"Send Help" is a glorious time at the cinema

Legendary director Sam Raimi breaks the dump month curse with his newest film, “Send Help,” from 20th Century Studios. Damian Shannon & Mark Swift pen the film’s screenplay.

Linda Liddle, played by Rachel McAdams, is an undervalued employee at her company. She is meek yet brilliant. Unfortunately, her day takes a turn for the worse when her arrogant boss, Bradley Preston, portrayed by Dylan O’Brien, decides to give the promotion she deserves to one of his fraternity brothers.

Wanting to keep her around for amusement but not recognizing her value, Bradley decides to let Linda accompany him on a business trip that could make or break the company, treating it as a leisure expense. However, the universe has other plans when the plane crashes and the colleagues become stranded on a deserted island as the only survivors of a plane crash. On the island, they must overcome past grievances and work together to survive, but ultimately, it’s an unsettling, darkly humorous battle of wills and wits to make it out alive.

Films featuring castaways on a deserted island are nothing new. It’s a plot trope that can go a few ways, but ultimately, the ultimate angle becomes who will survive. However, one thing is key: your cast must be more than game and willing to step up to the absurdities. Thankfully, McAdams and O’Brien are more than game.

“The Send Helps” script gives Linda an arc and angle that anyone who has ever had a jerk for a boss will relate to. Linda is a simple woman who loves the reality show “Survivor” and always gives her all at work. The usually glamorous McAdams tones down her beauty and shows impeccable range, giving Linda a nuanced meekness that masks a woman who knows her worth and is fed up with her boss’s behavior.

Fresh off a Maga-esque turn in last year’s highly underrated “Anniversary”, Dylan O’Brien gives his character the perfect amount of tech-bro arrogance, and the audience eagerly awaits the moments when Linda puts him in his place. The physical and psychological moments Linda puts Bradley through will have the audience applauding and appalled in turn, looking away at times due to the intensity.

Since his debut with “The Evil Dead”, Raimi has never shied away from gore, and “Send Help” pushes it to the limit. Kudos to the director as well for avoiding cheap jump scares. Naturally, in the film’s third act, “Send Help” becomes a cat-and-mouse game between the two, as twists come to fruition; however, through it all, we are still rooting for Linda.

With a delicate mix of humor, suspense, and commanding performance from Rachel McAdams, “Send Help” easily brings life to dead month.

Final Grade: A-

“Send Help” is in theaters now.