Sam Raimi Turns Survival Horror Into Gory Fun in Send Help
Rachel McAdams and Dylan O'Brien anchor a gleefully bloody island thriller where Raimi’s kinetic style does the heavy lifting.
There’s one particularly eye-catching shot in Send Help, a gleefully gruesome survival thriller directed by Sam Raimi, that is such a Sam Raimi shot. And it’s not the dramatic camera move through a spider’s web.
Working with cinematographer Bill Pope, who also shot Raimi’s Darkman, Army of Darkness, and Spider-Man 2, they pull off another fast-moving tracking shot that hits like adrenaline for admirers of the Evil Dead filmmaker’s hyperactive yet well-composed visual style.
Wielding his trademark flair and macabre sense of humor, Raimi elevates a not-that-credible script from the writers of Freddy vs. Jason and the Baywatch movie to an entertaining — and occasionally bloody and disgusting — trip to a remote tropical paradise.
The film’s sharpest weapon on hand might be Rachel McAdams, giving a gonzo performance as corporate worker bee-turned-island warrior Linda Liddle. Linda is caught in the crosshairs of that zipping tracking shot, which mimics the frenzied POV of a pissed-off wild boar that’s barreling right at her.
Hunting the ferocious beast is just one of the dangers Linda tries to conquer when she and her frat bro boss, Bradley Preston (Dylan O’Brien), wash up on this island after the company jet crashes on the way to a meeting in Bangkok. Office enemies before their plane goes down, Linda and Bradley are forced to work together to survive until any possible rescue.
McAdams and O’Brien bicker prolifically, with her character often gaining the upper hand. For, despite Linda’s lowly status as laughing stock at Preston Strategic Solutions, depicted in the movie’s straightforward early scenes, she’s also a super-fan of the stranded-strangers reality show Survivor.
Having absorbed every detail of Survivor skills and tactics, Linda takes to the remote castaway life like a boss. While she thrives, Bradley suffers, as we see in an amusing montage demonstrating her seemingly boundless confidence in adapting to their otherwise disastrous situation.
The considerable shift in their power dynamic fuels their personal conflict, goosed only slightly by sexual tension (and a brief O’Brien nude scene). But the movie actually tilts the scales too heavily in her favor to maintain proper suspense. Bradley too often appears overmatched, as does O’Brien, who was fantastic in last year’s Twinless.
Linda’s just too much of a powerhouse, with McAdams — who also co-starred in Raimi’s Marvel entry Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness — lending her a serrated edge and bold physicality. Of course, Linda stays winning.
But the plot throws some whopper curve balls at her and the audience, along with several decent jump scares, including a Jaws-inspired fright that should generate chills and laughs in equal measure. Raimi melds the punches with punchlines throughout, as he’s done prodigiously since first sending a camera hurtling into Bruce Campbell’s chinny mug in the ’80s Evil Dead movies.
Campbell keeps alive his amazing streak of appearing, somehow or another, in every Raimi film, adding a tiny but morbidly funny cameo that offers yet another swell sign the filmmaker is in his element here, just like Linda on that tropical island.
Send Help (★★★☆☆) is rated R and playing in theaters nationwide. Visit fandango.com.
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