Send Help – Movie Review
After a brief detour into studio franchise land with Oz The Great and Powerful and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, horror maestro Sam Raimi returns to the genre vibes that kicked off of his career (with The Evil Dead and the likes) with the deranged, unhinged and delightfully wicked survival thriller, Send Help.
Linda Liddle (Rachel McAdams) has been working for seven years in strategy and planning at a Fortune 500 company that has recently appointed a new CEO – Bradley Preston (Dylan O’Brien), who is succeeding his father as the head of the company due to his recent passing (nepotism over experience and skill in this instance). Linda is a go-getter, eyeing an opportunity to secure the vice-presidency role within the company, weaponising the recent work she completed to assist the company with a large, upcoming merger. However, Bradley’s fraternity loyalties and general misogyny lead to Linda not only missing out on the promotion, but unbeknownst to her, being put on the chopping block once the merger has gone through.
Wanting to use (and abuse) her skills one last time, Bradley invites Linda to Bangkok to close out all the loose ends of the merger in person. However, things change when the private jet, consisting of Bradley, his cronies, and Linda, crashes on to a deserted island, with Bradley and Linda being the sole survivors. It is here where Linda, who is an avid survival expert, dramatically shifts the power dynamic as she gets to live out her dream of being on her favourite reality TV show, Survivor, only there’s no cameras, and Linda has no desire to go home.
Immediately, the over-the-top mix of camp and unhinged energy that Sam Raimi is beloved for shines through the screen as Linda is introduced – quirks and all – through McAdams completely dedicated, wide-eyed performance that quickly conveys that Linda is going to be such a loveable protagonist, but she is a little bit odd (something that is not embraced by the cookie cutter, suit and tie atmosphere of the macho company she is working for). Linda doesn’t wear her hair in the same way the other women of the office do – straightened daily and perfectly positioned. She wears a tacky pink cardigan instead of a clean cut power suit. And with her infectious positivity and general goofiness, it’s impossible not to instantly root for her, and McAdams embodies this perfectly in what is arguably her most uninhibited performance yet where she gets to channel a little bit of that Game Night energy.
O’Brien’s take on Bradley is a perfect balance of handsome charm (which has obviously been what has got him through life so far. That and daddy’s money) and frat boy sentiments in which nine times out of ten, Bradley comes off as a spoilt manchild, which adds another hilarious layer of substance to the film overall. O’Brien, who is coming off of a career best performance in Twinless, solidifies himself once more as a performer who is truly up for anything. And when a film like Send Help, which is effectively a two-hander for the majority of the runtime, has two game actors giving it their all to the absurdity, it’s no surprise that it turns out to be a really fun time.
The wicked, nasty, but undeniably fun script, penned by Damien Shannon and Mark Swift (Baywatch, Freddy vs. Jason) is an interesting dissection of power dynamics and how dramatically they can shift in different environments. Bradley is the top dog in the office, surrounded by his boys and fuelled by daddy’s money. And as soon as the action takes us to the island, watching Linda slowly realise with each passing moment that she is in control of this situation leads to some brilliant tension between the stranded survivors, laced with a darkly comedic tone that again highlights how much Adams and O’Brien lean into the insanity. Shannon and Swift also lean into the fun and insanity as the writers too, with some pretty wild reveals, twists and turns that emerge throughout. The script is also the film’s weakest point at times, as the structure of the film can feel a little too repetitive. While the prolonged mundanity of being on a deserted island kind of lends to the feeling like time has slowed completely, in film form you can feel that in a negative way.
But, it’s the good natured nastiness of Sam Raimi and his horror tendencies that lend to the film’s enduring spirit. Send Help contains all of the Raimi-isms that are to be expected, including a good dash of blood and guts (a melee between Linda and a boar being the film’s stand out set piece), dynamic and invasive camera manoeuvres that highlight Raimi’s obsession with eyes, and a handful of supernatural jump scares which showcase some horrific prosthetics and make-up. But, no matter how deranged Send Help gets, it’s always presented through a lens of unhinged fun that Raimi has always brought to his filmography.
It may be a little long and structurally messy, but Send Help’s flaws can easily be forgiven because of how much fun (for the horror sickos) the film is, which is thanks to Sam Raimi’s entertaining tone of derangement, and Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien’s wonderfully committed performances.
Send Help is in Australian cinemas from January 29
