45 years on from the release of a 20-year-old Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead, comes an all-new feature from the now 66-year-old filmmaker, who proves with his newest flick, Send Help, starring Rachel McAdams and Dylan O'Brien, that his fastball is still as quick as ever. Displaying a level of craft that puts to shame much of what his contemporaries have been able to achieve in his absence, reminding us all that the world is a better place when Sam Raimi is making movies.
The film marks a return to the horror genre for Raimi, who hadn't dipped his toes into his frightful roots since *Drag Me to Hell *all the way back in 2009. In the meantime, he sat in the director's chair on just two occasions. Firstly, for the remarkably unmemorable Oz the Great and Powerful, and secondly, for his MCU debut with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Both of which could be considered relative to smash box office successes, but neither of which quite scratched the itch for a vintage Raimi classic that cinema was sorely missing. To see the legendary filmmaker, then, finally reconnect with his roots through a fresh original horror flick, might just be the best indication that we are, in fact, back like you wouldn’t believe.
Send Help predominantly tells the story of Linda Liddle, an employee of a major corporation in the strategy and planning division, and her arrogant boss, Bradley Preston, who has recently stepped into the role of company CEO following his father's passing.
Linda is an outstanding asset to the company, bearing the brunt of the workload; she never complains, and it seemed that she was finally to be rewarded for all her efforts with a promotion courtesy of Bradley’s father. Bradley himself, though, sees things a little bit differently. Where his father looked for outstanding work ethic, he looks for marketability and competency on a golf course. Linda, as a tuna fish enthusiast, avid Survival TV watcher, and all-around geek, doesn’t exactly fit the bill.
Nevertheless, Linda is invited to prove her worth on a merger-related work trip that the company has yet to quite crack. But on their travels, a plane crash that sees only the two survive forces the unlikely duo to put their differences aside and work together to escape their horrible fate, and it is here that the movie really begins.
The story demands nothing but the finest of performances from its two leads to remain entertaining throughout, and thankfully, with the O’Brien and McAdams 1–2 combo, we get exactly that.
O’Brien gives a beautifully heinous performance that could send anyone who has ever been saddled with this kind of a boss into a state of psychosis. Truly horrifying stuff, enhanced by one of the great cinematic villain laughs in recent memory. This comes at a time, too, when O’Brien seems to be redefining his place in Hollywood, with both Send Help and Twinless displaying his talents better than almost anything else across his career up to this point.
Likewise, McAdams proves why she should be considered amongst the most underutilised stars of the 21st century—a leading woman who can truly do it all, and here, she’s asked to do a whole lot. Whether that’s fighting a boar or providing almost all of the emotional weight of the movie, she’s 100% up to the task.
Perhaps the star of the show, however, is the great Sam Raimi himself, whose use of the camera here is reminiscent of the classic Raimi flair that we’ve come to know and love.
Raimi is, without a doubt, one of the most important figures in American cinema over the past 45 years. His work on The Evil Dead series stands out as some of the most innovative of its time, thanks to its campy tone, stomach-churning gore, and cutting-edge practical effects. Whilst his Spider-Man trilogy set the standard for live-action comic book adaptations in the 21st century. In particular, redefining what the superhero origin story could and should look like on screen.
Here, he escapes the Disney-shaped restrictions that hindered his previous two efforts to deliver something that felt like a genuine breath of fresh air in a modern cinema landscape that feels otherwise devoid of this sort of whimsy. So few others are willing to take the risks he does, place the audience in the positions he does, and quite simply have as much fun as he has with this movie.
Perhaps the film’s one detriment, though, is that despite Raimi escaping Disney’s governing grip, he cannot escape what is ultimately a repetitive and predictable script from Damian Shannon and Mark Swift (Baywatch, Freddy vs Jason), even if it is at times subversive and even quite funny. Regrettably, though, the film often falls into relying on overplayed tropes and lazy conveniences to make up for its inability to find a more interesting path forward. Stopping it from truly graduating past a fun Friday movie to something really unique.
That said, above all else, it’s really just great to see one of the most important filmmakers of our time making movies again — good ones at that. An incredibly fun, well-acted, and well-shot feature that provides an escape for its 113-minute runtime.
Sam Raimi forever.