There was a period of time, years ago, where I became completely convinced that I could win the TV show, Survivor. This confidence made absolutely no sense. I was already an out-of-shape man with a bad back, colorblind and the cardio endurance of a 70-year-old smoker. I had no survival skills, whatsoever, yet I would sit on my couch watching contestants collapse from exhaustion and somehow think, “Yeah, I could probably handle this.”
That is the strange magic of survival stories. Most of us like to believe we would somehow become tougher, smarter and more resourceful the second a disaster strikes.
In reality, a lot of people would probably become sunburned, dehydrated and emotionally defeated within the first few hours. Send Help understands that idea perfectly, mixing survival tension with the kind of human frustration that comes from being trapped in a bad situation with somebody you already could not stand before everything went wrong.
Send Help is a survival horror-comedy from acclaimed director Sam Raimi, written by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift. The film follows Linda Liddle (portrayed by Rachel McAdams), a socially awkward but highly capable corporate strategist who has spent years believing she is finally on the verge of the promotion she deserves. Unfortunately for Linda, the company’s new CEO Bradley Preston (Dylan O’Brien) decides to hand the position to Donovan (Xavier Samuel), largely because the two were frat brothers.
After Linda confronts Bradley about the decision, she ends up joining him and several coworkers on a business trip to Bangkok.
Things go horribly wrong when their flight suffers catastrophic engine failure and crashes into the ocean. Linda and a severely injured Bradley emerge as the only survivors, stranded on a remote island with little hope of immediate rescue. Ironically, Linda’s years of obsessively watching and preparing to be a contestant for Survivor become the only reason either of them stands a chance of staying alive.
As the days drag on, the pair are forced to rely on each other despite their growing resentment, clashing personalities and the uncomfortable reality that survival may depend just as much on trust as it does skill.
Honestly, if this movie did not have Sam Raimi attached to it, Send Help probably would have landed in the “I’ll catch it eventually” category. A survival comedy about two coworkers stranded on an island sounds entertaining enough, but Raimi’s involvement immediately turned it into a must watch. I have been a fan of his work for years, going all the way back to The Evil Dead and the absolute chaos of Army of Darkness, all the way through his massively influential Spider-Man films.
Raimi has always had a unique ability to balance horror, comedy, tension and over-the-top absurdity in a way that somehow still feels grounded. Even when his movies get ridiculous, there is an energy and personality behind them that makes them impossible to ignore. So, the second I saw his name attached to this project, my interest level immediately shot through the roof.
A lot of that emotional push and pull comes from Linda, herself, and I honestly had a complete love-hate relationship with the character throughout the film. There were moments where I was absolutely rooting for her because just about everyone has dealt with an overbearing boss at some point in their life and fantasized about seeing them knocked down a peg or two. Early on, Bradley is exactly the kind of corporate nightmare that immediately makes you side with Linda.
At the same time, Linda does not exactly help herself during the opening portions of the movie. She is awkward, passive and so weak willed at times that it becomes frustrating to watch her constantly fold under pressure.
Somewhere around the middle of the film, things started shifting again. As Linda becomes more confident and capable, Bradley slowly starts showing cracks beneath the arrogant exterior, and suddenly I found myself weirdly sympathetic toward him too.
By the final act, my loyalties were bouncing back and forth between the two characters almost scene by scene. It created this strange emotional roller coaster where I never fully settled on whose side I was actually on, which honestly made the film a lot more engaging.
My biggest issue with Send Help is also something that longtime fans of Sam Raimi will probably immediately recognize as part of his style. Raimi has always loved bouncing back and forth between horror and comedy, sometimes within the exact same scene. You can see it all the way back in Evil Dead II, where terrifying moments suddenly become absurdly funny seconds later.
In Send Help, that tonal whiplash works more often than it does not, but there are still a few moments where the shift feels a little too abrupt. A tense survival sequence will suddenly turn comedic, or a joke will land right before the movie wants you to feel genuine danger again.
For Raimi fans, that chaotic energy is probably part of the charm, but for others it may feel a bit uneven at times. I also think the middle portion of the film drags slightly once the initial survival setup is established, occasionally revisiting the same emotional conflicts a few too many times before pushing the story forward.
I give Send Help five out of five stars. This is exactly the kind of movie that reminds me why I love seeing filmmakers like Sam Raimi still getting the chance to make weird, energetic, personality-driven films. It balances survival tension, dark comedy, uncomfortable workplace dynamics and character drama in a way that constantly kept me engaged, even during the moments where the tonal shifts became a little chaotic.
Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien both do a fantastic job carrying the movie, especially since so much of it depends entirely on their chemistry and the audience constantly changing opinions on both characters.
More than anything, though, Send Help reminded me of all those years I spent sitting on my couch thinking I could somehow dominate Survivor despite being physically held together by caffeine and stubbornness. The movie knows that survival is not just about strength or intelligence. Sometimes it is about personality clashes, panic, resentment, ego and figuring out how to work with somebody you already disliked before everything went wrong, which is life in a nutshell.
And honestly, after watching this movie, I am even more convinced that if I ever ended up stranded on an island, my greatest survival skill would probably just be yelling for help louder than everyone else.