Send Help is the sort of deliciously unhinged, whacked-out genre mashup that only Sam Raimi could pull off without spilling it all over himself.
It’s at once a darkly comedic psychothriller, a send-up to survivalism, and an extremely bloody power fantasy - gleefully pitting workplace resentments against basic human instincts - and letting us watch the sparks fly. Written by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift, Send Help embraces its mixed-genre DNA with confidence, leaning into scares, laughs, and razor-sharp character building in equal measure.
Send Help’s story is really about Linda Liddle (Rachel McAdams). We all know a Linda Liddle. She’s an underused, ignored office worker who has spent nearly 10 years kicking ass at her corporate accounting job without getting the raise she was promised. Though excellent at her job, she’s meek, a bit slovenly, and one who might need to pay a bit closer attention to her hygiene practices.
We all know her new boss, too. He’s Bradley Preston (Dylan O’Brien, The Maze Runner films), a young corporate executive who thrives on optics rather than competence. He is arrogant, charming, and overtly dismissive to Linda. After a storm causes their private plane to crash while flying to Bangkok, the corporate hierarchy that defined their workplace dynamics is gone in a flash.
Trapped on a desolate island with no signs of help coming their way, they have to battle not just starvation and the weather conditions but also pent-up anger of many years of unaddressed workplace power dynamics. What starts off as a shaky partnership, soon turns into an eerie yet comical struggle for dominance between two minds, where staying alive becomes a psychological chess match.
Linda’s so-called quirks - her survivalist skills and an obsessive love of the TV show "Survivor" - become invaluable, while Bradley’s boardroom bravado finds no place here. As the island lays open its dangers and secrets, the power structure flips, totally convincing both to reckon with who they truly are when job titles and social systems disappear.
The thing that makes Send Help so much fun is its delectable “what if?” setup. What if the woman crushed by the boys’ club suddenly found herself in a place where her talents counted? What if the smooth businessperson, strong only behind glass and at desks, proved to be totally useless? Raimi and his writers milk this reversal for all its worth, making a tale that feels just as cathartic as it is cruel.
McAdams is absolutely wonderful as her Linda delivers a textured performance that is a combination of warmth, rage, fury, and strength… plus brains.
O’Brien is clearly enjoying himself tremendously making his Bradley simultaneously terrible and magnetic, the sort of man who has managed to fail upwards all his life purely by charm alone. Watching that very charm decay in real-time is one of the film’s genuine delights.
The power swap recalls the social savagery of 2022’s Triangle of Sadness, while the island paranoia nods to classics like Misery and Cast Away—if those movies were meaner, funnier, and significantly more bloody. Once marooned, Send Help becomes a grimly funny series of tit-for-tat survival games, escalating in brutality and absurdity as Linda’s long-suppressed fantasy of escape and empowerment comes terrifyingly true.
Irreverent, silly, and gloriously gory, Send Help is Raimi in full gonzo mode. It’s a two-hander carried almost entirely by its leads who commit fully to the madness that ensues within. By the time credits roll, you’re left laughing and wincing and maybe quietly cheering for the underdog because at one point or another, we’ve all been a Linda dreaming of an island where finally the rules change in our favor.
MPAA Rating: R.
Runtime: 113 mins
Director: Sam Raimi
Writer: Damian Shannon; Mark Swift
Cast: Rachel McAdams; Edyll Ismail; Xavier Samuel
Genre: Psychological Horror
Tagline:
Memorable Movie Quote: "as an executive, i see no value in you."
Distributor: 20 Century
Official Site: https://www.20thcenturystudios.com/movies/send-help
Release Date: January 30, 2026
DVD/Blu-ray Release Date:
Synopsis: An employee and her insufferable boss become stranded on a deserted island, the only survivors of a plane crash. Here, they must overcome past grievances and work together to survive, will they make it out alive?
