RE:VIEW ~ “Send Help” (2026)
This delightfully complicated tale is a dark comedy, horror, thriller, and something else to bind them all together. The end result is pretty damned good!
Imagine Misery on a desert island, and that’s basically what you get by about half-way through. Rachel McAdams and Dylan O'Brien are, respectively, Lady from Accounting and President of the Company. They‘re on their way to Thailand to finish a deal for the company when the corporate aeroplane they’re on ends up in the South Pacific and the two of them are the only survivors.
It’s really well shot, mostly well-written (more in a moment), and the acting is solid. Director Sam Raimi actually got notes from the studio saying it needed more blood — yes, the director of the Evil Dead franchise and Army of Darkness was told to add blood to a motion picture — so you know what you’re going to get here: some of the action isn’t pretty, but’s it’s damned realistic.
Much of the dialogue is quite funny, as well. Sure, it’s ‘dark,’ but when the plot turns serious it’s a bit of a shock to hear something that isn’t some sort of set-up for something. The change from one to the other is really satisfying.
There are a few problems in the plot here, and they necessitate the warning above. One of the biggest things that irked me was the idea that Linda Liddle (Ms McAdams) is able to convince Bradley Preston (Mr O’Brien) that going past a certain point around the island is Very Bad Indeed. Not because it’s cinematically dangerous in some sort of Everything Is Nothing But Lava And Poison in that area, but it’s both a waste of time and is filled with brambles and scrub bush so it’s not pleasant. This message is also delivered after a lengthy hike all the way around the base of a steep cliff and along a narrow ledge halfway up it. The point past which One Must Not Go is also marked own the distant hill with two crystal-shaped overlapping stones making an X shape. This makes that side of the island akin to a big red button with a neon sign saying “DO NOT TOUCH” right above it. Hardly subtle.
The next problem is having her practice the same ‘you can only trust me here’ techniques that our Frat-Bro President is already familiar with, given his mother’s historical psychological abuse of him from a young age, and a high probability that he does it in his own relationships. Not having the President of a Fortune 500 company spot the use of them, no matter how dumb he may be, seems unlikely. Granted, he doesn’t think much of the female lead character, plus he’s physically out of his element and relies on her to ensure his food and water, so . . . maybe?
Overall, a pretty good evening’s entertainment, just don’t look too closely and you’ll be fine.
It’s . . . fine.
★★★☆☆