By Fiorela Gonzales

It’s been 17 years since Sam Raimi directed a horror film, but he’s back with a vengeance in the new film, Send Help. A horror/thriller/survivor script from the writing duo Mark Swift and Damian Shannon of the Friday the 13th reboot and Freddy vs. Jason movies. Along with the king of spooky hymns, Danny Elfman with the score and two outstanding performances from Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien; Send Help is an absolute blast full of gore, guts and the classic Sam Raimi slapstick horror.

The film starts with Linda Liddle (Rachel McAdams) as a pushover and embarrassingly sad employee who works in the Planning & Strategy department and is hoping to get the role of VP. (Credits to the hair and make-up team for managing to make Rachel McAdams gross and sad with a full on greasy head of hair.) Bradley Preston (Dylan O’Brien) is sexist and mean and also the new CEO, taking over for his late father. Bradley gives the VP position to his fraternity brother at the company who had been there less than 7 months and takes the credit for Linda’s work. She finally stands up for herself, and so Bradley gives her a proposition: come on the flight to Bangkok with them to help solve a problem with the merger, and they could discuss the role. An obvious lie, but Linda comes along and gets berated and humiliated as Bradley and his gang of fraternity finance bros laugh at her about an old Survivor audition tape she had submitted in the past. As the boys laugh at her, the plane hits turbulence and ends up crashing into the ocean. Only Bradley and Linda survive, and while Bradley is knocked out cold with a gash to his leg, Linda uses her knowledge from years of watching Survivor to make shelter and get them food. With Bradley now awake, and the power balance shifted to the resourceful Linda, a fight for survival and fight for appendages ensues.  

Sam Raimi is having the time of his life directing this film. If you want blood – there’s buckets. If you want puke – there’s an obscene amount that somehow keeps coming. You want gore – it’s flowing. And if you want an Evil Dead callback – there’s a little zombie jump scare as well. Rachel McAdams is also giving an insanely good performance. You’re never truly sure of her intentions. Is she trying to Misery him and get Bradley to fall in love with her on this deserted island? Is she looking for revenge and to slowly punish him for how he treated her while they were in civilization? Is she just trying to survive? There’s a sweetness to Linda’s character that’s more frightening than the island itself. As she states herself, during a holy shit moment of the film, “don’t mistake my kindness for weakness”. Dylan O’Brien also plays his character very well. A jerk of a boss, who can’t survive without Linda but refuses to be in submission to her and never learning his lesson. These two personalities slowly devolve until they crash in a surprise ending. Though the ending has a twist that doesn’t feel too surprising based on Linda’s constant warnings, the ending has both these characters devolve into their worst (or best depending on how you see it) as they come to a final battle full of blood and Sam Raimi’s slapstick horror popping out.

Send Help is funny and full of guts. It’s the perfect combination of horror slapstick from a perfect combination of creatives: a director back to his horror roots, horror writers, the spooky score musician, and two actors giving their all (and almost some more than that). It’s a great time at the movies – you’ll almost want to stay stranded with Linda Liddle.

PS. For the Sam Raimi heads – I was upset that there was no Bruce Campbell cameo, but ends up I missed it. It’s a very small cameo as Bradley’s dad, who was the CEO of the company before him. You see him in photographs in the background of Bradley’s office. (Thank god!)

4 stars.