'Send Help' is a return to form for Sam Raimi

After redefining what superhero films could be with his “Spider-Man” trilogy, director Sam Raimi returned to his horror roots with “Drag Me to Hell” in 2009. Aside from a PG-13 rating and some very poorly aged stereotypes for Romani people, the film is generally remembered fondly for proving that Raimi still had his horror touch from his “Evil Dead” days. It’s 2026, and now Raimi is back with a new horror film, but the question once again creeps up: Does he still have it? “Send Help” proves he does, even if his vision is muddled through some modern filmmaking pitfalls.

“Send Help” follows the painfully lonely Linda Liddle (Rachel McAdams), who is trapped on an island with her frat bro douchebag of a boss, Bradley Preston (Dylan O’Brien), after their plane crashes while on a work trip. In a post #MeToo world, Raimi’s style doesn’t seem to fit a story so steeped in corporate gender politics, but to his credit, he handles this material incredibly playfully without losing his bite.

Linda’s meek, awkward personality evolves as the power dynamics change, and an injured Bradley finds himself helpless without her and her near super-human survival skills. These scenes are where the film is firing on all cylinders as McAdams and O’Brien are perfectly in tune with Raimi’s exaggerated flair. Their performances feel ripped out of a 90’s comedy and absolutely ham it up harmoniously with the goofy tone.

Raimi once again teamed up with long-time editing collaborator Bob Murawski, who hasn’t missed a beat either. The film flows pretty well, but the creativity in the screen transitions still has the charm that their work on the “Spider-Man” movies had, with all the fades and dissolves you could ask for.

Unfortunately, while Raimi’s energy and creativity are still intact, there is a slight lack in overall verisimilitude that is still found in his more ridiculous movies. The “Evil Dead” films had a raw grit to them that added so much texture to every frame, and his “Spider-Man” films were the perfect marriage between a comic-book world and classic cinema. This has the look of a modern movie, slick and flat in its lighting and composition. This is far from Raimi’s most aesthetically pleasing work, and it really feels like more of a symptom of modern Hollywood’s baffling indifference to interesting lighting choices in their biggest movies.

Looking past some of the ugly visuals, Raimi still managed to breathe life into this story. The writing doesn’t come across as poor per se, but there are quite a few cliched lines of dialogue that, under a different director, and especially delivered by worse actors, would have really dragged down the film. Raimi, along with the cast and crew, elevates this material into being so memorable.

While it is wonderful to see Raimi back in the horror chair, and he is very essential to this movie working well at all, the real MVP of this is Rachel McAdams. Her performance as Linda Liddle is so relentlessly entertaining when it could have easily been a complete disaster. She is so over-the-top here and commits 100% to this character. Without giving away too much, McAdams is able to make the audience feel such a wide range of emotions that it’s almost impossible to guess where her character will be at the end of the film. A lot of that is the writing of the character, but this is not an easy one to play successfully, and she did it with flying colors.

O’Brien is no slouch himself, as the a-hole boss Bradley, and plays off McAdams perfectly. He is not only great in the comedic moments, but really sells the scenes that call for actual emotion. He could have easily played the character as a caricature, but he manages to feel completely believable and even sympathetic.

“Send Help” is a tremendous return to form for Sam Raimi. His energetic style and talent at making audiences queasy are still as sharp as ever. While some flat lighting and bad CG blood keep this from being his prettiest movie, it’s a huge relief that he is still capable of making a movie that’s not just fun and exciting, but is relevant to our present time. This isn’t a “best hits” album. Sam wants it to be known that he’s still here, and he gets it.