Send Help

Sam Raimi is a rather fascinating filmmaker as he is responsible for some of the most famous horror projects, including Evil Dead and Army of Darkness, while even being a key contributor in making superhero films as popular as they are today thanks to his timeless Spider-Man trilogy. Even with this epic filmography, which many directors would sell their souls to boast, Raimi hasn't been hugely relevant in the past 15 to 20 years, as since Spider-Man 3, as a director he has delivered Drag Me to Hell, Oz the Great and Powerful, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, three flicks that will likely be referred to in history as some of his lesser well-regarded works. So to say that Raimi needs a win is perhaps somewhat accurate.

Cut to this year and we see Raimi back in the director's seat and helming a horror-thriller that is more akin to the kinds of the films he made his name upon. After teaming with Rachel McAdams in the latest Doctor Strange epic, the actor and director have once again come together for Send Help, a survival film that revolves around two people trapped on a desert island, where things aren't quite as they seem...

It's a fascinating film that has been written by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift because it doesn't really conform to the traditional standards of heroes and villains. The start of the story sets up a more typical plot about an underappreciated worker and her vindictive boss, witnessing how McAdams' Linda is tormented and teased by the company's new nepo-baby CEO called Bradley, played by Dylan O'Brien. Immediately, you begin to sense that this is how the wider plot will unravel, exploring how Linda deals with the snide jabs and insults, but a rather quick plane crash, seeing both boss and employee wash up on a distant beach, changes this dynamic almost instantaneously.

Linda, being a huge Survivor fan, has a knack for survival techniques and skills and this flips the dynamic, seeing the employee become boss and the boss becoming a loyal subject. For the next hour, what we see if a friendship blossom, out of convenience, until secrets are slowly revealed and hidden motivations and personality traits bubble to the surface, leading to an explosive turn of events where blood is shed, lives are taken, and horrors are buried in the sand to be lost to the annals of time.

For the first two acts of Send Help, we only get the odd taste of Raimi's signature direction, with hectic and unsettling scenes occasionally popping up. This could be how the two surviving characters bounce off one another in twisted ways, watching Linda fight off a CGI boar in the most violent way possible, seeing how one survivor's isolation-shattering discoveries change the situation unbeknownst to the other survivor. For over an hour, there's not actually much horror in this film at all, with more of a focus on thrill and unevenly effective dark comedy, and while that is fine, it leads to a movie that lacks a bit of punch, as while McAdams is charismatic and lively, O'Brien proves to be less of a standout lead. I'd go as far as saying that the first two acts of this film are simply mediocre.

Thankfully, the third act is where we see Raimi really flex his skills. This last act moves along like a bullet train, seeing how secrets are spilled and witnessing how the two survivors deal with the consequences. Again, it never really reaches full horror status, but it's far more unsettling than what was served up before, with plenty of gore baked in where we get to see eyes gouged, heads scalped, people killed, and even brief zombie jump-scares. In this final act, you won't want to look away aside from when cringing as the characters try to kill each other in the most violent ways possible. It's a brilliant conclusion that you can't help but wish was reflected all the way throughout the film, making for more of a survivor-horror flick than a desert island-thriller as it is for over 60 minutes.

So an unevenly-paced plot even if it does finish strong. At least the wider whole is put together well, right? For the most part, yes. There are times where CG is used to really ugly and poor effect, including on the overlook and during the boar fight, where some of the fear-factor and thrill is lost as it's so clear which parts of the movie have been filmed on a real set and which have been put together in a warehouse in front of a blue screen. It's a bit off-putting and makes you wish that these scenes either weren't used or did so with better and more effective digital effects.

Bringing it back full circle, if Raimi is needing a win to see him return to being one of the movie world's top and current best filmmakers, Send Help is not exactly it. It's a fine and perfectly entertaining movie, but it's also a bit forgettable and lacks character. With a runtime of less than two hours, you won't become bored of watching this flick, but by the time the credits roll, you also won't leave stunned or blown away. It's an okay film, and there's nothing wrong with that, but it won't be going down in the list of Raimi's best.