REVIEW: Send Help: Stranded, Stressed, and Finally Seen

“On this island, survival is power — and power changes everything.” Send
Help is now playing in theatres.
It’s been a long time since Sam Raimi stepped back into the director’s chair for a true
original film. For years, he’s been producing, writing, or steering massive studio
projects. With Send Help, Raimi finally feels loose again — and you can feel it almost
immediately. This is messy, funny, mean, and stylish survival horror with something
sharp to say about workplace power, and honestly, it’s one of the more unexpectedly
fun genre entries in a while.

At the center is Linda Liddle (Rachel McAdams), the kind of employee every company
quietly relies on but rarely rewards. She’s smart, capable, and deeply awkward, the
awkward that gets misread as weakness. Her new boss, Bradley (Dylan O’Brien), sees
her exactly that way. He talks over her, sidelines her, and hands her promised
promotion to his best friend like it was never hers to begin with.
Then comes the corporate trip to Thailand. Then comes the storm. Then comes the
crash.

Suddenly, the power structure disappears.

The stranded-on-an-island setup is one of the oldest survival stories out there. When it
works, it’s because the environment strips people down to who they really are. When it
doesn’t, it becomes cliché very fast. Raimi absolutely understands that risk — and
instead of avoiding it, he leans in and makes it feel fresh through tone and character.

What works best is the brutal equalizer of the island.

Linda, who grew up watching survival shows and learned practical survival skills. So,
Linda can adapt fast to their situation. She’s not suddenly super polished, confident, or
socially powerful. Bradley is injured, scared, and completely dependent on the very
person he spent months belittling in every aspect of her life.

And the film lets that dynamic slow simmer.

Rachel McAdams is fantastic here. McAdams plays Linda with vulnerability but never
makes her seem small. You end up rooting for Linda, but not because she becomes
strong. Because she always was, she just never had the space to shine and show what
she could do. Dylan O’Brien shows Bradley frustrating in the most effective way
possible, not by playing Bradley as a cartoon villain. He’s worse. He’s realistic. Entitled.
Defensive. The kind of boss many people unfortunately recognize.
Raimi’s direction adds wild-card energy. The film is dark, but playful. Gnarly, but self-
aware. Some survival scenes are brutal. Some moments lean into camp. And somehow,
it mostly works. He understands that horror and dark comedy can coexist when the
character drives both.

What doesn’t work quite as well is the runtime. The middle section stretches a little,
repeating emotional beats that already landed. And the final act leans slightly heavier
into spectacle than character, which softens some of the psychological tension the first
half builds so well.

Still, even when it drags a bit, it never becomes boring.

Underneath the survival story is something very human: the need to be seen. Linda
doesn’t just want to live. She wants respect. She wants acknowledgement. And
watching her slowly stop shrinking herself is honestly just as satisfying as watching her
survive the island.

Send Help won’t reinvent survival horror. But it doesn’t need to. It’s stylish, character-
driven, and emotionally grounded in a way that makes the familiar feel sharp again.

Final Take:
Send Help is Raimi back in his element — weird, bold, slightly unhinged, and deeply
entertaining. Come for the survival horror. Stay for the emotional payoff and the deeply
relatable workplace revenge fantasy.