Cast: Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Edyll Ismail, Xavier Samuel, Chris Pang, Thaneth Warakulnukroh, Emma Raimi and Dennis Haysbert
Genre: Horror, Thriller
Director: Sam Raimi
In Irish Cinemas: 5th February 2026
At first glance, Send Help looks like it’s wearing borrowed clothes. The marketing leans hard into Sam Raimi’s horror pedigree, suggesting splatter, shrieks, and the familiar wink of genre excess. What the film actually delivers is far more interesting: a sharply observed, darkly funny psychological survival thriller that weaponises workplace resentment and turns it loose on a deserted island.
Rather than another exercise in horror nostalgia, Send Help is a lean two-hander about those who have it, who think they do, and how quickly it evaporates when the rules change. The premise is deceptively simple. A plane crash strands two survivors: Linda Liddle, a chronically overlooked consulting executive, and Bradley Preston, the smug nepo-baby boss who has spent years benefiting from her competence while mocking her eccentricity. Civilisation disappears, and with it, the corporate hierarchy that once defined them.
The screenplay by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift is the film’s secret weapon. It understands that survival stories are only as compelling as the personalities forced into proximity, and it milks that tension for both comedy and dread. This is not a romance, not a redemption fantasy, and not a neat morality play. The film delights in misdirection, constantly recalibrating audience sympathy as each character reveals unexpected strengths, weaknesses, and alarming impulses.
Rachel McAdams delivers a career-best performance as Linda, crafting a character who is capable, unstable, funny, and unsettling, sometimes all within the same scene. Her survival skills, fueled by an encyclopedic knowledge of Survivor, immediately flip the expected dynamic. Linda hunts, fishes, improvises, and problem-solves with manic precision, while Bradley, immobilised by a severe leg injury, is reduced to dependence and denial. The humour is often laugh-out-loud, including a chaotic encounter with a wild boar, but it’s never frivolous. Every gag sharpens the psychological edge.
Dylan O’Brien plays Bradley with refreshing restraint. Rather than leaning into cartoon villainy, he presents a man who truly believes his own hype, even as the world keeps proving him wrong. His entitlement feels painfully recognisable, and when the script grants him moments of vulnerability, they complicate rather than soften him. The film is at its best when it allows both characters to be simultaneously sympathetic and infuriating.
Raimi’s direction is confident and mischievous. He flirts with horror, letting the tone grow ominous, and violence feel sudden and wrong, but never fully commits to the genre. The result is something more slippery and effective: a thriller that laughs just as hard as it unsettles. The camera lingers, the pacing tightens, and when the film veers into darkness, it does so without warning or apology.
Shot in Australia and Thailand, the island setting is lush and deceptively serene, a visual counterpoint to the escalating psychological warfare. The high production values never distract from the intimacy of the story, which thrives on the claustrophobia of two people who cannot escape each other.
Send Help isn’t just a survival movie; it’s a satire of modern work culture, privilege, and the quiet rage of being indispensable yet invisible. It refuses easy lessons and tidy endings, opting instead for something riskier and far more satisfying. Smart, cruel, funny, and unpredictable, it’s the kind of film that sneaks up on audiences expecting one thing and leaves them arguing about something else entirely.
Overall: 7.5/10
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