunt that is completely gnarly. When one thinks the blood has stopped, it suddenly finds another artery and keeps spraying. If one has a problem with eye mutilation, Send Help may give you nightmares due to multiple scenes. The effects across-the-board are terrific with the make-up really selling some of the after effects of the gnarliest scenes. Raimi dials it up in the climax and pulls no punches, though a lot of it retains the same kind of goofy affectation as the violence in the Evil Dead franchise. Bloody, but a bit cartoonish in a good way. However, it is not all blood and guts with Raimi utilizing the mystery and layout of this island to great effect. One never quite knows what is lurking around the next corner, while a precarious ledge makes for quite the heart-in-mouth adrenaline rush in a few scenes. A dream sequence on the beach is a particular horror standout with haunting dialogue, shadowy lighting, and McAdams’s terrified expression making for a truly arresting moment of terror. Cinematographer Bill Pope is key to this scene’s success, as well as much of Send Help’s appeal with his well-timed close-ups helping to deliver some of the most blood curdling, squelchiest, and thrilling moments.

Yet, Send Help is also very funny. McAdams is right at home in this odd tonal balance with plenty of similarities here to her performance in Game Night. She has the perfect delivery for this character, while also having some of the repressed badass lingering in her eyes and demeanor as Linda slinks into her element on this island and takes control. In the office, McAdams nails the awkward dialogue and tone in Linda’s demeanor, delivering cringe humor akin to the work of Tim Robinson. Her dynamic with O’Brien is paramount to the success in developing Linda and Bradley’s relationship, while Send Help finds many of its laughs in conversation, reactions, or in deadpan delivery. They have a genuine chemistry that makes one believe, at times, they might both survive this and find something real between them. They both successfully disarm one another and the audience because of this, a tool that Raimi uses frequently with plenty of interpersonal twists and turns to go with the added wrinkles provided by this mysterious island. O’Brien plays Bradley with just enough charm and, at times, vulnerability to make one fall for his ability to change. On the flip side, he has such a smarmy and cruel delivery at times that whenever trouble befalls him, one cannot help but root for some more suffering.

Send Help is director Sam Raimi’s long-awaited return to the horror genre and is well worth the wait. Funny, thrilling, and engaging in its study of power in life and at work, Send Help feels like a real throwback thriller. It sticks close to survival thriller conventions, but Raimi mixes in plenty of surprises while eschewing easy comparisons to films like Misery or Cast Away. Armed with these great performances from Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien, a strong setup in sticking these two characters into a life-or-death situation on a remote island, and Raimi’s trademark blend of goopy violence and black comedy, Send Help is a blast.