SEND HELP Review: Pretty Please?

Introduction 

I scheduled two screenings for myself on consecutive nights, something I generally try to avoid. The first was Jason Statham’s new film, Shelter, which might also be his old film, The Mechanic, or A Working Man, or The Beekeeper. It’s very hard to tell the difference between most of Statham’s films. The second screening was Send Help, director Sam Raimi’s new film.

I’m not sure why, but I broke my rule about watching previews and watched one for Send Help. My immediate reaction after watching the preview was “Oh, hell yeah.” At that moment, I knew it would be a good idea to balance the very predictable Shelter with what appeared to be a bonkers and unpredictable Send Help. The verdict of my decision? Oh, hell yeah.

As it turns out, I’m more of a Raimi fan than I knew. I knew he was responsible for The Evil Dead trilogy, the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man trilogy, and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. I did not know that he was also responsible for The Quick and the Dead, A Simple Plan, For Love of the Game, and Oz the Great and Powerful.

Full disclosure – I didn’t like Oz the Great and Powerful (nor did most people), and The Evil Dead movies do nothing for me (they’re just too B-movie). And I don’t think anybody would disagree that Spider-Man 3 never happened. But the rest are good, fun, baseball, or all of the above, now including Send Help.

Synopsis

The story is simple. Two people get stranded on a deserted island after surviving a plane crash and must do what they can to survive. The details make the story so much fun. Linda Liddle (Rachel McAdams) is a strategist, wants to be on Survivor, is good at her job, and is very socially awkward. Newly minted CEO Bradley Preston (Dylan O’Brien) is young, full of himself (he inherited the CEO role after his dad died), pampered, and decides to promote his frat bro to vice president over Linda.

Send Help is a good mashup of a bunch of things Raimi excels at. Quick zoom-ins on characters’ faces. Exceptionally well-timed jump scares. Practical effects involving copious amounts of bodily fluids. Great pacing. Excellent music (from frequent collaborator, Danny Elfman). And Bruce Campbell, even if he’s only a framed picture on a wall. Add to that a solid story and the two lead actors clearly having a ball in their roles, and we get a really, really fun movie.

Discussion

The reason the preview of Send Help I watched was so compelling is that it shows this setup, then the expected role reversal. What I wasn’t expecting was how non-cliched that reversal unfolded. The clever part of the writing is that it’s meant to mirror Survivor. True, nobody is voting anybody off the island, and there isn’t a host refereeing the action. But Linda and Bradley are definitely competing in various ways and intensity.

At first, Bradley still thinks he’s in charge, despite being seriously injured during the crash. Linda quickly educates him (again, this is in the preview), and a situation similar to Misery is definitely on the table. It’s this dynamic that is so compelling to us in the audience, raising all kinds of tantalising questions.

How far will Linda take her newfound power? Is Bradley going to become a sympathetic character while Linda turns into a monster? Or will the story go a completely different direction by having Linda nurse Bradley back to health, only to end up his subordinate again? Will anyone find them? Will there be a conch involved? Or an anthropomorphised volleyball? Are they really alone on the island, and they’ll have to band together to survive? Will anyone hunt a wild boar? Will they end up trying to kill each other? Is there an evil book? The possibilities are endless.

Conclusion

I’m trying not to spoil anything for you because that’s how much I appreciated and enjoyed Send Help. It’s the kind of film where you can really see all of the lessons that Sam Raimi has learned over nearly half a century of filmmaking. How he’s refined his techniques and put the best of them to great use. And how he understands exactly the kind of movie that he wanted to make here. In other words, oh hell yeah.

Rating: Don’t ask for any money back. In fact, pay to see it twice.

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