Send Help (2026)

Starring: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien

Directed By: Sam Raimi

Where It’s available: Disney Plus (all territories)

Sam Raimi’s ‘Send Help’ is unquestionably a *Sam Raimi film* - and people who appreciate his work will know exactly what that means - but it’s also a hodgepodge of different genres. It’s part survival film, part slasher film, part workplace comedy - but all the parts work in concert and the result is a film that is more than the sum of its parts.

The 500 mile view seems simple enough - Rachel McAdams stars as Linda Liddle, an overworked, overlooked office drone who works in ‘strategy and planning’ at a Fortune 500 company. Dylan O’Brien plays her boss, Bradley Preston, an overbearing, entitled business bro. The two of them are the only survivors of a plane crash in the gulf of Thailand after their plane goes down en route to an acquisitions meeting in Bangkok. Thankfully, Linda is an avid study and reader of such books as The SAS Survival Guide, and a super fan of the tv show ‘Survivor’, so she’s uniquely prepared for an event like this.

The chemistry between the two leads is important (in this film, they are effectively the only two characters on screen for about 85% of the 110 minute runtime) - and they play off each other incredibly well. They vacillate between scenes of outright hostility and moments of tender understanding as they navigate their new situation (understandably, it’s difficult for O’Brien’s character Bradley to navigate a world where his wants and needs as an ‘Alpha Male’ are not constantly met, and to his credit, O’Brien gives the right amount of smarmy sneer balanced with moments of fear, judgment and even a little compassion).  

The back half of the film has more twists and turns than a Benoit Blanc story, so I’ll steer clear of digging too deeply into it, but suffice it to say the climax is intense and visceral and incredibly well done. Raimi’s gory practical effects are balanced with some shiny (.. and some not-so-shiny) CGI and a few jump scares and you have a film that keeps people guessing and on the edge of their seat for the majority of the film.

The Good: Rachel McAdams gives a performance unlike any that she’s done so far in her career - she’s intense, yet vulnerable and she also takes a moment to chew a little bit of scenery (a staple of Raimi protagonists going all the way back to his Evil Dead days).

The Bad: A particularly intense scene where Linda hunts a boar with a sharpened spear is marred somewhat by shoddy CGI, but it’s more than made up for with literal buckets of practical blood effects. 

The Ugly: A character attempts to give mouth to mouth while also fighting the effects of food poisoning. Your imagination can probably fill in the blanks here - I vocally gagged, and my partner checked on me from the other room.

Is It Safe For Kids?: No. It’s a hard R in America and rated 14+ here in Canada. It’s violent, scary and the meta commentary of male/female office dynamics would fly over their heads. Once your kid has landed their first job, maybe.

The Verdict: ‘Send Help’ is a mishmash of genres - it’s part dark comedy, part slasher-film, part survival-thriller - that coalesce into shepherd’s pie that’s delicious in spite of appearance.  It’s Sam Raimi’s best film since ‘Drag Me To Hell’ came out 17 years ago (good lord, has it really been THAT long?). Rachel McAdams’ Linda Liddle is one of the most complex film heroines you’re liable to see on-screen this year - a protagonist who flips genre tropes on their head and keeps you guessing throughout. Highly recommended. 8/10.