Review: ‘Send Help’ is a riotously satisfying gore-comedy

It’s hard not to be grossed out by Linda Liddle, played by a viciously delightful Rachel McAdams, with mayonnaise from a tuna sandwich smeared on the side of her lip. After all, Sam Raimi’s immersive close-ups of all things disgusting — including Linda’s stinky shoes — are part of the hoot factor in Send Help.

Designed for sheer entertainment of the bloody, gore-comedy kind, Damian Shannon and Mark Swift’s screenplay may recall Kathy Bates’ Misery and Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness, but Send Help still stands apart for simply being riotously, satisfyingly fun. And never mind the occasionally bad CGI.

The story follows McAdams’ Linda and her frat-boy, nepo-baby, finance-bro boss Bradley (Dylan O’Brien), who end up stranded together on a deserted island. The problem is, they hate each other. Bradley is openly disgusted by Linda, while Linda is clearly put off by her spoiled, mean-spirited boss.

But you can’t exactly blame Bradley, the jackass CEO who often calls Linda “the bitch from accounting” (when she’s actually in the Strategy and Planning department), because Linda is an unhygienic, loony savant who can’t read social norms. And that’s the point. Send Help, with a touch of psychological thriller, deliberately exaggerates its character traits for satire.

Before the Robinson Crusoe–style violent adventure on the island, the film first establishes the office dynamics. We see Linda not just as the office nerd, with disheveled hair and a crazy-eyed obsession with high-focus work, but as a manic and brilliant strategist. That genius competence makes her an oddball outcast in a company full of “normal” people with mediocre skills. Meanwhile, the sexist (and punchable) Bradley doesn’t hide his repulsion toward her.

Raimi, whose last horror film was 2009’s Drag Me to Hell, knows exactly how to trigger laughs, recoil, embarrassment, and the kind of horrific fun this dark comedy thrives on. It’s hard not to imagine the sheer enjoyment Raimi has directing this campy madness, with McAdams and O’Brien clearly game to go all the way for their director.

McAdams, in particular, proves once again how versatile she is — from her iconic bully in Mean Girls, to the heartbroken, endlessly waiting wife in The Time Traveler’s Wife, to a sharp journalist in Spotlight, and now into territory that feels like a warped Anne Wilkes filtered through a psycho Jim Carrey.

What makes Send Help such an entertaining cinema visit is that it is not plain goofy. There’s real control in the timing, pacing, and discipline behind the intentionally in-your-face imagery. The snot, vomit, blood, gore, the tuna fish, the curled, gnarly dead hand, even the exaggerated glint of a massive diamond ring are all cleverly orchestrated, on top of a witty script.

Send Help is a hilariously overt-the-top, nasty series of adventure-horror games, manipulation, and dark psychological undertones rendered in comical detail. I haven’t laughed out loud this much in a cinema in a long while.

4 out of 5 stars
Now showing in cinemas