Send Help is a 2026 survival horror/thriller film directed by Sam Raimi and starring Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien. This is the first time that Sam Raimi is fully embracing that gory, horrifying vibe in one of his films in a long while, so I was pretty excited for this one, but did it live up to it? I’d so overall yes it did, but it wasn’t exactly what I expected it to be. We will get into all that in a moment though, let’s break down what this movie was all about. The synopsis reads ‘an employee and her insufferable boss become stranded on a deserted island, the only survivors of a plane crash. Here, they must overcome past grievances and work together to make it out alive.’ There are more than 2 characters in the entirety of the film, but this movie does rely heavily on the performances of McAdams and O’Brien to carry the weight and move the story forward and these 2 knocked it out of the park together portraying the power dynamic struggle and eventual shift as you take their relationship out of the office and into survival mode.
Rachel McAdams portrayed her character ‘Linda Liddle’ expertly. She was so off-putting and awkward with all her coworkers in the beginning of the film, and you could tell she was that typical “weird lady in the office” that couldn’t make friends or develop relationships very easily, but she was a super hard worker for her company and someone that was constantly overlooked and stepped on by others at the top of the pecking order so she drew a lot of sympathy. She lived alone with her bird and drank wine and binge watched ‘Survivor’ and was an avid outdoors survivalist enthusiast, while Dylan O’Brien’s character ‘Bradley Preston’ was basically the exact opposite. He was the pompous silver spoon baby that probably wasn’t qualified to be in the position he was in, but his dad owned the company and passed away so it was given to him. He’s arrogant, rude, uses his power to his advantage, and gives promotions to his personal group of buddies rather than who’s the most qualified and worthy of the position. Through all that though, he grows to be somewhat of an endearing character the further the movie goes on and there was plenty of scenes and moments with him that had me chuckling. He was sort of the comedic relief of the movie which I didn’t expect but even his dickhead dialogue and attitude was used for laughs at moments and that really helped you buy into the character more and loosen up to him. Although he still wasn’t the greatest guy that always drew the most sympathy out of you, you didn’t mind spending all the time with him that you ended up spending because at least his character was entertaining as well.
The power shift is really what drove this story forward and sold the movie. You knew Linda was going to thrive in an environment like this because this is her thing! She’s done nothing but gain this knowledge on her own time for years at this point so this was finally a chance for her to put all that to use and she absolutely does. Bradley has lived a more sheltered and rich lifestyle so he relies on her a lot to carry them through this, which brings them closer together, but the power imbalance starts to create friction as well. This movie was a bit more subdued than I thought it would be is maybe the best way to put it. It’s a Sam Raimi horror film so I was expecting some bonkers levels of gore and weird shit and don’t get me wrong there’s certainly some of that still in here, I mean it’s Sam Raimi for crying out loud, but this movie was more humorous and more interested in the relationship between the 2 main characters and their battles and struggles with one another than being a horrifying gore fest. The plane crash scene itself was tense and had me white knuckling a little bit not going to lie, but I’m scared of heights and very scared of the ocean as well so just the realness of the visual of this plane spiraling towards the deep ocean and everything happening around them on the plane as this was happening made me sweat man. That was probably the tensest scene of the film for me personally. I also really enjoyed the bore hunting scene, and the climax of the film was something else as well.
I won’t give anything else away though, perhaps I’ve spoken too much already, but regardless you guys should check this one out. It’s worth the viewing in theaters if that’s your thing, but if not or you don’t really want to spend the money or whatever I’m sure it will be on a streaming service in no time. Why else would we pay all that money for all these streaming services, right? Right…I’m honestly finding a hard time looking for much negative to say about this movie, it basically tells you what it’s all about in the synopsis and it fully delivers on that premise so if that’s your thing or that sounds interesting you’re going to enjoy and if not then maybe don’t spend the time on it. It’s like ‘Cast Away’ meets ‘Misery’ meets ‘Yellowjackets’ and I absolutely dug it for all of those qualities. Kudos to all involved, Sam Raimi obviously, but Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien especially as well. This is worth checking out for their performances if nothing else and everything else happening around them just adds to the tension and the value of the film.
That’ll be all for this one though folks! Thanks for reading along with me and make sure to like and follow the page on social media or come back and visit the website to keep up with all my latest reads over new films, horror, WWE, and more! Till next time, be good to one another.
