Darkman director’s new R-rated island thriller stays true to his best work
Author: Chris Savin updated
Send help This is director Sam Raimi’s first horror feature since its release in 2009 drag me to hell This is Raimi’s first film to be rated R since the 2000s Gift. Written by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift (baywatch, Friday the 13th 2009, freddy and jason), Send help It tells the story of a socially awkward main character named Linda Liddell (played by Rachel McAdams). Bradley Preston (Dylan O’Brien), the new CEO of the company where Linda has worked hard for the past seven years, takes over from her late father.
Linda is promised the vice president position by Bradley’s father, but Bradley decides to give it to his fraternity brother and golf buddy Donovan (Xavier Samuel). Bradley continued to humiliate Linda in the office about her appearance, diet, and behavior. Linda follows a big merger, mostly because she’s told it’s her last chance to impress Bradley with the VP position, but Donovan and Bradley use it to further humiliate her.
After the plane crash, Linda and Bradley became the only survivors. Linda was prepared for the situation and adapted quickly, while Bradley was injured, used to a selfish boss, and had to change. To survive on a deserted island, they must harness Linda’s skills and learn to cooperate or tolerate each other.
Sending help feels like dragging me to hell’s spiritual successor
story Send help develop in the expected direction. Later in the film Linda points out a side of the island to Bradley that is too dangerous and should be avoided at all costs. You can probably guess what happened on the other side of the island, and what happened in the ending. but what makes Send help What’s so interesting is not its writing; it’s its content. This is the Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien show.
Send help Sam Raimi feels like he’s back in form. Although the horror elements Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness This is the most exciting part of the film, Send help Feels like a spiritual successor drag me to hell And more in line with Raimi’s style evil dead Franchising or even Dark One.
the best part Send help As the film shifts from suspenseful horror to sharp, irreverent comedy, especially as Linda and Bradley struggle to survive on the island. There’s the set-up of how they get there, and the last half hour or so in which they engage in a brutal war, but the moments in between are some of the funniest, dirtiest, and funniest of the film, often juxtaposing elements of comedy and horror.
Sam Raimi returns to form
There is an old Looney Tunes Castaways lost at sea or stranded on an island are driven mad by hunger and begin to imagine each other as hot dogs, hamburgers, or turkey legs. A good example of this is the 1943 short film Wackiki Rabbit directed by Chuck Jones. Send help descends into similarly chaotic behavior, especially given the unhinged nature of the show.
Sam Raimi’s horror films always blend horror with comedy; Send help Continue this trend. It was interesting to see how Linda looked in the office compared to how she looked after being on the island for over two weeks. At the beginning of the film, Linda is plain-looking, pigeon-toed, and socially incompetent to an embarrassing degree. She has thick hair and never wears makeup. It wouldn’t be fair to say she was pretty at first, because it was much more than that. At the beginning of the film, she prioritizes her career and her appearance is the least of her worries.
On the island, her hair suddenly becomes shaggy and she’s forced to wear more revealing clothes so you can see the shape of her body. Her skin now had a slight tan that made her look like she had just finished filming some kind of glamorous commercial on the beach. Instead of working hard at the office, she builds shelters, scavenges for food, and does whatever it takes to keep her and Bradley alive. So she’s not spending more time on vanity; It’s more like her body is reacting positively to the changes.
Meanwhile, Bradley’s appearance is the opposite of Linda’s. Before the accident, he may have had an injury from Patrick Bateman american psycho A skin routine. After waking up on the island, still treating Linda like himself, his skin begins to dry out and look like flaking sunburn, especially on his face.
Dylan O’Brien is sly and Rachel McAdams is complex
Dylan O’Brien is very sly here. He’s never denied that he’s an over-inflated dick, but his attitude softens slightly over the course of the movie. O’Brien delivers a performance with comic power that only becomes more impressive as his character becomes more desperate. The character is obnoxious, but O’Brien’s contorted facial expressions, frustrated behavior, and maniacal laughter make him more memorable than your typical asshole boss.
Rachel McAdams gives a more complex performance as Linda. The audience sympathizes with Linda from the beginning. Linda is a little weird, she probably always smells like a mixture of bird poop (she has a pet bird that she talks to and observes a lot) survivor and Crusty Tuna, but she means well, has the best work ethic of anyone in the movie, gets treated badly for no reason, and is secretly a badass. For much of the film, McAdams is a light of positivity and purpose, but Linda’s dark twist shatters the initial conception of her. Even though Linda makes mistakes as a character, McAdams never misses a beat with her mesmerizing performance.
It wouldn’t be a Sam Raimi movie without a bunch of sick humor. Send help During Linda’s battle with the warthog, the screen is covered in blood and snot, which somehow wasn’t completely spoiled in the trailer. Later in the film, everything that’s not already covered in blood and snot is covered in projectile vomit, and there are at least two eyeball-blocking spots that will have you frowning and clamoring for more.
Filled with insane humor, two brilliantly brutal performances, and some well-placed moments of filthy gore, Send help Blowing your nose, spurting blood, and measuring your eyes are all things Sam Raimi knows how to do.
Send help It will be released nationwide on January 30, 2026.
