Send Help

First Reaction

When taking my seat at the theater, I was under the assumption that I was about to watch something dark and twisted. The trailers made it look serious. Maybe even gory. Something closer to Misery — psychological, uncomfortable, slow burn. That’s not what this is. This is a horror-comedy. And I didn’t know that. I missed that little detail.

Is it tense? Oh yeah. There are psychological moments that are not only tense, but in ways uncomfortable. But there’s also this layer of absurd humor running through it that actually works. It doesn’t kill the tension — it feeds off it. Like laughing at that awkward joke your boss made. Wondering if it was really a joke or was he serious.

To my amazement. The film did all these things very well.

Review

Linda Liddle played by Rachel McAdams, is the outcast. And let me say this — it is impossible to watch this film and not see the uncanny resemblance of Linda to Kathy Bates playing Annie Wilkes. The awkward mannerisms. The forced politeness. The intensity sitting just beneath the surface. You can absolutely see where Sam Raimi leaned into that influence. It’s there. And once you see it, you can’t unsee it.

She doesn’t fit into the corporate world she’s stuck in. Everyone around her is polished, confident, suit-and-tie, socially perfect. She’s awkward. Dresses weird. Not into the golf, not the most up to date fashion. She is awkward, has terrible social skills and is a little overly talkative.

Now, this is not to say that she doesn’t want to climb the corporate ladder, or fit in with her peers - she does. The thing is she believes, like majority of people do, that promotions should be performance based. That you shouldn’t judge an individual off of appearance alone, and friendships should be genuine. Not stepping stones.

Also, she’s obsessed with survival. She wants to be on Survivor. She studies it. It’s her thing. She has a small book collection on just survival in all kinds of situations.

Her boss, Bradley Preston, played by Dylan O’Brien is the opposite. Which I am sure you could have guessed the moment I told you he was her boss. The guy is clean cut, sharp dressed, charming, good looking, rich, and a major fucking asshole.

He is the perfect example of the type of person Linda does not want to be. Bradly didn’t make it into his position with hard work - he was given his job. His father owned the company, and due to his passing, Bradley got the company.

Bradly has a big meeting in Bangkok. He has been informed, although he doesn’t like Linda, she would be the person to take, because she is great at her job. He doesn’t want to take her, but does. Then the plane crashes. The chaos begins. And suddenly the world flips.

Now her boss — the smooth corporate guy — is completely useless. He doesn’t know how to build shelter. Doesn’t know how to find food. Doesn’t know how to think like someone who’s had to prepare for worst-case scenarios. She does.

And the power shift is immediate. What made her awkward in society makes her dominant on the island. And this is where the movie gets interesting.

At first, it feels like she’s just helping him survive. Then it starts to feel like she’s enjoying it. Then it starts to feel like she’s controlling him.

There are moments where you know that rescue isn’t far. The island isn’t some hidden Bermuda Triangle. It’s reachable. But she keeps subtly guiding him away from anything that might get them found. She becomes a spider that has woven a web that Bradley is stuck in. He just doesn’t know it yet.

Bradley does see that she is a little to comfortable on the island. Linda is not making an effort to send distress signals. He sees this. He starts making his own moves to be able to get off the island. He just fails at succeeding due to lack of knowledge on crafting and survival situations. She holds the upper hand on the island and continues to toy with Bradley. He is the fly that has gotten stuck in her web.

And the wild part? You’re not sure if she’s doing it for survival… or revenge. She was overlooked. Dismissed. Treated like background noise.

She, like any person, likes the upper hand and realizes this is good in a survival situation. She has control.

And she doesn’t want to give it up. She wants to continue feeling relevant, important, and most of all wanted.

The Humor

This is where the film excels more than expected. The humor doesn’t feel forced. It comes out of awkwardness. Out of tension. Out of “this is so messed up I don’t even know how to react.”

The best scene for humor is after Linda kills the boar. Her and Bradley are sitting around a fire enjoying the fruits of Linda’s hard work. She makes a small joke about her being the one that brings home the bacon. (Now there is some mockery at the idea of masculinity from a feminist perspective in there.) This scene is so funny. Not because of the joke. The laughter. The two laugh at the joke and it is infectious. It feels like the joke was made and the two naturally found it funny and couldn’t contain their laughter. Its like they caught the perfect moment of laughter on camera. Liz, Fox and I all couldn’t help but laugh along with them in this moment.

Dark. Brutal. And somehow hilarious.

These types of moments help this film feel more relatable than expected. It lets the audience know, that no matter how fucked up a situation may seem, you can always find laughter.

The Ending

The ending turns into a full mental chess match. Traps. Manipulation. Out thinking each other. It goes from survival to psychological warfare real quick.

And I’m going to be honest — by the time it reached that final stretch, I didn’t know who I was rooting for. That’s rare.

He’s not innocent. She’s not innocent. They’re both kind of twisted in their own way. And that gray area makes it better.

The Weak Spot

The CGI. Man. There were moments that were just terrible. It didn’t ruin the movie, but there were moments where I thought, “Come on… we could’ve done that better.”

Now I will say that I do believe that the CGI was this bad in the Boar scene, due to the fact they wanted this moment to be a 3D experience. They still could have been better.

That’s the only real thing that pulled me out.

What It’s Really About

Underneath all the island chaos, this movie is about power. What happens when the quiet, overlooked person suddenly holds all the cards?

Do they rise above it? Or do they become the villain they think they’re fighting?

There’s a battle inside Linda between compassion and revenge. You can feel it. For a while, it seems like she’s trying to help. By the end I think she snapped inside. I think she realized that she liked the paradise life of being on the island without all the social constructs forever. Linda didn’t want to return to a life she wasn’t wanted in, nor did she fit into.

She wanted her world — the one where she finally mattered — to stay exactly how it was. That’s dark. And it works.

Family Commentary

“There were more funny scenes than I expected. The CGI was terrible, but I’m not sure if that was intentional. Overall, it was a pretty good movie.” - Liz

“I feel like this was a super scary movie. The scene when she was hallucinating and saw a zombie. There was a jump scare there and it got me good” - Fox

Final Thoughts

Send Help wasn’t what I expected. It wasn’t the pure psychological horror I thought it would be. It was funnier. More chaotic. More character-driven. And honestly, that worked in its favor.

It keeps you tense. It makes you laugh. It makes you uncomfortable. And it makes you question who deserves to win.

Fix the CGI and this thing hits even harder. But as it stands? It’s a wild, entertaining ride with just enough psychological bite to stick.

Rating
7.5 / 10