“Now, never mistake my kindness for weakness.”

Justin’s rating: When you’ve got the conch, you’re totally groovy

Justin’s review: Sam Raimi, I’ve really missed you. Yeah, I know you were busy doing Ash vs. Evil Dead in the 2010s, but the last time you did a non-IP Sam Raimi movie, it was all the way back in 2009 with Drag Me to Hell (an underrated title, that). And the last time you did an R-rated film was 2000. It’s been way too long since we’ve seen you cut loose and have some fun. So I’m really glad to see you back in good form with your trademark zany camera work and black humor in 2026 thanks to Send Help.

Linda (Rachel McAdams, Mean Girls) is a downtrodden nebbish employee at a firm who’s passed over for a due promotion and humiliated by her jerkwad boss Bradley (Dylan O’Brien, The Maze Runner) and his frat buddy associates. But all of that changes in a flash when she and Bradley end up the only survivors of a plane crash on a deserted island, with Bradley wounded and unable to fend for himself.

Suddenly, Linda’s hidden strengths as a survivor — literally, she applied to get a spot on the TV show* — and hunter emerge, and she becomes the alpha while Bradley gradually loses his authority over her and transforms into a helpless dependent. Things get downright nasty between the two as a struggle for supremacy emerges and a few big secrets of the island come into play.

The role reversal between the leads only scratches the surface of what makes Sam Raimi’s version of Castaway so interesting. We all like to think we’d be amazing survivors in such situations because we watched a lot of the Discovery channel and memorized random outdoorsy trivia, but the truth is that most of us would be skeletons rotting on a beach by the end of the second day. Maybe the first. There aren’t a lot of Starbucks drive-thrus on islands, is what I’m saying.

Linda? She’s the Real Deal, and it’s natural to root for her as an underdog to flourish into her own against a completely skeevy corporate techbro. Yet this might be the case where a movie has two antagonists and no protagonists, because Linda is a bit off her rocker. She has more incentive to stay on the island than leave, after all, and keeping Bradley alive is more about feeding her own sense of self-worth than being a humanitarian.

Two antagonists (and maybe two protagonists? It’s murky. Linda and Bradley have moments and chemistry.) — where does that put us as the audience? I guess it puts us in the position to be entertained by Sam Raimi doing what he does best: quick camera cuts, visceral visuals, over-the-top action, and gooey gushy gore. It’s kind of a revenge story, a coming-of-age tale, competence porn, and a survival horror thriller all rolled into one. Of course there’s some horror in here, including a very snotty boar, a bunch of cartoonish deaths, and plenty of flying goop.

In the hands of another director, this would be a nihilistic and serious thriller — or maybe even a charming romcom. In Sam Raimi’s hands, it’s a playground where he can get as weird and disgusting as he wants, as long as he keeps us entertained and laughing. Send Help honestly feels like the Raimi of his earlier era where he enjoyed flinging fluids at his cast’s faces and tormenting them with all manner of unlikely scenarios in the name of a most excellent final product.

By the end of this, I was thoroughly satisfied and reminded why I became a big fan of Sam Raimi in the first place. Here’s hoping he’s got a few more of these in his tank before he retires.

*Does anyone else remember watching the first season of Survivor in 2000? Because I totally do.

Intermission!

• I always love being introduced to characters with clever little visuals before we see their faces
• Debbie Harry is a legend, I agree Linda
• All the survival books in Linda’s apartment
• “We deserve it.”
• That close-up on Linda’s food hanging off her chin
• Chekov’s golf club
• The guy’s face slamming into the outside of the plane window and Linda lowering the blind, ha
• That plane crash was EXCELLENT
• She got a shelter up in record time
• Linda’s fire dance made me happy
• “I have the conch!”
• “Very soft baby hands, fresh out of the factory.”
• So many great Sam Raimisms that harken back to the Evil Dead trilogy, including BoarCam(tm)
• “Are you going to hunt a boar? Linda from accounting?”
• Boars have lots of boogers. Lots and lots of boogers.
• “You ever hunt? I think I like it!”
• Linda’s bringing home the bacon
• That’s a super-cute backpack
• Linda continuing to make hats and hammocks is so enjoyable to watch
• “HELPL?”
• That’s one goopy bug
• And now she’s made a sushi buffet
• “Want to get drunk… all right!”
• Yeah, there was going to be vomit in a Sam Raimi flick sooner or later. And a zombie. And eye trauma.
• Would love to know how this surprise house gets water, power, and sewage. And who cleans that pool?
• “Just me and my new Sweetie….” oh the double-meaning there
• What a beautiful segue with the golf swing