Alex Wheeler Movie Ops

Cinema’s value as a collective viewing experience is being lost. As more and more people only watch movies at home, the feeling of going to a theater with strangers, taking in the same story, and feeling the waves of emotions together is harder to come by. For film, though, it’s one of its primary functions. As a popular art form with expanding budgets and huge financial expectations, it’s easy to become cynical about movies that are trying to lure you into theaters. But every time a group of people mourns the loss of Tony Stark, cheers when the lightsaber flies into Rey’s hand, or holds their breath as Tom Cruise clings to a plane, a collective experience is being had. That’s a unifying experience, whether you recognize it or not.

I know that’s a heady intro for an evaluation of Send Help, the horror/comedy from director Sam Raimi, but it’s a film designed to get big reactions. It follows Rachel McAdams’ Linda, a smart, awkward employee who is key to holding the business together. She’s been promised a promotion, but her new boss, Dylan O’Brien’s Bradley, doesn’t see her value. He values aesthetics and being a good ol’ boy, of which Linda is neither. He refuses her promotion but brings her along for a key overseas meeting. That’s when the plane crashes, Bradley’s insufferable buddies die brutally satisfying deaths, and Linda and Bradley are stranded on a remote island. There, the tables turn. Linda is an outdoorsy fan of the TV show Survivor, so she quickly replicates what contestants do to build shelter and gather food and water. Bradley only knows how to wait for help, giving Linda an opportunity for revenge.

The scenario is hardly unique among class warfare films, so it’s the execution, not the premise, that makes Send Help a delight. Raimi is going back to his gruesome indulgences, with blood soaking the pair at every opportunity and people getting their just deserts. This is made clear during that plane crash, where a particularly loathsome buddy of Bradley’s is given a protracted death. If you aren’t prepared to laugh and squeal at such things, you should escort yourself out of the theater, because once Linda and Bradley hit the beach, the film is predominantly a game of cat and mouse. 

McAdams and O’Brien pull off the two-hander wonderfully, with the former’s seemingly unlimited range helping hold the tonally chaotic movie together. Her range was apparently when McAdams first burst into fame with the combo of The Notebook and Mean Girls. She would dip her toes into pretty much every genre over time, so when Send Help asks her to do awkward comedy, over-the-top action, and sincere longing, it’s little surprise that she handles it all with ease. O’Brien has less to do, mostly playing up his character’s insufferable demeanour, but in the few moments his humanity shines through, it’s key that someone like O’Brien is there to make it seem believable.

You’re never 100% sure what either character is capable of, which keeps the audience on their toes. And the film needs that uncertainty, because there’s only so much the characters can get up to on the small island. Starving, foraging, and trying to survive the brutal storms would be repetitive if both characters reacted sanely, so as time slips by, the film walks a fine line between being unbelievable and surprising. It pushes the limit of good taste and what people expect from a film at their local cineplex, which throws the audience onto a roller coaster together. You will hear reactions, and not just laughter, right up until it swerves into its perfunctory ending. Raimi attempts to infuse the ending with his gruesome embellishments to keep the mood up, but after so many surprises, the familiarity is a bit of a letdown.

But everything before that ending is so wildly indulgent in its gruesome silliness that it’s hard not to leave satisfied. “I didn’t know it’s be that,” I heard someone exclaim on the way out. Being surprised like that, and coming to that realization with so many people, is the great fun of Send Help.

Release: available now in theaters
Director: Sam Raimi
Writers: Damian Shannon, Mark Swift
Cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien