Sam Raimi's Return To R-Rated Horror Debuts With Best Audience Rotten Tomatoes Score In 39 Years

4 days ago 3

Rachel McAdams screaming while covered in blood in Send Help

Published Jan 30, 2026, 10:10 AM EST

Brennan Klein (he/him) is a senior news writer at Screen Rant, host of the Attack of the Queerwolf podcast, and contributor at Alternate Ending and Horror Press. He has been writing and podcasting about pop culture (especially horror movies) for over a decade at platforms including Blumhouse, Fangoria, Dread Central, The Backlot, and Arrow in the Head.

Send Help has sent director Sam Raimi screaming back into the hearts of audiences everywhere.

2026's Send Help, which has earned Raimi his best Rotten Tomatoes audience score in 39 years, is his first original horror movie since 2012's Drag Me to Hell and his first R-rated horror since 2000's The Gift. The new movie follows a corporate employee (Rachel McAdams) finding herself trapped on a desert island with her cruel new CEO (Dylan O'Brien) and turning the tables with her survival skills.

Rotten Tomatoes has now aggregated more than 100 verified user reviews for Send Help on the movie's official theatrical opening day. Although the score could fluctuate as more reviews are added, at the time of writing, the movie has earned a solid 89% audience score on the Popcornmeter.

Although this audience score falls slightly below the movie's Certified Fresh 92% Tomatometer score, which was aggregated from 125 different critics' Send Help reviews, it marks the best Popcornmeter score for any Sam Raimi movie since 1987's Evil Dead II. In fact, it is tied for his best audience score ever, since Evil Dead II was previously at the top of the chart with a matching 89%.

Below, see Sam Raimi's five best-performing directorial features on the Popcornmeter:

Title

Popcornmeter Score

Evil Dead II (1987)	89%
Send Help (2026)	89%
Army of Darkness (1992)	87%
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (85%)	85%
The Evil Dead (1981)	84%

Considering the fact that Send Help is performing even better than two of the director's beloved Evil Dead movies speaks to how well Raimi can connect with audiences when he works within the realm of R-rated horror. In fact, many individual users referenced their excitement at seeing him returning to form.

Adam L praised the director for "doing what he does best" while Karen E called it "a true Sam Raimi movie" and Rachael M said it was "pure Raimi horror" in that it was "funny, gory, [and] absolutely bonkers."

It remains to be seen if the Popcornmeter score for Send Help drifts higher or lower as its theatrical run continues. However, if the strong reaction that it has provoked from audiences translates to a solid performance at the box office (the movie reportedly cost $40 million, potentially placing its estimated break-even point somewhere around $100 million), it could encourage Raimi to continue helming R-rated horror projects.

While Raimi has not shied away from R-rated horror as a producer (recent projects in that realm include Evil Dead Rise, Crawl, Don't Breathe, and probably the upcoming Evil Dead Burn, which has not yet been rated), in the years between The Gift and Send Help, he has largely focused on directing superhero and franchise films including the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man trilogy and Oz the Great and Powerful.