As we continue to drown in cape movies while swimming in the rip-tide of mega franchises, anything vaguely different becomes intriguing. As it is with Sam Raimi’s directorial return with Send Help.
Since the synopsis and the trailers started to drop, this has looked like it might be worth checking out, if only to see something a little outside the mainstream.
Well, the reviews are now out for what is tagged as both a survival horror and a dark comedy, and they are good.
Rotten Tomatoes has it at 93% at time of writing this morning, and it has 73/100 from Metacritic .
Send Help follows Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien as two feuding work colleagues who find themselves stranded on a deserted island after surviving a plane crash.
The big problem is that they must work together to survive and escape the island.
So what do the reviews say? To the sample pages…
“Wickedly lovable with the potential to be timeless, “Send Help” is controlled delirium microwaved on high heat. At 66, Raimi reminds us who he was when he made horror-comedy history with “Evil Dead II,” and more importantly, why his voice still matters. A-”
Alison Foreman, Indiewire
Send Help becomes the best of both worlds: indulgent Raimi splatter fuelled by a satisfying touch of righteous rage.”
Clarisse Loughrey, Independent
“What’s so much fun about Send Help, beyond its twisted B-movie premise and refreshing disinterest in anything more highfalutin than handing Linda a chance to turn the tables, is how unpredictable it manages to be.”
Peter Debruge, Variety
“A gripping, often brutal exploration of power, control, and inequality. Even when its thematic ambitions falter, its pacing, performances and relentless tension ensure it remains a deeply unsettling offering from Raimi.”
Linda Marric, HeyUGuys
“Continually toys with audience expectation; viewers might initially sympathize with poor Linda’s plight while finding Bradley to be an irredeemable corporate monster, but those initial impressions don’t necessarily last.”
Alonso Duralde, The Film Verdict
“There’s no director likelier to elicit shock, hysterical laughter and complete disgust from the same moment, and Raimi delivers those moments with the frequency and precision of planes waiting behind each other on a runway”
Todd Gilchrist, Screen Rant
“It’s a time-honoured and perfectly enjoyable setup, and the first act, when the new reality dawns on clueless Bradley, is watchable. But the plot twists are derivative and the action then becomes dependent on weird stabs of grisliness.”
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian
The movie is a positively turbo-charged (these days) 113-minutes long, and it rated R. Send Help is released this week.
