Send Help

Sickos rejoice! Send Help is the first Sam Raimi film to feel like a Sam Raimi film since Drag Me to Hell (2009), and while its premise screams for a lean 85-90 minutes, there's never a dull moment over the course of its nearly two-hour runtime.

Back in her first leading role since Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (2020), Rachel McAdams is a revelation as mousy corporate strategist Linda Liddle, first through her transformation into an uncouth office pariah. But even more impressive is Linda getting to live out her Survivor fantasies after her company's jet crashes over the Pacific, leaving her and newly appointed, spoiled nepo-baby CEO Bradley Preston (an especially smarmy Dylan O’Brien) as the lone passengers to wash up on a remote island.

Raimi and his go-to editor Bob Murawski depict Linda’s outdoor skills with entertaining precision, establishing an appealing dichotomy between her and Bradley, who assumes rescue is nigh.

Various tantalizing cat-and-mouse tactics ensue, some more successful than others (take a wild guess who fares slightly better). And upping the tension (and good times) is some textbook Raimi gross-out humor, featuring one standout sequence with a wild boar and another with an especially sharp knife.

The witty script from the team of Mark Swift and Damian Shannon (taking a huge step up from their Jason Vorhees and Baywatch projects) nevertheless wraps up a bit too quickly and smoothly, especially considering the detailed build-up. But such flaws are easily forgivable when Raimi is back working with original material — and proving yet again that he's one of the greats.

Grade: B-plus. Rated R. Now playing at AMC River Hills 10, Carolina Cinemark, and Regal Biltmore Grande.

(Photo: 20th Century Studios)