#262: Send Help

Release Date: January 30th, 2026

Format: DCP (Cinemark Downey and XD in Downey, CA)

Written by: Damian Shannon and Mark Swift

Directed by: Sam Raimi

3.5 Stars

Sam Raimi’s Send Help is a good ol’ time, full of bug chomping and barfing and gushing boar’s blood. It shares a spiritual energy with his debut masterpiece Evil Dead, even if it can’t match that film’s surging energy.

The script from screenwriting team Damian Shannon and Mark Swift, who brought you such classics as Baywatch (2017) and Freddy vs. Jason (2003), is surprisingly effective (no offense). Rachel McAdams plays corporate strategist Linda Liddle, who is accompanying her chauvinistic boss Bradley Preston (Dylan O’Brien) on a business flight to Bangkok, when a tropical storm downs their private jet somewhere in the South Pacific. Linda is an outdoor survival enthusiast, and the film chronicles the power struggles between her and her nepo baby boss on a remote island as they await their rescue.

McAdams is great in the film. It’s a strong feminist role, even if Shannon and Swift’s messaging is a bit on the nose at times. 

I can’t say I loved the film’s look. Raimi leans heavily on bright, digital backdrops to flesh out his tropical island. It’s the type of setting that we’ve seen look better in other films. He also settles for heavy use of CGI for his beloved blood and splatter. That compromise matters, frankly. Watch Evil Dead and then Send Help and try and tell me it doesn’t. One has a visceral disgustingness, while the other is just moderately icky.  

But forgetting the digital shortcutting, there is plenty of fun to be had with Send Help. It’s a crowd-pleasing horror/comedy that sticks it to the man, literally.