A recent report by the Economic Policy Institute shows that the gender wage gap has increased in the past year. On average, women are paid 18.6% less than men. In addition, protections meant to enforce equal employment and prevent discrimination in the workplace have been dismantled. In other words, the idea of the patriarchy is going strong. In legendary filmmaker Sam Raimi’s (The Evil Dead; Drag Me to Hell) new survival horror film Send Help (2026), a timid, beleaguered female employee of a male-dominated company finds herself in a hopeless position after being passed over for a promotion, but she has the opportunity to let her skills outside the office shine when she ends up stranded on an island with her misogynistic boss. The result is a hilariously twisted, blood-splattered battle of the sexes that boasts some signature Raimi scares.
Rachel McAdams as Linda Liddle in 20th Century Studios’ SEND HELP. Photo Credit: Brook Rushton. © 2025 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
Written by Damian Shannon (Freddy vs. Jason; Friday the 13th) and Mark Swift (Freddy vs. Jason; Friday the 13th) and directed by Sam Raimi, Send Help centers around a meek office worker named Linda Liddle, played by Rachel McAdams (Game Night; Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret). Linda is a corporate strategist who was promised a big promotion by the CEO of the company who recently passed away. When the CEO’s son, Bradley Preston, played by Dylan O’Brien (Saturday Night; Anniversary), takes over the company, Linda discovers that Bradley plans to give the promotion to his college pal Donovan (Xavier Samuel) instead. Bradley’s only clear plan for the company is to encourage a boys club environment where women are treated like objects whose only function is to cater to his every whim instead of recognizing their efforts and promoting a woman, as his father wanted. O’Brien meticulously portrays Bradley as a privileged, condescending jerk whose only talent is being an egotistical asshole. Send Help showcases O’Brien’s virtuosity at playing detestable characters. Similarly, in Anniversary (2025), he flawlessly depicts a nefarious, right-wing leader of a political movement. Linda has proven herself to be more qualified than his frat buddy Donovan, who takes credit for Linda’s work and spends most of his time checking his hair in the mirror. After Linda confronts Bradley about being passed over for the promotion and points out how necessary she is to the success of the company, Bradley reluctantly agrees to let her accompany him and his male colleagues on a trip to Thailand to close a deal.
L-R: Dylan O’Brien as Bradley Preston and Rachel McAdams as Linda Liddle in 20th Century Studios’ SEND HELP. Photo Credit: Brook Rushton. © 2025 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
Linda Liddle is mousy and quiet, she lives alone, and her only friend is her pet bird named Sweetie. McAdams perfectly embodies a woman who lacks self-confidence — she slouches when she stands and is visibly awkward when interacting with coworkers, she’s much more comfortable at home having conversations with her beloved pet bird. Linda loves to watch the television show Survivor and when she isn’t watching the show, she spends her time reading books on survival skills. While working on her presentation on the plane to Thailand, Linda overhears her male colleagues laughing and realizes, to her horror, that Donovan is showing them a video of her audition for Survivor and they are all laughing at her. One minute the men are mocking her and the next they are being violently sucked out a hole in the plane after it catches on fire and crashes in the ocean. When Linda and Bradley wake up alone on a beach on an island somewhere in the Gulf of Thailand, her love of Survivor and extensive knowledge of survival techniques are their only hope of staying alive. Bradley has a severe leg injury from the crash and, while nursing him back to health, Linda is using her survival expertise to collect drinking water using coconut shells and leaves, build shelter from tree limbs, and gather food, even educating Bradley on which types of berries are dangerous to eat. Even though Linda is taking care of him, Bradley continues to behave like an entitled, deceitful brat, creating tension and distrust between them, eventually leading to a noticeable shift in their power dynamic.
L-R: Rachel McAdams as Linda Liddle and Dylan O’Brien as Bradley Preston in 20th Century Studios’ SEND HELP. Photo Credit: Brook Rushton. © 2025 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
Send Help is a well-written, taut thriller with exceptional horror visuals and fantastic performances, but the talent involved behind the scenes is just as astounding. Bill Pope’s (Bound; The Matrix) cinematography beautifully captures the lush tropical location with filming taking place in Thailand and Australia. In creating Linda Liddle’s drab look, makeup artist Chiara Tripodi (Upgrade; The Naked Gun) darkened Rachel McAdams’s hair and made her skin look duller, which was no easy feat considering McAdams is a stunning woman. The more time they spend on the island, Linda not only begins to come out of her shell, but she also develops a healthy glow. Survivalist Kylie Furneaux (Blindspot) worked with McAdams to make Linda’s survival skills look authentic. A massive special effects/visual effects team worked on Send Help with one of the highlights being an animatronic boar head that realistically sprays blood and snot used during a wildly brutal sequence of Linda hunting a savage boar on the island. In one of the featurettes included with the Blu-ray, Raimi joyously recounts how he was just off-camera throwing buckets of blood on McAdams during the struggle between Linda and the boar. There are plenty of incomparable bloody practical effects and even a jump scare reminiscent of Raimi’s Drag Me to Hell (2009) and The Evil Dead (1981). Danny Elfman’s (Beetlejuice; Corpse Bride; Dead Man’s Wire) excellent score sets the tone throughout Send Help, brilliantly creating suspense during scenes like the boar hunt and impeccably illuminating the evolution of Linda’s character with a theme that begins as innocent and sweet and later turns darker and more sinister as the story progresses.
L-R: Dylan O’Brien as Bradley Preston and Rachel McAdams as Linda Liddle in 20th Century Studios’ SEND HELP. Photo Credit: Brook Rushton. © 2025 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
Send Help features outstanding performances from McAdams and O’Brien who both exhibit great comedic timing. This is immaculate storytelling that has a lot to say about the horrors of misogyny both in and outside the workplace in a way that is timely and thought-provoking while still managing to be genuinely funny. The consummate practical and visual effects and Elfman’s score magnificently accentuate the film and there is even a Bruce Campbell (The Evil Dead series; Spider-Man trilogy) easter egg in typical Raimi fashion. The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray and DVD of Send Help contain over two hours of fun, insightful special features that share secrets behind the practical effects, interviews with composer Danny Elfman, stars Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, director Sam Raimi, and a lot more.
Send Help Special Features:
- Audio commentary with director Sam Rami and producer Zainab Azizi
- Constructing the Boar Hunt featurette
- From the Office to the Island featurette
- Becoming Linda Liddle featurette
- Survival Instinct featurette
- SOS: Sounds of Survival featurette
- Bloopers
- Deleted & Extended Scenes
- Dolby Vision / HDR Presentation of the Film
- Dolby Atmos Audio Track
- Optional English SDH, Spanish, and French subtitles
Available on digital March 24th, 2026.
Available on 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD April 21st, 2026.
For more information, head to the official 20th Century Studios Send Help webpage.
Final Score: 4.5 out of 5.
Share this:
Categories: Home Release, Home Video, Recommendation, Reviews, streaming
Leave a Reply