‘Send Help’ Review: Sam Raimi Does It Again
The great formalist Sam Raimi has done it again with Send Help and continues to prove why he’s one of the best genre artists working today. Of course, it (pun intended) helps that his two leads, Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien, go all in with Raimi’s flashy, kinetic expressions, as the two protagonists fight for survival within the confines of a remote, deserted island in the middle of Thailand, with no way out or help coming to save them.
This may not be Raimi’s most formally audacious piece of work (that award goes to Evil Dead 2), nor does it really matter. The filmmaker knows when to crank up the tension with his signature hyperdynamic visual flourishes and when to dial it back to develop the evolving rivalry between corporate employee Linda Liddle (McAdams) and the newly appointed CEO of the company she works for, Bradley Preston (O’Brien).
The story and team behind Send Help
After the passing of Bradley’s father (Bruce Campbell), a promise was made to appoint Linda as Vice President, but the CEO isn’t interested and makes awfully sexist, downright dehumanizing remarks towards her. He would rather nominate his best friend, Donovan (Xavier Samuel), to the position, even though Donovan has no expertise in any of the fields Linda has worked her butt off in for the better part of seven years.
Bradley is appalled by Linda’s presence and tells one of the company’s longstanding employees, Franklin (Dennis Haysbert), that he plans to fire her immediately after their company merger, scheduled for Bangkok. However, on their way to Thailand, the plane crashes, killing everyone on board instantly, except for Linda and Bradley, who are now stranded on an island without knowing whether anyone is looking for them.
For a while, Send Help stays within the confines of a typical survival picture, until Raimi and screenwriters Damian Shannon and Mark Swift smartly flip the story on its head and deliver pure genre thrills that seem rare in this moviegoing economy.
Well, in this economy, only Park Chan-wook and Sam Raimi will consistently refine their image-making and show audiences camera angles and unique transitions they’ve (likely) never seen before. There are so many singular images in Raimi’s latest that seem to perfect what we’ve come to know and love from the filmmaker without feeling like he’s outright copying himself—or anyone else, for that matter.
With cinematographer Bill Pope (a close collaborator of Raimi’s, who shot his most visually staggering pictures: Spider-Man 2 and Spider-Man 3) and editor Bob Murawski, Raimi lets his freak flag fly on more than one occasion and frequently gives audiences stuff they’ve not seen done at this scale from the man.
There’s one transition in particular, so precise in its comedic timing and catharsis, that it had the entire audience howling and cheering in pure euphoria. Something you seldom see from a crowd based on a pure “visual” alone.
Sam Raimi challenges the filmmaking form and offers something new to moviegoers
But that’s the power of Sam Raimi, an artist who continuously challenges the way audiences watch movies and always offers something different with each picture he makes. His style always has to respond to the needs of what the screenplay (and the movie) should have.
Send Help isn’t Oz the Great and Powerful, nor is it Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, even though some of the stuff he developed in that film (notably, his collaboration with Rachel McAdams) is further pushed to the extremes. It is a supremely violent picture that more often than not recalls Drag Me to Hell.
It’s funny that critics are saying that Send Help is Raimi’s most gruesome picture since then, because he’s only made two films after this one, and they were both for families. Of course, it’s his most violent since Drag Me to Hell, but the comparison means nothing because they are entirely different projects.
One is a supernatural horror, while the other is a psychological thriller that descends further into the protagonists’ madness as one clearly controls the other, while the latter knows something is up but doesn’t (currently) have the strength to do anything about it.
The deserted island is essentially Linda’s territory because it’s something she’s trained for her whole life. She has control over Bradley, who is completely out of his depth and knows he won’t be able to do to her what he did at the office. This creates a palpable sense of tension that Raimi plays off effectively through note-perfect turns from both McAdams (there’s hope that this newfound collaboration with him continues beyond the confines of horror filmmaking) and O’Brien (devilishly entertaining with the greatest “piece of garbage” laugh I’ve ever heard), before the filmmaker goes full gonzo in a wickedly entertaining climax.
It does take some time to get there, but once it does, Raimi pulls all of his tricks in the book and actively develops both protagonists through smart reveals that repurpose what we truly know about them. Without revealing anything, let’s just say that each moment is superbly calibrated and far more intelligent than you think, leading to one of the greatest bravura sequences the American filmmaker has crafted in his storied and multifaceted career.
Sam Raimi’s work serves as a reminder that there are very few formal innovators left in Hollywood, people who continuously rethink the craft (and art) of moviemaking before pursuing their next project.
Final thoughts on Send Help
With Send Help, Raimi proves once again why he’s one of the best and most exciting filmmakers in the business. It may not be as outlandish as Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (his best film since Spider-Man 3), but it also doesn’t need to be. The Raimi sauce is there when it counts, and that’s all that matters when you want a great time at the movies.
There’s simply no one like him. His latest lesson in genre artistry might be the one that brings him back to the times when he didn’t need to work off on pre-existing intellectual properties and go all out in dazzlingly creative and wholly original genre pictures. The chintzy CGI is part of the charm. If more movies were as playful with form (and character) as Raimi’s work, maybe American cinema would be in better shape than it is now…
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