Film Review – Send Help

February 2nd, 2026 | POSTED BY Allen Almachar

If anything, Send Help (2026) is further validation that Sam Raimi is really good at his job. Whether it is directing horror flicks, superhero films, crime dramas, or everything in between, Raimi has a knack for taking on different genres and incorporating his distinctive personality. There are very few filmmakers who can do what he does: combining terror and slapstick comedy in equal measure. Send Help is no exception. This time, we see Raimi taking on a psychological thriller in which two characters get trapped on a deserted island. Not only must they fight to survive starvation and the harsh elements, but they must also navigate the distrust growing between them. The result is a hilarious, unnerving, and suspenseful game of cat and mouse, told in classic Sam Raimi fashion.

Of all his skills, Raimi’s most underrated might be getting the right actors in the right roles. Whether it’s Bruce Campbell in The Evil Dead franchise, Bill Paxton and Billy Bob Thornton in A Simple Plan (1998), or Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst in the Spider-Man series, Raimi and his team know how to get a good match between actor and character. The trend continues here. Rachel McAdams stars as Linda Liddle, a nature and survivalist junkie who works a dead-end job for her insufferable boss, Bradley (Dylan O’Brien). Despite her high-caliber work ethic, Linda gets passed over for a promotion by Bradley, leaving her on the edge of a nervous breakdown. However, her resentment takes a backseat when the company’s plane crashes into the ocean, leaving Linda and Bradley the lone survivors on a tropical island.

What ensues is a battle of wills. For Linda, it seems her entire life has been in preparation for this moment. She has studied how to hunt, build shelter, start a fire, avoid poisonous plants, create weapons and utensils, etc. Linda doesn’t see this as a desperate situation as opposed to an opportunity to utilize her knowledge. For Bradley, his inexperience – compounded with the fact that he suffered a leg injury during the crash – has left him helpless and dependent on Linda to stay alive. The power dynamic has shifted, where Linda now has the upper hand. Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien play their respective parts with pitch-perfect clarity. McAdams gives Linda an array of personality traits: she is smart, resourceful, and headstrong, which creates a need to be useful. If she doesn’t feel like she is contributing, then she may fall off the deep end. For Bradley, Dylan O’Brien plays him – at least at first – as your typical asshole boss. But he becomes a much more empathic character as we learn more about him, especially regarding his troubled family history. The character building – in which Linda and Bradley show good and bad sides to themselves – fuzzes the line over who we should be rooting for. 

The screenplay (Damian Shannon, Mark Swift) does an excellent job of keeping us on our toes, even when the story is relegated to one central location. There are several overarching threads throughout the narrative – the biggest being Linda and Bradley’s differing opinions on how they should spend their time on the island. For Linda, she feels this is a chance to start a new life, to use the natural resources to create something to call their own. For Bradley, his soul motivation is to be rescued and get back home. One of the funnier sequences has Bradley using sticks to spell out “HELP” on the beach but unknowingly misspelling it as “HEPL.” 

But there is more going on here than what is on the surface. The writing and direction add plenty of little details, tones, and narrative textures that keep us engaged. For a story set in one place, the pacing remains at a constant high. The story continuously moves, giving us a new wrinkle or twist so we never get comfortable. The premise will immediately remind us of the Tom Hanks picture, Cast Away (2000). There are shades of Misery (1990), and even tiny hints of a rom-com adventure not too unlike Romancing the Stone (1984) or Six Days Seven Nights (1998). Of course, given that this is a “Sam Raimi Film,” we also get scenes that showcase his preference for gross out humor. In fact, this might be his “slimiest” movie in a long while, where he really allows the special effects crew to splatter the actors with all sorts of gooey concoctions. One scene, in which Linda tries to hunt down a wild boar for food, is so hilariously over the top with its use of blood and mucus that I had to take a second to compose myself or risk losing my lunch. 

Raimi has always been adept at telling his stories visually. Using composition, camera angle, editing, and sound, he can get a point across without ever having to say it out loud. We see that happening all throughout Send Help. The cinematography (Bill Pope) and editing (Bob Murawski) amplify the gravity of Linda and Bradley’s predicament through clever cinematic techniques. One scene has the camera panning across Bradley’s face repeatedly, each time his expression getting a little more distressed as he realizes that help may not be on its way. Another example has the camera jumping into Linda’s point of view, slowly turning into a Dutch Angle shot (where the camera is tilted to slant the horizon line) to highlight her sudden change in mindset. There are some big surprises in the second and third acts, but none of them feel like a cop out. Raimi and his team successfully lay out the clues so that when all the secrets are revealed, it fits within the structure of the story. 

Above all else, Send Help is just a fun time at the movies. Sam Raimi has created a picture that has us frightened, laughing, or dry heaving at any given second. Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien turn in committed and energized performances – it looked like they were having a blast playing off one another. This is entertainment at a high level. It’s not revelatory – it doesn’t take the thriller/horror genre to new or unexpected places. But it does deliver exactly what it promises. It’s encouraging to know that Raimi – even after being in the industry for as long as he has – can still make something that undoubtably has his signature all over it.    

A Simple Plan, Bill Paxton, Bill Pope, Billy Bob Thornton, Bob Murawski, Bruce Campbell, Cast Away, Damian Shannon, Dylan O’Brien, Featured, Kirsten Dunst, Mark Swift, Misery, Rachel McAdams, Romancing The Stone, Sam Raimi, Send Help, Six Days Seven Nights, Spider-Man, The Evil Dead, Tobey Maguire, Tom Hanks