Send Help (2026) 20th Century/Horror-Thriller RT: 113 minutes Rated R (strong/bloody violence, language) Director: Sam Raimi Screenplay: Damian Shannon and Mark Swift Music: Danny Elfman Cinematography: Bill Pope Release date: January 30, 2026 (US) Cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Edyll Ismail, Xavier Samuel, Chris Pang, Emma Raimi, Dennis Haysbert, Thaneth Warakulnukroh.
Rating: ****
This is the Sam Raimi we know and love! This is the Sam Raimi that gave us the Evil Dead trilogy (1981-93), Darkman (1990), A Simple Plan (1998) and Drag Me to Hell (2009). Remember him? He’s back with the completely bonkers Send Help, an enormous step up from the disappointments- Oz the Great and Powerful (2013) and Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness (2022)- that were his last two outings. It’s a totally insane blend of Cast Away (2000), Swept Away (1974 or 2002, either version will suffice) and Lord of the Flies. It could also be described as an extreme version of 9 to 5 (1980). If this doesn’t intrigue you, I don’t know what will.
Office worker Linda Liddle (McAdams, Spotlight) is great with numbers, but not so much with people. Her co-workers either ignore her, brush her off or take credit for her work. She has a new boss, a toxic alpha male type named Bradley Preston (O’Brien, American Assassin). He’s the son of the previous boss who promised Linda a promotion. One of his first acts as boss is to promote one his golfing buddies over Linda. He tells her she’s not executive material, but is willing to give her a chance to prove him wrong on a business trip to Bangkok.
En route to their destination, a storm causes their plane to crash in the ocean. Linda washes ashore on a deserted island. Initially, she thinks she’s the sole survivor. Then she finds Bradley on the beach, barely conscious and horribly injured. She nurses him back to health only for him to berate her for not starting a signal fire. Big mistake, dude.
What Bradley hasn’t yet realized is that he’s not the boss out here in the wild. Linda is the one with serious survival skills. She reads books on the subject and religiously watches Survivor. She even sent an audition tape to be on the show. She’s the one who gathers clean drinking water, hunts for food and builds a shelter. He’s just some overgrown rich kid who’s never known real hardship. The shift in power dynamics leads to a violent struggle for survival and domination.
I’m not one to exaggerate so you know I’m being completely real when I say Send Help is the first truly great film of 2026. It’s a gripping survival thriller that defies conventionality. Raimi upends the genre by infusing it with a vicious sense of humor and his natural propensity for diabolical mayhem. It’s a never-ending game of power tug-of-war between two very different people, an entitled nepo-baby boss and a mousy office drone. Baby boss is shocked to learn his bullying tactics don’t work in his current situation. His survival depends on the underling he thought had no value. Isn’t irony great?
Both leads do an amazing job. McAdams plays a character that’s the polar opposite of mean girl Regina George. Linda is a nice girl kept down by the toxic bro culture that permeates her workplace. They see her as powerless and she accepts it because she has no choice. When circumstances change, she transforms into a force to be reckoned with. Suddenly, she’s the one holding the cards. It’s not always a pretty sight either. She has no intention of allowing things to go back to how they were. The things she does to insure this…. well, I’ll let you find out for yourself. McAdams makes the transition both believable and scary. This is one girl you don’t want to f*** with.
O’Brien is equally great as the a**hole boss, the type of guy that would keep HR busy if anybody had the nerve to report him. Early on, he asks an attractive female interviewee if she’s willing to “go above and beyond” in her duties. Yeah, we all know exactly what that entails. You can almost hear the walls come crashing down when he finally realizes the “normal” rules don’t apply because they’re not in the office anymore. O’Brien crushes it. He really makes you despise his character.
I’m not going to spoil the end of Send Help, but I will say it’s a twist worthy of early M. Night Shyamalan. I honestly didn’t see it coming, but it makes sense when you look back over the whole thing. The clues are there. What I really love about the film is its fearlessness. Raimi isn’t afraid to reward bad behavior. He takes the story in directions you won’t believe. It’s a wicked good time.
