Send Help (2026)

Director Sam Rami has been a favorite of mine since the Evil Dead movies of the late '80s. In fact I recently wrote about two of his films that I saw in theaters this year, “Darkman” and “The Quick and the Dead”. It's been a while since he's had a film out that was clearly something that he was built for. He did the best he could to mold “Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness" into a Sam Rami film, but it still had to be a Marvel product.

With “Send Help", he returns to the horror genre at least peripherally. While not a straight horror film, “Send Help" does have several horror elements to it, and a couple of good jump scares, one of which is clearly horror motivated. It is the scenario set up by the story that makes this more of an adventure drama, but the way Rami directs it, you will feel tension and revulsion as if you were watching a horror film.

One of the things that is unique about this movie, is that it will make us feel sympathetic to someone who commits some atrocious acts. Rachel McAdams stars as the put-upon data analyst and accounting specialist, Linda Liddle,  who is passed over for a promotion by someone who is younger, less experienced and of a different gender. This is done largely because the new head of the firm, the son of the firm's founder, is buddies with the guy and it's an old school approach to business.

After having been demeaned and ridiculed by her coworkers and boss, Linda gains the upper hand when their private jet crashes and she and her boss are stranded on an island, with a little chance of rescue. What follows is a series of events where the two characters fight, bond, fight some more, and deal with ambiguous relational issues. You never however get the feeling that all is going to be right. The boss, Bradley, played by Dylan O’Brien, continues to be a person whose lack of power drives him to do things to gain the upper hand. McAdams on the other hand, relishes her situation so much that she ignores some potential opportunities to escape the situation. It may be a trope in these revenge horror type films, that we sympathize with a dangerous character. I remember seeing Willard back in 1971, and knowing that even though he was a little deranged and murderous, I wanted him to get the best of his tormentors.

Surprisingly there are times when we can sympathize with the boss as well. Every time however, that he seems to be more human and someone who can work with his employee, he slips back into the habit of trying to one up his partner in the situation. Sam Rami lights us up with dangerous situations, sudden animal attacks, and a variety of injuries and poisons that make life on this island feel very tentative and risky.

As usual there are a couple of twists in the story, and when the final ones are revealed I think you will discover that the film is a very satisfying two hours of entertainment. That is if you enjoy Sam Rami’s camera style and dark sense of humor. In case you haven't guessed I do.