Last October, I took a trip to Japan. I had been on airplanes many times before, so I wasn’t nervous about flying, but my mom had some engine trouble on a flight she took not long before that and in the back of my mind, I kept asking myself, “What happens if I have to do a Cast Away?” I forgot to pack my autographed copy of Bear Grylls’ “Man Vs Wild” survival techniques book.
That’s essentially the plot of Sam Raimi’s newest survival horror/thriller/black comedy, Send Help, except the protagonist is way more prepared than I would ever be.
After being overlooked for her rightful promotion in favour of the boss’s frat bro, Linda Liddle (Rachel McAdams) joins a business trip with the company execs to Thailand in a last-ditch attempt to prove her worth. Unfortunately, their plane goes down somewhere over the Pacific, leaving Linda and her boss, Bradley (Dylan O’Brien), as the only survivors stranded on a deserted island. Fortunately, Linda is an outdoor survival specialist.
At its core, Send Help is the unholy offspring of Cast Away and Evil Dead, and it’s surprisingly fun, fresh, and freaky.
Raimi’s style is on full display, meaning that subtlety was never part of the equation. He beats you over the head with the notion that Linda is a pathetic, lonely and gross woman while Bradley is the cartoonishly quintessential frat boy, douchebag nepo baby. I hope that bodily fluids aren’t an issue for anyone planning to see this film, because Raimi doesn’t shy away from liberally splashing his tropical-island cinematic canvas with buckets of blood and vomit. And let’s also not forget the Sam Raimi staple: flying through heavy vegetation in first-person perspective.
Send Help is a film that lives on subverting expectations and evolving the dynamics between Linda and Bradley. We’ve seen so many survival movies where the hapless survivors don’t know the first thing about being outdoors and struggle to complete even the simplest tasks, so having Linda already possess the skills and knowledge is a refreshing twist on the formula. The ever-changing balance of power between the two survivors sometimes shifted dramatically within a single scene, and that dynamic kept the movie engaging and exciting. Raimi occasionally leans into the expected tropes, only to snatch away that comfort and keep us guessing.
For a film that more or less markets itself as a survival movie, there is surprisingly little struggling to survive. However, for the Raimi-initiated, as several other critics at my screening did, once we realized who was in the director’s chair, we realized that Send Help would not be so straightforward. Linda’s survival skills are a significant factor in her character development and the overall plot, but seeing her so well-adjusted made me feel a little cheated. True, we do see Bradley struggle to adjust to his new island life, but this is more for comedic effect and to establish the contrast of how well Linda is thriving. Again, I acknowledge that Linda’s survival expertise is the crux of the story, but I would have liked to see Raimi go deeper into her process of turning a bare beach into a seaside resort. Beyond the few initial scenes we get of her building a crude shelter, it would have been interesting to see how her book learning contrasts with actually putting that knowledge into practice. Maybe one of the tips she read about was wrong, and she discovers an even better way to build a hammock?
That’s really my only critique of Send Help. I wanted more actual survival struggle. Other than that, the movie is fine overall, nothing particularly groundbreaking, but still a refreshingly fun and chaotic thriller. The absence of subtlety, light touch, or gentle suggestion in favor of in-your-face imagery can just be chalked up to the bold, silly Raimi style. It’s fun if you like his films, but it won’t be a terrible detriment if you don’t. Honestly, I feel like knowing what to expect from a Sam Raimi joint might have taken away from the fun of being surprised by the campy comedy.
Many of us have that person we would never want to be stranded on a desert island with, and that’s the true horror of Send Help. Though it’s not a scary film, it is horrifying to watch the survivors descend into madness and violence. The driving force behind the film is Linda and Bradley’s interplay as allies and enemies, and by the time the credits rolled, I wasn’t sure where to direct my sympathies or whether either character deserved their fate. I both feel for how unfairly Linda is treated in the workplace and am disturbed by how far she slips into her island fantasy nightmare.
Of course, while Raimi demonstrates his skill at crafting bonkers cinematic escapades, he would not have been able to do it without his cast. Newly minted Hollywood Walk of Famer McAdams delivers a nuanced and multifaceted performance that easily demonstrates why she deserves the accolade. McAdams’ Linda is the repulsive, friendless coworker you don’t make eye contact with so that she doesn’t yap at you about her pet bird with her tuna breath. McAdams’ Linda is the thriving, self-possessed pack leader who will build you a shelter and roast you a boar without ever messing up her gorgeous hair and glowing skin. McAdams’ Linda is the obsessed, delusional psychopath that you wouldn’t want to meet in a dark alleyway and who should under no circumstances be trusted with pointy objects. The actress’s ability to seamlessly and compellingly flow between these different sides of Linda is an enjoyable demonstration of the actor’s skill.
O’Brien is, for the most part, able to keep pace with McAdams. Though Bradley does not have as much development or arc as Linda, his shift from cocky CEO to helpless survivor to semi-competent outdoorsman is still satisfying and convincing. It is so much fun to hate Bradley, and O’Brien’s asshole laugh is so wonderfully crafted to ensure maximum irritation from the audience.
The chemistry between McAdams and O’Brien really cements the whole picture. Each actor’s work is commendable on its own, but in the context of each other, one performance helps elevate the other. Bradley’s contempt for Linda underscores how nasty her office habits are, but it also makes you feel sorry for how unfairly he treats her despite her hard work. Linda’s survival aptitude and her insanity both make Bradley’s helplessness feel like a vindicating victory and a horrifying miscarriage of karmic justice.
Sam Raimi’s Send Help is goofy, horrifying fun. The idyllic island setting juxtaposes the maddening struggle for survival, and Raimi uses his signature comedy to play around with what we’ve all come to expect from the survival genre. Raimi’s directing is complemented by some intense acting from McAdams and O’Brien, who bring great skill to a role that you don’t have to take too seriously to enjoy.
It’s all in good fun. Just kick back, relax and get lost in the wilderness.
Rating: 8/10