Send Help

There is certainly nothing new about a survival thriller involving characters stranded on a deserted island, desperately trying to stay alive while their circumstances slowly push them towards breaking point. It is a concept that cinema has explored countless times, so finding a fresh approach is no easy task. However, Send Help has something that immediately sets it apart from your typical survival movie, and that is Sam Raimi. This is not simply a film about two people stranded in the middle of nowhere. This is a Sam Raimi film about two people stranded in the middle of nowhere, and believe me, there is a considerable difference! It is uncomfortable, unpredictable, surprisingly gruesome and completely bonkers in places. Even if you went into this movie without knowing who directed it, I would be amazed if you couldn’t recognise Raimi’s fingerprints all over it.

One of the things I have always appreciated about Raimi as a filmmaker is his willingness to embrace the ridiculous without sacrificing the tension. He has this remarkable ability to make you laugh at something one moment and then have you questioning why you were laughing in the first place. Send Help is absolutely no exception. There are moments of genuine suspense, some particularly nasty injuries, characters vomiting on one another and even a brief jump scare involving a dead body that feels wonderfully unnecessary in the best possible way. Raimi knows exactly how to make an audience feel uncomfortable, often pushing a scene just that little bit further than you expect. It is this combination of horror and dark comedy that makes the experience so entertaining, even when you find yourself watching through your fingers.

Rachel McAdams plays Linda Liddle, a socially awkward but incredibly hardworking employee who has spent years proving her worth and hoping to secure a promotion that she genuinely deserves. Unfortunately for Linda, her professional future takes a rather unfortunate turn when Bradley Preston, played by Dylan O’Brien, inherits the company following the death of his father. Bradley is young, arrogant and the sort of entitled boss who appears to believe that having a powerful surname automatically makes him the smartest person in the room. He has absolutely no intention of rewarding Linda for her dedication, and the workplace dynamic between the pair is uncomfortable from the outset. You immediately understand Linda’s frustration, particularly when it becomes apparent that her abilities mean very little to someone who has already decided she doesn’t belong at the top.

However, everything changes when a business trip ends in disaster and their plane crashes, leaving Linda and Bradley as the only survivors stranded on a remote island in the Gulf of Thailand. Suddenly, the corporate hierarchy that Bradley has relied upon becomes completely meaningless. His money, position and authority cannot save him, and the employee he has treated so poorly becomes his only realistic chance of survival. Linda, meanwhile, happens to be something of a survival enthusiast who has always dreamed of appearing on the television programme Survivor. What would be an absolute nightmare for most people almost becomes an opportunity for her to demonstrate everything she knows. She takes responsibility for finding food, creating shelter and nursing an injured Bradley back to health. It is a fascinating reversal of power, particularly when Linda begins to realise that she might actually prefer being the person in charge.

What makes the story particularly entertaining is how gradually that reversal develops into something considerably more disturbing. Linda initially appears to be the underdog you desperately want to succeed, while Bradley is so insufferable that watching him struggle without his usual privileges is rather satisfying. However, the longer they remain stranded, the more complicated their relationship becomes. Linda’s desperation to be appreciated begins to blur into an obsession with maintaining control, and her increasingly questionable decisions make it difficult to know exactly who you should be supporting. I really enjoyed how the movie plays with your sympathies. Just when you think you have one character figured out, they do something that forces you to reconsider. The island might have removed them from their toxic workplace, but it certainly hasn’t removed the toxicity from their relationship.

I genuinely cannot praise Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien enough because these two absolutely carry the movie. With so much of the story revolving around their interactions, the entire experience depends on their chemistry, and thankfully, they work brilliantly together. McAdams is particularly impressive, transforming Linda from an awkward and overlooked employee into someone whose behaviour becomes increasingly unsettling. There is something wonderfully unpredictable about her performance, especially when her enthusiasm and desperation begin to merge into something far more sinister. O’Brien is equally effective as Bradley, delivering a performance that makes you thoroughly dislike him while occasionally allowing you to feel a surprising amount of sympathy for his predicament. Both actors are clearly having an enormous amount of fun with their characters, and without their commitment to the madness, I honestly don’t think Send Help would be anywhere near as entertaining.

One scene in particular deserves a mention, although I am going to be extremely careful about how much I reveal. At one point, Linda drugs Bradley, leaving his body temporarily paralysed and putting him entirely at her mercy. What follows involves a heated knife, Bradley’s trousers being pulled down and the horrifying possibility of something that, quite frankly, no man ever wants to contemplate! I am not going to explain what happens next, but I can tell you that I was physically wincing at the screen. There are certain things in movies that I can happily watch without batting an eyelid, regardless of how gruesome they might be, but anything involving that particular area of the male anatomy is an entirely different story! What makes the sequence so effective is the anticipation, with every passing second leaving you increasingly terrified of what might happen next.

As the movie progresses towards its third act, the tension really begins to intensify and the increasingly unstable relationship between Linda and Bradley finally threatens to explode. The action becomes more frantic, the stakes feel considerably higher and the story takes some unexpected turns. I particularly enjoyed how the film refuses to settle into a predictable rhythm. Every time you think you understand where things are heading, another development changes the situation. There is also a reveal during the final act that genuinely caught me off guard. I had absolutely no idea it was coming, and considering how many movies I watch, I always appreciate a filmmaker who can still manage to surprise me. It is one of those moments that makes you reconsider certain things you have witnessed earlier, which only adds to the entertainment.

Unfortunately, my one real complaint with Send Help concerns its ending. Interestingly, it isn’t necessarily the climax itself that bothers me. In fact, I rather liked that the confrontation didn’t unfold in the way I had anticipated. My issue is with the final shot, which I found just a little too far fetched, even by the wonderfully exaggerated standards the movie had already established. Now, I appreciate the irony of criticising realism in a film where characters have been behaving outrageously for the best part of two hours, but there is a difference between embracing absurdity and asking an audience to accept something that feels a little too convenient. It didn’t completely ruin the experience for me, but I couldn’t help feeling that a slightly different final moment would have provided a more satisfying conclusion.

Another aspect that impressed me was how effectively the film makes use of its isolated setting. A deserted island could easily become visually repetitive, especially with only two central characters, but the environment plays an important role in their increasingly volatile relationship. What initially appears to be a beautiful tropical paradise gradually becomes a place of manipulation, desperation and psychological torment. I also liked how the movie explores the idea that surviving physically is only one part of the challenge. Linda and Bradley have food, shelter and the possibility of rescue to worry about, but their greatest threat increasingly becomes one another. There is something darkly amusing about the fact that escaping the pressures of corporate life doesn’t necessarily make either of them a better person. If anything, removing the rules of civilisation simply gives their worst characteristics more room to flourish.

I can certainly imagine some viewers finding the performances a little too exaggerated or the tonal shifts somewhat jarring, but personally, I think that is part of the appeal. This isn’t a movie that takes itself particularly seriously, nor does it pretend to be a completely grounded examination of survival. Instead, it embraces the increasingly ridiculous circumstances and allows its characters to become as unpredictable as the situation they find themselves in. There are moments when the humour is deliberately awkward, others when the violence is unexpectedly nasty and several occasions when you genuinely don’t know whether you should be laughing or feeling horrified. That balance won’t appeal to everyone, but I found it refreshing to watch something so willing to take risks with its tone rather than play everything safe.

Overall, Send Help was an absolute wild ride and a thoroughly entertaining reminder of why Sam Raimi remains such a distinctive filmmaker. It takes a familiar premise and injects it with enough personality, gruesome surprises and uncomfortable humour to make it feel refreshingly different. Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien are both fantastic, delivering performances that elevate the material and make the constantly shifting power struggle genuinely compelling. The movie is tense, awkward in all the right places and frequently unpredictable, with just enough madness to keep you wondering what on earth might happen next. Although I wasn’t entirely convinced by its final moments, there is considerably more here that works than doesn’t. If you enjoy your thrillers with a generous helping of dark comedy, some wonderfully twisted characters and that unmistakable Sam Raimi flair, then Send Help is absolutely worth your time.