10/12 ForReel Score | 4/5 Stars

If you can believe it, seventeen years have come and gone since Sam Raimi directed a horror film: 2009’s Drag Me to Hell. A figurehead of horror since the early 80s, Raimi’s razor-edged balance of laughs, thrills, and scares made him one of the most idiosyncratic auteurs to ever do it–until, for whatever reason, he stopped. Raimi made one film in the 2010s, Oz the Great and Powerful, which received a middling reception, while his most recent feature, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, was a total butchery of Raimi’s style via the Marvel machine. It’s been a long wait, but Sam Raimi is finally back with Send Help, a horror-comedy penned by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift that I ate up like Christmas dinner.

Stranded on an island after a business trip gone wrong, Linda Liddle (Rachel McAdams) has to survive alongside her dipshit boss, Bradley (Dylan O’Brien). McAdams has been a movie star for as long as I can remember, but O’Brien had always felt like squandered potential to me; one handsome face in a long line of Taylor Kitsch-es and Garrett Hedlund-s. O’Brien’s been on the uptick with films like last year’s Twinless and a minor role as Dan Aykroyd in Saturday Night, whereas McAdams has been popping up here and there in memorable supporting roles in films like Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret and Game Night, but the two had yet to wow me until this point. Raimi lets McAdams and O’Brien raise hell, giving us some of the most over-the-top and unhinged performances of both actors’ careers so far.

McAdams channels the traits of “She’s so crazy! Love her!” protagonists from the past and present, whether that be Melanie Lynskey/Sophie Nélisse from Yellowjackets or Kathy Bates in Misery, but you’re rooting for McAdams instead of against. That said, she’s pretty easy to root for when her counterpart is the most annoying, weasely manchild ever. The post-plane crash shift in power dynamics (their entire survival hinges on Linda being a superfan of Survivor) results in countless great moments of comedy and violent slapstick, as the two opposing characters must figure out not only how to coexist, but to make it out alive. There’s a fun game of cat and mouse going on between McAdams and O’Brien, culminating in a climax that puts Triangle of Sadness’s to shame.

On the topic of Triangle of Sadness, many recent films tried and failed to tackle the class divide, with most of them falling by the wayside because they have nothing to say besides the fact that the problem exists (I’m looking at you, The Menu). Send Help isn’t exactly a Costa-Gavras film in terms of sociopolitical nuance, but the general premise of the role reversal between superior and subordinate creates a playground for writers Damian Shannon and Mark Swift to run wild with. There’s no need to repeat the themes ad nauseam because Raimi and co. are more concerned with creating a fun experience than telling you what you already know. Class differences suck, yes, so why not revel in watching the tables turn rather than have it be explained to you a billion times over? A note to budding writers: sometimes less is more.

2022’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness felt like Sam Raimi lite, a watered-down husk of what made Raimi such a force to be reckoned with in the first place. Flourishes of Raimi being Raimi were few and far between compared to the stink of your average 2020-era Marvel dreck, begging the question if Raimi had the same sauce that he did forty years ago. He’s not going as batshit as Evil Dead II (an admittedly high ceiling to break), but Send Help feels like a return to form for a filmmaker who desperately needed a reset. Raimi functions best in the absurdist horror-comedy wheelhouse–one that he essentially built–and seeing him function at this level again feels like seeing an old friend.

Raimi’s knack for gonzo closeups and bodily fluid extravaganzas is ever-present in Send Help (Raimi took it upon himself to throw blood in his actors’ faces), making it clear that he’s still got that same fervor that he had in the 80s. In an era where it feels like the old guard of horror is gone (come back, John Carpenter!), it’s a pleasure to have someone like Sam Raimi come in to show everybody else how it’s done. It feels like we’ve come to a point in cinema where style is going out of style, which is why we need filmmakers like Raimi so badly. They’re not just big names who sell tickets; they’re inspirations. Raimi was twenty-one when he directed Evil Dead and remains a trailblazer forty-five years later, but I hope to God I don’t have to wait another seventeen years for Raimi’s next horror romp.

Movie Review: Sam Raimi Gets Back To His Horror Roots With "Send Help"