Send Help (2026) Review: chaos, comedy & horror
Words: Arete Noctua, Film Features Editor & Writer @ Féroce Magazine
Sam Raimi is first and foremost a showman. His lifelong love of comic books, classic horror, and comedy is apparent in much of his work, in how he knows exactly how to play with the visual language of film, with a playful but visceral style that is visually kinetic, flamboyant, and distinct. Comedy and horror have a close relationship in how both rely on long-established traditions of setting up and paying off the punchline. Sometimes the best examples of each of these genres can be seen in the subversion of those expectations, and Sam Raimi knows it. His passion for the art of visual storytelling, and his blend of style and genres, has allowed him to become one of the most recognisable and iconic directors in the industry.
Send Help feels like a classic Sam Raimi film at its best. He has made his mark in a variety of genres, but his love of gross-out horror blended with comedy goes back to his first forays into filmmaking, when he was making short horror films with his friends using a Super 8 camera. These allowed him to raise funds to make his first feature film, 1981’s The Evil Dead, an innovative low-budget horror that demonstrated his skill and versatility as a storyteller and director. From this first outing, Raimi has shown himself to be a man who knows how to throw blood around and make it fun, going from strength to strength in making the audience laugh and cringe in equal measure at the buckets of viscera thrown around the set. And after a long time away from pouring blood all over his cast, it is nice to see him back doing so again.
In Send Help, Rachel McAdams’ corporate strategist Linda Liddle, an awkward pushover in her workplace, is left without her promised promotion by the company’s new boss, Dylan O’Brien’s slick and arrogant Bradley Donovan. He is disgusted by her frumpy appearance and seeming meekness, despite the fact that she is far more professionally competent than his frat buddy Donovan, who he gives her promotion to instead, played by Xavier Samuel. He wants someone he can golf with. When she confronts Donovan, he is surprised by her standing up to him and decides to take her with them on their business trip to Bangkok. After their plane crashes, Linda and Bradley find themselves stranded on an island, with the tables turned as Bradley finds himself needing Linda’s wilderness skills to survive.
Sam Raimi loves to give us characters to root for who do not fall into the usual definitions of heroic. They may be a little too arrogant, a little too ruthless, a little too unhinged, but you will often find yourself cheering for them anyway and asking yourself how you can be doing so. Send Help manages to give us two people who, in their own way, are both capable of being utterly awful. And he has a great time torturing them, putting them in situations that leave us squirming in our seats as they battle the island and each other, revealing the best and worst parts of themselves as they do so. His usual sense of glee in doing this is palpable, as Linda and Bradley are variously covered in blood, snot, and vomit. Eyes get popped, blood squirts into faces, and the violence and gore manage to stay familiarly Raimi, both comedic and horrific. In that area, he remains a master.
Balancing his kinetic and singular style for action and violence alongside more grounded camerawork and downbeats, Raimi allows for well-crafted characters and a story that carefully avoids being predictable in its unfolding, demonstrating his skill in blending genres and the depth of his range as a director. McAdams and O’Brien both give fantastic performances, at turns showing their characters’ ruthlessness and capacity for cruelty alongside deeply sympathetic moments of vulnerability. At no point do they feel flat or single-note. Their power struggle remains at a consistent tension, and Bradley’s arrogant assumption that his wealth and power in the workplace should translate into the wilderness is played with by Raimi to great effect. It is never trite or preachy, especially as Linda slowly begins to demonstrate that she is not merely his meek subordinate, but also a woman perfectly capable of viciousness if it enables her to gain the upper hand. Their dynamic remains consistently engaging, and their chemistry on screen plays powerfully.
When the action hits, Raimi shows himself to be the showman that he is, taking pleasure in pushing the frantic chaos past the point where it feels like things should be over. He keeps you holding your breath, begging for the blood, snot, and popping eyeballs to finally subside. And just as you relax, he deliberately pushes things a little further to give an extra kick, an iconically Raimi flourish. His playfulness with action, and his joy in creating absurd and surprising moments, make Send Help a consistent joy to watch. His intelligence in his use of visual language makes for consistently clear and bold choices that never feel overwrought. Send Help is consistently funny and intelligent, beautiful and joyful. A reminder of all the reasons Raimi is so beloved across genres, and why his DIY background in horror comedy made him the name he is today.
Our Take
A bold return to classic form from one of horror’s most beloved directors, demonstrating all of the chaotic stylistic flourishes that made his early work so riveting, alongside the patience, precision, and skillsets he developed in his more grounded work. Send Help shows that Raimi still has every ability to give audiences one hell of a show. Deliriously fun and deeply satisfying, it blends nuanced characterisation with bold, ridiculous, and cartoonish action-horror elements. Raimi delivers all the hallmarks of his particular craft with great aplomb. It is impossible to leave the cinema without a grin on your face.