Film Review - Send Help
Sam Raimi returns to his horror roots in style, blending horrible boss and castaway tropes with subversive aplomb
Anyone who has experienced bad bosses, especially slimy, obnoxious, entitled, trust fund brat bosses brought in to replace their fathers, will get a kick out of Send Help. Sam Raimi’s return to his horror roots takes satirical aim at such people, following through on the premise with deliciously entertaining aplomb. As such, this splendid blending of horror-inflected castaway and psycho-thriller tropes delighted me from start to finish, with its thoroughly loathsome antagonist, Bradley Preston (Dylan O’Brien), going through the wringer to immensely enjoyable effect.
Bradley epitomises a particularly wretched kind of spoiled corporate scumbag: The type that reneges on his late father’s promise to promote the eccentric but thoroughly deserving survival enthusiast Linda Liddle (Rachel McAdams) in favour of an obviously unqualified “bro” from his university days. Yet Linda is essential to their financial management company, so he can’t just fire her. Instead, he brings her along on a work trip to Thailand in his private jet. Here, Linda is openly ridiculed for a variety of ridiculous reasons (her interest in survivalist skills, for instance). Still, she desperately clings to the sentiments of ghastly inspirational meme self-help platitudes (also satisfyingly skewered by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift’s screenplay).
Shortly afterwards, a plane crash results in Bradley and Linda getting stranded on a remote island. Bradley’s leg is seriously injured, and he can’t move. However, Linda is in her element, finally able to put her survivalist skills to good use. What’s more, she’s now in a position where she can teach Bradley a lesson; a lesson she administers with our full blessing, considering the misery he has inflicted up till this point. Yes, she might be a little unbalanced, or potentially murderous, but in addition to his many other sins, this is a man who plays golf (my loathing of golf is the stuff of legend) and hasn’t heard of Blondie (my love of Debbie Harry is also the stuff of legend). He deserves what’s coming to him, and she’s the boss now.
What follows is well-directed with Raimi on wonderful form. He uses the geography of the island to splendid effect, making good use of every cliché in the book, from Dutch angles to fake-outs and a couple of genuinely well-deployed jump scares. He mines every twist and turn for optimum gasp factor, and some of these are genuinely unexpected. It’s also darkly hilarious throughout, with McAdams on fantastic form, going from convincingly dowdy to strangely glamorous and a lot less meek and mild once in the wilderness. O’Brien is splendid too, especially in the way he keeps the viewer guessing whether he really is capable of becoming a better person as a result of his experiences, or whether he’s simply putting on an act.
It isn’t perfect. Some of the CGI is ropey, for instance. But that’s a relatively minor criticism. This is loads of fun and reminded me why Raimi has few rivals when it comes to blending horror and comedy. He has proved this time and time again in the past, for instance, with The Evil Dead (1981), Dark Man (1990), and Drag Me to Hell (2009), and he proves it again here.
In short, Send Help is a gem. It’s funny, exciting, and gory, often all at the same time. It also has a pleasingly satirical, subversive, transgressive edge, and horror fans in particular will leave the cinema with a big smile on their faces.
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