TL;DR – This is a wild and weird film that makes you feel like you are walking around a Bunnings at night, not knowing when you will step on a rake hidden in the gloom. A cavalcade of catastrophe in all the right ways.  

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

Warning – This film contains scenes which may cause distress.

Send Help Review Introduction –

Wow. It’s rare that I walk out of a film genuinely unsure how I feel, but this ending was so wild it forced me to rethink everything. Well, this is what happened today, and what is happening to me as I process my thoughts while writing this review. But you, dear reader, can’t help me out of this predicament, so let’s stop the prelude and dive in.

So, to set the scene, Linda Liddle (Rachel McAdams) is not precisely a people-person, but she is very good at what she does in the Planning & Strategy Department. But when the company CEO dies and is replaced by his son, Bradley Preston (Dylan O’Brien), her life gets turned upside-down as her promised VP position gets usurped by the new dude-bro atmosphere. As a sympathy move, Bradley invites Linda on the trip to Bangkok, but what neither of them can expect is that the plane would crash into the sea somewhere in the Gulf of Thailand, and what Bradley doesn’t know is that Linda is a Survivor fiend, and this might be her dream situation.   

Nowhere To Hide

When I say there is nowhere to hide for this film, I mean it both narratively and metaphorically. So much of this film is just Rachel McAdams & Dylan O’Brien that every pillar of the narrative is thrust on their shoulders. Even the parts at the start where we have some other players, the movie does a fascinating job of isolating our two leads, sometimes in excruciating detail. No one would come off well with such personal exposure, and they take it up a level here. Like, extreme, extreme, close-up levels.

Rachel McAdams is almost effortless in this role, which is not the most endearing or sympathetic character that I have seen her play. She luxuriates in this role, which I am sure someone from Survivor has reached out to see if she wants to be on the show. Dylan O’Brien plays the perfect foil, oscillating from complete dude-bro ass to petulant toddler to scared out of his depth. The constant back-and-forth is the heart of the film, and it is what makes it so interesting to watch. But that also means that with a movie full of ebbs and flows, you notice when the ebbs are starting to stretch on a touch.

Its Wild Out Here

I don’t want to give too much away, because that would be spoilers, but I think it is safe to say that this is one of the wildest films I have watched in an age. That opening plane crash might be one of the best plane crashes I have seen in the cinema. It is a testament to all the artists who made it work, the stunt team that actioned it, and a cast that went to places with their performances. If nothing else, the crash sets the tone for what sort of film you are about to watch: a cavalcade of catastrophe. If that doesn’t, then the fascinating musical score from Danny Elfman will.  

That intensity will rear its head throughout the movie with incidents that made the whole cinema shout out. Some moments will make you laugh, moments that will make you grossed out, and moments that will make you wonder about the people who wrote and directed this film. There was one moment that I, honest to goodness, put my hands up reflexively to block what I was seeing. If you have seen the film, you know what scene I am talking about. No, not that one, the other one, yes, that is the one I was thinking about. This is not even touching on the jump scare that made me deliver an unplanned, excited utterance.  

Recommendation

In the end, do we recommend Send Help? Look, I’m going to be honest with you, I’m not sure, because as I write this, I am still not sure myself where I completely land as I sit digesting the ending. However, if you want to see something completely wild from start to finish, then this is the one for you.

Have you watched Send Help? Let us know what you thought in the comments below. If you liked Send Help, we would recommend Love and Monsters to you because it also lets Dylan O’Brien explore a world where there could be monsters anywhere … including himself.

By Brian MacNamara: You can follow Brian on Bluesky at @Tldrmovrev, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV, he’ll be talking about International Relations, or the Solar System.

Feel free to share this review on social media and check out all our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy day. 


Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and production companies of Send Help
Directed by – Sam Raimi
Written by – Damian Shannon & Mark Swift
Music by – Danny Elfman
Cinematography by – Bill Pope
Edited by – Bob Murawski
Production/Distribution Companies – Raimi Productions & 20th Century Studios
Starring – Rachel McAdams & Dylan O’Brien
With – Edyll Ismail, Dennis Haysbert, Xavier Samuel, Chris Pang, Emma Raimi & Thaneth Warakulnukroh
Rating – Australia: MA15+; Canada: 14A; Germany: 16; New Zealand: R; United Kingdom: 15; United States: R