When you watch some movies, the story might feel familiar to other movies that you’ve watched, of course there are lot of survival movies out there, but what keeps you glued to a particular movie is the way the director decides to tell it. So, Send Help takes that familiar idea but with a different flavour. You know how super stressful it can be being with someone you barely tolerate on an island, and both of you are stranded. Yeah, that person happens to be your annoying boss, you’ll feel that’s it’s going to be somewhat kind of hell.
Send help is a 2026 psychological thriller starring Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien, and Sam Raimi is the one sitting on the director’s chair. If you’re the kind of person that is familiar with Raimi’s work, especially when it comes to his horror films, you can probably guess the kind of chaotic energy he brings to the screen. And yes! This particular movie is packed with suspense, dark humour, you’ll see some brutal violence, and a bunch of unexpected moments, all this made it more fun than I thought it would be.
Rachel McAdams acted as Linda Liddle in this movie, she’s an employee who is really great at her job, particularly when it comes to planning and solving difficult problems. Sadly enough, you know sometimes, being excellent at your job doesn’t always mean your workplace will actually value you. Linda tried all his best at work and was hoping for a promotion and she feels she deserved to climb higher position in the company, but unfortunately for her, everything takes a frustrating turn when her boss son is brought in as the new person in charge of the company. Her new boss, played by Dylan O’Brien, is definitely not someone you’d want to be stuck with all day because he’s someone that can be so annoying, arrogant, and dismissive at the same time . He always make Linda feel like she’s never good enough.
Everything gets even messier when the plane crashed on their way to business trip , both of them are the only survivor that makes them to be stranded on a deserted island. Suddenly, all that office politics they were caught up in feels like the least of their worries. Of course that’s expected. Well, not completely, because no matter what, some people will to carry their terrible attitude with them everywhere they go, and this happened on the desert island too.
Linda, on her own side knows one or two survival skills, because she has the knowledge, but her boss, on the other hand, don’t have that skill, and again, he has injury due to the plane crash. Now, he’s forced to depend on the same woman he looked down on at work. You can already imagine how tense that whole situation can be.
One of thing that makes the movie interesting was seeing how the power between the two of them completely shifts. You know, back at the office, her boss has authority on everything, and she will have no choice but to obey, but out on the island, that job title doesn’t count for much. Linda becomes more capable, resourceful person at the island and watching her boss struggle to accept that reality is both irritating and oddly satisfying. Even when he desperately needs her help to survive, he still somehow tries to act like he’s the one in control. That’s so funny, because some people really just cannot drop the boss attitude, even when their life is literally in someone else’s hands.
However, everything that happened between them helped to sell the story. Rachel McAdams with his role. In the process of watching, you’ll start to see some complicated sides of her personality coming out. Of course, Dylan O’Brien also did a great job making his character so obnoxious that you actually get annoyed whenever he starts talking. Like you’ll be so pissed up , like you’re there with him. I’ll say he’s good at what he does. Their relationship is not that romantic kind you’ll see in other story, their chemistry is not sweet at all. Their relationship is more about tension, distrust, and both of them are constantly battling to gain the upper hand in every situation.
In this movie , Sam Raimi’s influence was felt throughout the whole scene. The camera movements was really good. The movie is packed with strange and unsettling scenes, and the sudden spikes of violence. You’ll also see some kind of gory and disturbing scenes, yeah, Some situations are so ridiculous that you cannot help laughing, even when things are getting uncomfortable. The characters throws out some kind of funny comments at the worst possible times, and somehow the comedy did not ruin the tension at all.
One issue I have with the movie was the ending part. Although, I enjoyed the journey and where the story was going, but those final moments left me feeling kind of torn. Because I was hoping for a more satisfying conclusion, and at a point I began to question if the story really has to end that way. But Still, the way it ended did not spoil the overall experience for me.
Overall, Send Help is an entertaining psychological thriller with unpredictable characters. So, If you the kind of person that love thrillers that have dark comedy, complicated characters, and just a little bit of madness thrown in, then this movie is definitely worth checking.
Images were sourced from IMDb.
Rating: 75/100
