Review: Sam Raimi's Send Help is devoted to a particularly nasty vision of humanity

Sam Raimi returns with Send Help, his first film since 2022’s Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, reteaming with Rachel McAdams in a survivalist thriller-comedy with horror movie undertones.

McAdams stars as the aptly named Linda, a long-time employee of a company who is overdue for a promotion to the executive ranks. She has been promised such a promotion by the CEO, but he dies, leaving his dipsh-t son, Bradley (Dylan O’Brien), in charge of the company. Bradley reneges on his father’s promise, choosing to promote a fraternity brother—who takes credit for Linda’s work, no less—instead of Linda.

If you are susceptible to second-hand embarrassment, the first twenty minutes of Send Help are tough. Linda is well-meaning but socially awkward, struggling to connect with the younger people surrounding her in the middle ranks, which leads to a lot of embarrassing moments at Linda’s expense. She lives alone with a bird that doesn’t seem to like her and is a Survivor fanatic. In fact, a pan of Linda’s bookshelves reveals an interest in survivalism and outdoorsy pursuits, which is one example of stellar economical visual storytelling in Send Help. There is another shot, blink and you’ll miss it, that shows a cadre of besweatered women of a certain age, Linda’s true peers, relegated the assistant ranks. It’s a quick but brilliant way of showing who is really running the company that pays for these mediocre men’s golf outings and snazzy loafers.

After daring to advocate for herself, Linda is included on a trip to Bangkok to finalize a merger, though really she’s just there for Bradley and his pals to take advantage of her capability one last time before Bradley fires her. In short order, the plane goes down, a fast but terrifying sequence that, in true Raimi fashion, works in some brutally funny deaths for detestable characters (Chris Pang and Xavier Samuel are excellent as Bradley’s even worse yes-men). Linda wakes up on a beach and finds Bradley also survived the crash, though he is seriously injured.

The bulk of Send Help is devoted to Linda and Bradley surviving together on a deserted island. Linda thrives while Bradley wilts, but far from a tale of reconciliation, understanding, and human kindness, Send Help, which is written by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift, is devoted to a particularly nasty vision of humanity. This is a very mean-spirited film, unapologetically cruel, and while there is some backstory devoted to shading in the characters of Linda and Bradley, those revelations do not play out as expected.

But it’s Rachel McAdams who really elevates Send Help beyond B-movie conventions. She shines as Linda, playing all the notes of a woman with hidden depths and darkness. She’s funny and scary in turn, fully committed to the bit to a degree that carries the film past the foibles of a slightly too long runtime and uneven writing in the back half of the film. Raimi helps there, too, with his horror style informing the tropical paradise of the island and cranking out plenty of gross out gags involving an excess of most bodily fluids. Dylan O’Brien also holds up his end of the two-hander, but it is McAdams’s show start to finish. She carries the film as ably as Linda carries Bradley.

The film’s swing from cringing humiliation to pure viciousness is as brutal as that plane crash, and that viciousness almost always results from Bradley refusing to simply accept that he is not the top dog in the bush. But Send Help is better than just making the entitled white guy the villain, Linda has shades that only emerge as time on the island frees her from the social conventions she tried to so hard to uphold in the office. The combination of Sam Raimi’s style, Rachel McAdams’s unhinged performance, and Shannon and Swift’s script giving Linda more depth than just “survivor” turns Send Help into more than your typical survival flick. It’s a reminder that spite is a powerful motivator, too, and a positive outlook doesn’t always mean a positive outcome.

Send Help is now playing exclusively in theaters.