‘Send Help’ Review: Sam Raimi’s Darkly Comedic Return to Horror Could Use More Scares

1 week ago 13

Published Jan 26, 2026, 12:00 PM EST

In addition to being a die-hard fan of filmmaking, television, video gaming, and anything else with a gripping narrative, Aidan Kelley is also a passionate and detail-oriented writer and journalist at Collider.com. In addition to his work as a Senior Resource Writer, Aidan has also contributed to Collider's features and news reporting sections. He has covered major industry events, such as San Diego Comic-Con and the D23 Expo, and has had the privelege of interviewing industry stars like Bruce Campbell, Maggie Q, Chad Stahelski, and more. This sincere love for the art of storytelling began at a young age, with Aidan making video movie reviews for the news program at his local high school. That love only increased over the years, with an ongoing career in independent filmmaking and screenwriting after graduating with a degree in Film and television from DePaul University.

Few filmmakers living today can claim to have left a lasting legacy on the industry that Sam Raimi has. The legendary director exploded onto the scene when he helped create one of the best and most important horror franchises of all time, Evil Dead, with Evil Dead 2 and Army of Darkness alone making for one of the greatest movie trilogies of all time. Following that unforgettable debut, Raimi further cemented himself as a brilliant and versatile filmmaker in genres beyond horror, with the action-packed Western splendor of The Quick and the Dead, the brilliant heist thrills of A Simple Plan, and, of course, hugely influential comic book goodness that is the original Spider-Man trilogy.

Raimi finally put an end to his nearly decade-long hiatus in 2022 with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, but fans have still been itching for him to return to the director's chair for a proper horror movie, which he hasn't done since 2009's Drag Me to Hell. So when it was announced that Raimi would be directing a new survival horror movie that was being billed as Misery meets Cast Away, there was understandably a lot of excitement. Thus, Send Help was born, and while it has some shortcomings that make this a bit of a bumpy flight, there are enough entertaining highlights to make it a fun ride.

What Is 'Send Help' About?

Linda Liddle (Rachel McAdams) is a brilliant yet profoundly lonely Survivor superfan and an employee at a major firm who is next in line for a huge promotion — at least she thinks she is, until the company is taken over by the brash, sexist, and arrogant Bradley Preston (Dylan O'Brien), who instead wants to give the promotion to one of his frat bros. Bradley plans to bring Linda on one more overseas trip before kicking her to the curb, but on their flight to Thailand, disaster strikes, and the plane sends them hurling into the ocean. Linda and a very badly injured Bradley are the only survivors of the crash, but it soon becomes clear that they each have very different perspectives on how to survive a deserted island.

From that synopsis alone, the comparisons to Rob Reiner's Misery and Robert Zemeckis' Cast Away should be abundantly apparent, but tone-wise, Send Help is a completely different beast altogether. Rather than being a straight-on thriller or a high-octane horror (though those elements are all certainly still present), Send Help is much closer to a dark comedy than anything else. Of course, Raimi's horror movies have always had a strong level of levity and even camp, with Evil Dead 2 and Drag Me to Hell having more than their fair share of funny moments. There are certainly a lot of genuinely funny moments with the aid of McAdams and O'Brien's performances and Raimi's creative direction, but there are also quite a few moments that dip too much into cheesy and over-the-top territory — not a bad thing in of itself, but they just don't mesh as well with the movie's overall tone.

'Send Help's Tone and Visuals Are a Mixed Bag

Send Help also gets off to a fairly slow start with the introduction of Linda and Bradley's office rivalry, but things thankfully heat up with a riveting plane crash sequence. After that, it's something of a pendulum between slower arguments and exposition dumps with Linda and Bradley on a beach with fun detours like Linda's heated battle with an admittedly cartoony-looking CGI boar. The special effects overall do leave something to be desired, with a lot of green screen being used for some of the larger-scale sequences.

Thankfully, many of the film's biggest highlights are brought to life through Sam Raimi's unique eye for directing, from uncomfortable close-ups to fun camera tricks during the select action sequences. Even with the somewhat questionable digital effects, they're at least done creatively enough to create those wacky horror visuals that Raimi is so well-known for. Send Help is also something of a reunion between Sam Raimi and Spider-Man composer Danny Elfman, but Elfman's score feels even more inconsistent than the rest of the flick, with wide swings across genres and sounds that don't feel cohesive.

Much of the movie's tonal inconsistencies can be traced to Send Help's screenplay, written by the Freddy vs. Jason duo, Damian Shannon and Mark Swift. The movie seems to want us to root for Linda, and for most of the movie, it's easy to do so because of how effectively slimy Bradley is. However, the waters start to muddy in the third act, when Linda does something that is pretty much irredeemable. The issue isn't that it's out of character or problematic to have a likable character break bad; it's just difficult to gauge what Raimi, Shannon, and Swift are really trying to say thematically. That same third act also has a big, fun twist, but, confusingly, presents Linda's controversial decision as a big reveal, further muddying whether we're still supposed to sympathize with her.

Rachel McAdams and Dylan O'Brien Keep 'Send Help' Afloat

With all its flaws, Send Help boasts two big pluses alongside Raimi's direction: Rachel McAdams and Dylan O'Brien. The former Mean Girls icon is clearly having the time of her life in her role as Linda, and she makes seeing this mistreated employee transform into a proper survivor an engaging one. Yes, this gets a little more complicated in a confusing (but still moderately fun) final act, but McAdams has the charisma and personality to pull it all off.

Also bursting at the seams with charm (albeit in the polar opposite way) is Dylan O'Brien, who's a scumbag you love to hate every time he's on-screen. However, he's not just a one-dimensional bad guy either, as midway through the film, both he and Linda get some much-needed fleshing out. The story and the tone of said story may be a bit all over the place, but it's not at all an unpleasant time spending a trip on the beach with these two characters, as the "will they/won't they kill each other" chemistry that McAdams and O'Brien have is electric.

Throughout all its faults, like an inconsistent script and overall tone, Send Help is also a hell of a lot of fun with two dynamite performances. It's also one that, more often than not, plays to Sam Raimi's scripts, whose previous horror hits have always been firmly in the fun-and-campy category. It may not be the terrifying marvel some Raimi fans are hoping for, but it's still an entertaining enough watch that makes an SOS unnecessary.

Send Help comes to theaters on January 30.