--- title: "Send Help" year: 2026 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/send-help" fi1m_id: "send-help" imdb_id: "tt8036976" tmdb_id: 1198994 wikidata_id: "Q132200341" fi1m_score: 74 critics_score: 79 critics_reviews: 10 published: "2026-09-09" updated: "2026-09-18T08:37:45.297555+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Send Help (2026) Directed by Sam Raimi · 1h 53m · MPA R · Horror, Thriller, Comedy ## Identity Send Help - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/send-help - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** send-help - **IMDb ID:** tt8036976 - **TMDB ID:** 1198994 - **Wikidata ID:** Q132200341 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt8036976/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/1198994, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q132200341 **Fi1m score: 74** · Critics 79 from 10 reviews *In a sentence:* The quiet one from strategy and planning finally gets a one-to-one with her boss, and there is nowhere for him to run > Sam Raimi strands a mousy employee and her boss on an island and lets her chair the meeting. Rachel McAdams is superb and the gore is cheerfully vile; the script has fewer ideas than she does. Worth your evening if you can stomach it. ## Synopsis Linda Liddle (Rachel McAdams) works in strategy and planning at a company run by Bradley Preston (Dylan O’Brien), who barely registers that she exists. When a company plane goes down over the sea, the two of them wash up on a desert island with nothing but what they were wearing. Linda, it turns out, knows a great deal about staying alive. Preston knows how to run a meeting. As the days pass and rescue does not come, the arrangement they had in the office no longer holds, and it becomes clear which of them is now in charge. Dennis Haysbert, Edyll Ismail and Xavier Samuel also appear. Sam Raimi directs from a screenplay by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift. ## Review Linda Liddle works in strategy and planning at a company run by Bradley Preston, who barely registers that she exists. Then the company plane goes into the sea, and the two of them wash up on an island with nothing but what is in their pockets. She knows how to make fire and find water. He knows how to run a meeting. *Send Help* is Sam Raimi’s first out-and-out horror film since *Drag Me to Hell*, and it is nasty, funny and better acted than it had any need to be. It also has fewer ideas than it has litres of blood, and it runs out of the former first. Rachel McAdams is the reason to see it. She plays Linda with her shoulders up, her hair scraped back and a habit of apologising before anyone has interrupted her, and she gets laughs from nothing more than the length of a pause. On the island she does not become a different woman. She simply stops apologising, and McAdams lets you watch the moment she notices that nobody can make her start again. Dylan O’Brien has the harder job, because Preston is the boss who thinks he is the good kind, and O’Brien plays him as a man whose confidence came with the job title and has now been withdrawn. He is at his funniest when he is most frightened, which is often. Bill Pope, who shot [*The Matrix*](https://film.one/film/the-matrix), gives the office the flat grey light of a place where nothing has happened for years, and then throws the island into hard white sun, so that every scrape shows and the blood goes black against the sand. Ian Gracie’s production design makes the shelter Linda builds out of wreckage into a small joke about competence: it has a place for everything, and Preston is not consulted on any of it. Anna Cahill’s costumes do the story’s work by degrees, Preston’s suit coming apart at the seams over the weeks while Linda’s cardigan, of all things, holds. Danny Elfman, who has scored for Raimi since *Darkman*, writes for the island as if it were a fairground, brass and shrieks and sudden silences, and Bob Murawski, who has cut Raimi’s films since *Army of Darkness*, cuts on the shriek. The set piece everyone will talk about involves a boar, and it is the film in miniature. We laughed, loudly, and then felt slightly ashamed of ourselves, because what the scene is actually showing us is a woman finding out that she enjoys this, and Raimi times the gag so the shame arrives a beat after the laugh. That has always been his gift. The camera whips round, something wet hits something hard, and you are grinning before you have decided whether you should be. The blood is the weak point, which in a Raimi film is a strange thing to write. Too much of it is digital and looks it, splashes that sit on the image instead of soaking into it, and in a film this committed to being disgusting that matters. The bigger trouble is the script. Damian Shannon and Mark Swift have a good premise and a thin argument. The satire says that bosses are awful and asks whether we agree, and having established that we do, it says it again. Somewhere in the second half the film takes a turn we will not describe, and it is the point at which it backs away from the uncomfortable thing it has set up and reaches for a chase instead. By then we had stopped being surprised. Raimi has done this better. *Drag Me to Hell* had the same glee and kept hold of its story to the end. But most films sold as horror-comedy manage one half of the description, and this one manages both. At 113 minutes it could lose ten without anyone noticing which ten. See it with somebody who has a manager, and watch which of you laughs first. *Fi1m score 74, published 9 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics greet Send Help as a return to form for Sam Raimi, and the praise lands most heavily on Rachel McAdams. Reviewers repeatedly describe her mousy office worker, stranded on an island with her boss after a plane crash, as the film’s engine, with Dylan O’Brien admired alongside her as the power between them flips. The gore is the second talking point: most find the set pieces gleefully revolting, though a couple note that the digital effects look weaker than practical work would have. Reservations cluster around the script and the satire. A few critics feel the film backs away from the more uncomfortable parts of its role reversal, and that its eat-the-rich comedy is thinner than in similar films. The spread is fairly wide. The Telegraph finds it more stressful than funny and calls it a strained disappointment, and The Guardian judges the plot twists derivative and the gore silly, but they are outnumbered by reviews that simply call it fun. ## Straight answers **Is Send Help worth watching?** *Send Help* is worth your evening if you can stomach it, and we scored it 74. Rachel McAdams is superb as the overlooked employee who turns out to know how to survive, and Sam Raimi keeps the gore nasty and funny at once. The script has fewer ideas than she does, and the second half reaches for a chase when it should hold its nerve. **How long is Send Help, and what is it rated?** *Send Help* runs 1h 53m and is rated R by the MPA in the US. It is a horror and thriller film. **Where can I watch Send Help in the US?** *Send Help* is streaming on Hulu and Disney+ in the US, and it is also available to rent from Amazon Prime Video from $4.99. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service. **How violent or frightening is Send Help, and is it suitable for children?** *Send Help* is a 15 in the UK and R in the US, and it is not for children. The violence is frequent and cheerfully vile, with a boar set piece that had us laughing and then feeling slightly ashamed, and the blood is meant to disgust. Squeamish viewers should stay away; teenagers of fifteen and over who like horror-comedy will be fine. **How does Send Help compare to Misery?** *Send Help* and [*Misery*](https://film.one/film/misery) both trap two people together and let the balance of power turn, and both are funny and frightening at once. *Misery* is the better film: it keeps hold of its story to the end, where *Send Help* loses its nerve in the second half. Choose Raimi for gore and slapstick, Reiner for sustained dread. **What should I watch after Send Help?** After *Send Help*, try [*The Menu*](https://film.one/film/the-menu) (2022, Fi1m 72): Eat-the-rich satire with a kitchen instead of an island and Ralph Fiennes holding the knife. Then [*Misery*](https://film.one/film/misery) (1990, Fi1m 83): Two people, one bed, one hobbling; Kathy Bates shows how far a captor can smile; and [*Triangle of Sadness*](https://film.one/film/triangle-of-sadness) (2022, Fi1m 66): A yacht sinks, the survivors reach an island, and the toilet cleaner is suddenly management. ### Reviews we read (18) - **The Independent**, Clarisse Loughrey (85/100, inferred): The critic finds Raimi's return to horror disgusting yet brilliant, praising the film's witty and visceral take on an eat-the-rich parable. McAdams and O'Brien deliver forceful performances in the survival power struggle, though digital gore effects are noted as a weakness compared to practical effects. [Read](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/send-help-review-sam-raimi-rachel-mcadams-b2907542.html) - **Empire**, Helen O’Hara (80/100, inferred): The critic calls the film gnarly, gross and delightfully unconventional, a satisfying Sam Raimi return carried by McAdams' committed performance. It blends office satire, body horror and power dynamics on the island with tension over shifting sympathies and unpredictable outcomes. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/send-help/) - **Little White Lies**, David Jenkins (4/4/4): The critic finds it an absolute hoot and rip-roaring dose of pure Raimi, riding on extremely entertaining lead performances that deliver insight into gender wars and corporate bro culture. [Read](https://lwlies.com/reviews/send-help) - **Los Angeles Times**, Katie Walsh (80/100, inferred): The review calls it a gonzo and fun survivalist riff that succeeds thanks to game performances from McAdams and O’Brien, who deliver expressive, clownish turns in Raimi’s irreverent, bloody style. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/movies/story/2026-01-30/send-help-review-rachel-mcadams-sam-raimi-dylan-obrien) - **The AV Club**, Jesse Hassenger (B): McAdams elevates the film with a complex performance in this loopy, messy Raimi thriller that mixes gore, gender politics, and fun, though it doesn't fully merge his style with deeper human elements as successfully as his best works. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/send-help-review) - **Variety**, Peter Debruge (75/100, inferred): The critic enjoys the twisted B-movie premise and unpredictable power reversal on the island, praising McAdams’ unexpected stretch into a dowdy role and Raimi’s gross-out humor and audience-baiting shocks. [Read](https://variety.com/2026/film/reviews/send-help-review-1236637527/) - **Radio Times**, Emma Simmonds (3 out of 5 stars): The critic describes a madcap survival thriller with recognisably manic Raimi energy and strong lead performances that plumb the depths of derangement, though it falls short of the satirical success of similar films. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-9qjyoj/send-help/) - **The Guardian**: The film starts promisingly with its desert-island survival premise and satire but is undermined by derivative plot twists and gratuitous, unconvincing gore that turns it silly. McAdams gives a solid performance in an otherwise exasperating black comedy. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/jan/26/send-help-review-sam-raimi-rachel-mcadams-gore-laced-plane-crash-survival-story) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, Frank Scheck: The critic praises the audacious concept and Raimi's filmmaking in this darkly comic survival thriller, highlighting McAdams' transformative performance as a standout. The film is fun, freaky, and full of surprises, with virtuosic sequences that mix horror and humor effectively. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/send-help-review-rachel-mcadams-dylan-obrien-sam-raimi-1236481704/) - **The New York Times**, Jeannette Catsoulis (Critic’s Pick): The critic finds this a jubilantly wicked thriller identifiable as a Sam Raimi product, praising its darkly humorous tone, yucky effects and steadfast support for the awkward heroine played by a dorkified Rachel McAdams. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/01/29/movies/send-help-review.html) - **The Telegraph**: McAdams and O’Brien go feral on a desert island in a tale of shifting power dynamics, but the film stresses viewers out more than it amuses or scares, with gratuitous gore and a dubious script that makes it a strained disappointment from Raimi. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/2026/02/05/rachel-mcadams-send-help/) - **The Times**, Tom Shone: McAdams is dazzling and unstoppable as the mousy employee who turns the tables on her boss after a plane crash strands them on a desert island, powering a boisterous horror-comedy that mixes eat-the-rich satire with Looney Tunes violence. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/film/article/send-help-review-rachel-mcadams-is-unstoppable-8l2ljfrqj) - **Time Out**, Phil de Semlyen (4 out of 5 stars): The critic calls it a major return to form for Raimi and a queasy funhouse ride featuring wild, committed performances from McAdams and O'Brien as the power dynamic flips on a remote island. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/send-help-review-2026) - **Vulture**: McAdams delivers fun physical comedy and line readings in this survival thriller, bringing energy to the role reversal on the island, though the film pulls back from fully exploring uncomfortable dynamics in its characters' power shift. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/article/rachel-mcadams-is-all-wrong-and-so-right-for-send-help.html) - **Deadline**, Pete Hammond (85/100, inferred): The critic praises it as a delightful, genre-bending dark comic thriller with Rachel McAdams delivering one of her best performances in a story of role reversal between an employee and her boss stranded on an island. The film is lauded for its originality, humor, and entertainment value. [Read](https://deadline.com/2026/01/send-help-review-rachel-mcadams-dylan-obrien-sam-raimi-1236696378/) - **Den of Geek**, Joe George (85/100, inferred): The critic celebrates Rachel McAdams' fearless, committed performance as an office worker who unleashes chaos on a deserted island. They single out the gruesome, absurd boar-hunting sequence as emblematic of Sam Raimi's signature blend of terror and comedy. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/send-help-rachel-mcadams-full-bruce-campbell-amazing/) - **Digital Spy**, Ian Sandwell (85/100, inferred): The critic calls the film a deliciously entertaining, disgusting and twisted survival thriller that is enormous fun and unmissable. They single out the multiple outrageous, gory set pieces and the comic timing of McAdams and Dylan O'Brien. [Read](https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a70109322/send-help-review/) - **Collider**, Aidan Kelley (6/10): The critic describes it as a darkly comedic return to horror that could use more scares, with inconsistencies in tone and script. They praise the dynamite performances by McAdams and O'Brien along with Raimi's creative visuals and overall fun, campy entertainment value. [Read](https://collider.com/send-help-review-sam-raimi-rachel-mcadams-dylan-obrien/) ## Details - **Director:** Sam Raimi - **Director:** Sam Raimi - **Screenplay:** Damian Shannon, Mark Swift - **Cinematography:** Bill Pope - **Editor:** Bob Murawski - **Music:** Danny Elfman - **Production design:** Ian Gracie - **Costume design:** Anna Cahill - **Producer:** Sam Raimi, Zainab Azizi - **Cast:** Rachel McAdams as Linda Liddle; Dylan O'Brien as Bradley Preston; Edyll Ismail as Zuri; Xavier Samuel as Donovan; Dennis Haysbert as Franklin; Chris Pang as Chase; Thaneth Warakulnukroh as Boat Captain; Emma Raimi as River - **Runtime:** 1h 53m - **Certificate (MPA):** R - **Release (the US):** 30 January 2026 - **Genres:** Horror, Thriller, Comedy - **Budget:** $40 million - **Box office:** $94 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOmnmFz_Uzs ## Where to watch in the US - Hulu: streaming, uhd - Disney+: add-on, uhd - Amazon Prime Video: rent $4.99, uhd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $4.99, uhd *Checked 2026-09-10.* Also available in: AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, IE, IN, IS, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, TR, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Swept Away* (1974): Lina Wertmüller strands a rich woman and a deckhand; the pecking order does not survive the week. - *Drag Me to Hell* (2009): Raimi’s last proper horror film, meaner and tighter, with a goat that will not be forgotten. - *The Menu* (2022), Fi1m 72: Eat-the-rich satire with a kitchen instead of an island and Ralph Fiennes holding the knife. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-menu.md) - *Misery* (1990), Fi1m 83: Two people, one bed, one hobbling; Kathy Bates shows how far a captor can smile. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/misery.md) - *Triangle of Sadness* (2022), Fi1m 66: A yacht sinks, the survivors reach an island, and the toilet cleaner is suddenly management. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/triangle-of-sadness.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/send-help