By George & Josh Bate
Horror legend Sam Raimi returns, for the first time in 17 years, to direct in the genre that put him on the map with Send Help, a funny, gnarly thrill ride that only Sam Raimi could make.
Send Help stars Rachel McAdams as Linda, a socially awkward and down-on-her-luck woman who has had her hopes of being promoted scuppered by her new boss Bradley (Dylan O’Brien). Journeying to Bangkok for a work trip, Linda and Bradley find themselves in a harrowing situation after their plane crashes and strands them on a desert island. Here, the power dynamics between the employee and her boss invert as Linda’s obsession with the reality TV show Survivor gives her newfound purpose and unexpected joy in a seemingly terrible situation.
It doesn’t take long into the 1 hour 54 minute runtime of Send Help to recognize it’s a Sam Raimi film. Even with an extended set-up that takes place within the confines of a mundane office setting, Raimi finds ways to insert his trademark idiosyncrasies, whether it be a strange shot composed at an unconventional angle, a brisk edit or camera movement, or a quirky line of dialogue most mainstream films would never feature. As the film progresses and a disastrous dilemma becomes all the more insane, Raimi leans even further into trademark sensibilities as a director, in turn adding a simultaneously refreshing and throwback style to a movie with numerous flaws.
The entry point into Send Help revolves around a lonely woman we immediately empathize with and her sexist, younger boss who does nothing to endear himself to the audience. The latter, played by O’Brien, takes advantage of his position of power by denying McAdams’ Linda a promotion she was promised and repeatedly patronizes her for her apparent lack of hygiene and unusual interest in Survivor. Flash forward to being stranded on an island together and the power dynamics between Linda and her boss Bradley have flipped on their head. The sheltered Bradley has no idea how to forage for food, create shelter, find water, and survive more generally, but Linda is in her element. Years of obsessing over Survivor and reading survival books have fostered valuable skills that make her indispensable to Bradley. As a result, the film lays the foundation for a sense of humor that almost entirely comes back to Bradley’s ineptitude and his reliance on Linda, who is unusually in her element on the isolated island. The humor works well, with McAdams and O’Brien delivering strong comedic performances that give way to tons of extended gags and laugh out loud moments.
Where Send Help begins to err, however, is in its disproportionate focus on humor over tension. Although billed as a blend of thriller and comedy, Raimi’s film is firmly a comedy first and a thriller second. While this approach isn’t inherently flawed, it deprives the movie of a sinister edge for much of its runtime, leaving the bulk of the film to play like a comedic fusion of Cast Away and War of the Roses. With laborious pacing, a strange attribute given this is a Sam Raimi movie, Send Help takes far too long to ramp up the stakes and suspense, both of which are undercut by a perplexing decision to reveal a key aspect of one of our lead characters early on. In turn, the movie’s big “twist,” if it can be termed that, doesn’t arrive as unexpectedly as one would hope as the filmmakers plant the seed for the reveal too soon and too overtly. Especially in a post-Barbarian world, Send Help needs greater subversion of expectations to truly elicit the surprise it’s going for.
Although a sense of humor runs strongly throughout, Send Help embraces a darker brand of comedy in a second act filled with crazy moments that elicit laughs, cringe, and terror in equal measure. The mastermind behind the blood-soaked horror classic Evil Dead 2 eventually shows his filmmaking roots as he sets up a number of bonkers set-pieces that alone make the movie a worthwhile watch. After nearly 20 years since his last horror outing, Raimi demonstrates that he hasn’t lost his touch for nasty, violent, and visually astonishing filmmaking.
As the film injects much-needed energy into the proceedings with a dip into the gnarly and gruesome, Send Help converges on a bold conclusion to its narrative. For a story that revolves around workplace misogyny being flipped on its head, Raimi’s film commits to an ending that pushes any nuance to its gender commentary aside. As both of our lead characters make decisions that range from morally questionable, at best, to downright evil, the audience’s emotional investment and capacity for empathy steadily dwindles. Eventually, this results in a rewarding ending that seems intended to elicit cheers and enthusiasm from viewers. Instead, we’re left with a conclusion that feels unearned and even a tad mean.
VERDICT: 7/10
Director Sam Raimi’s return to the horror genre after 17 years delivers the quintessential and delightful fun and gnarly-ness one would expect from the iconic filmmaker, albeit amidst a film marred by pacing issues and tonal imbalance. Send Help blends Cast Away, War of the Roses, and Evil Dead 2 in a story that hilariously inverts the power dynamics between a socially awkward employee and her sexist boss. Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien deliver strong comedic performances in the two lead roles, with McAdams playing against type as an unhinged loner and O’Brien (sporting his best Ray Liotta laugh) chewing up the scenery as everyone’s worst nightmare of a boss. The film stumbles, however, with an over-emphasis on humor at the expense of tension as its sinister edge doesn’t poke through for quite some time. Hindered by laborious pacing and a runtime that runs 15+ minutes too long, Send Help comes alive with a series of crazy moments that will elicit laughs, cringe, and terror in equal measure and that remind audiences this is the same filmmaker who masterminded the Evil Dead franchise. All of this craziness eventually converges on a ‘twist’ that is spoiled by the perplexing decision to reveal too much about one of our leads early on, thus depriving the film of a big climactic surprise. This twist and the series of events that follow it, while evidencing Raimi and company’s commitment to a bold ending, undercut some of the film’s potentially poignant messaging about gender roles and modern misogyny in favor of a resolution intended to elicit cheers and enthusiasm, however unearned, from viewers. Tone and scripting issues aside, Send Help is the kind of fun, gnarly crowd-pleaser only Sam Raimi could engineer. After nearly 50 years directing movies, Sam Raimi continues to affirm that no one makes movies like he does.