‘Send Help’ update: GLOP! You’re not ready for Rachel McAdams’ latest… but I love it

Bless Sam Raimi. With the Evil Dead trilogy, this revolutionary American filmmaker gave horror fans a gruesome collision of horror, humor, and gross out gags that became truly iconic. His madcap powers made the Spider-Man trilogy a staple in superhero cinema, and then grisly. Drag me to Hell (2009) assured fans that his entry into family-friendly money does not mean he has lost his touch. Now, almost 45 years since then The Bad Dead first released, he has once again served up gloppy, gnarly, and hilarious horror with Send Help.

2026 is off to an incredible start in terms of horror cinema, thanks to Nia DaCosta’s history. 28 years later: The Bone Temple. And even if that zombie movie involves a long scene of torture and dismemberment, Raimi’s Send Help the audience is more likely to gag, thanks to the almost gratuitous amount of glop. We’re talking blood, sweat, vomit, and anything else that could come out in such abundance that had the theater of critics gasping and squealing in shock and gleeful delight. But all this bad show is just the beginning of what you’re doing Send Help a twisty thrill ride.

Send Help it plays with us Romancing the Stone meets The Triangle of Sorrow… meets Sadness.

Rachel McAdams stars as middle-aged pencil sharpener Linda Liddle; he is active, intelligent, and has many unexpected talents, due to his deep love A survivor. Therefore, she is upset when her child’s manager, Bradley Preston (They don’t have twins‘ Dylan O’Brien), decides that the promotion he deserves will go to one of his colleagues. However, their dynamic takes a turn for the worse when a business trip leaves them both shipwrecked on a desert island.

While an injured Bradley is useless at building a shelter, foraging, hunting, or fetching water, Linda’s untapped survival skills make her a force to be reckoned with in the wild. So, yes, it’s like the third act of The Sadness Triangle, when the lady who cleans up a sunken boat, Abigail (Dolly de Leon), takes charge of the spoiled, rotten rich washed ashore. However, Send HelpThe screenplay by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift – pushes this premise beyond the expected “eat-the-rich” comedy in a familiar and strange setting.

Don’t miss our latest news: Add Mashable as a trusted news source on Google.

Some scenes point to the enemies-to-lovers arc, where, forced to live together, Linda and Bradley find the good in each other, despite their differences. Maybe, in the wild, they’ll get over their egos and fall in love like Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas. Romancing the Stone? There are enough curls and bare flesh possible. However, other scenes suggest that Linda’s interest in Bradley is not so simple. Her concern with not only showing him her worth, but also making him pay for his bad behavior leads to some jaw-dropping scenes in their danger. As he flashed the only knife they had on him, I couldn’t stop thinking about the scene Sadness, wondering how dark it is Send Help I will go. And in this strange space mash-up genre, McAdams is moving and dark, in the dark which are funny.

Rachel McAdams is unexpectedly smart Send Help.

Rachel McAdams in “Send for Help.”
Credit: Brook Rushton / 20th Century Studios

There is no shade from the Canadian Oscar-nominated movie actor, but in the first half of this movie I thought he was lost. The foundation of Send Help and some of its romantic scenes would suggest a rom-com icon to love The Notebook star will be worthy of Linda’s place. However, from the opening frames of the film, Raimi doesn’t paint Linda as a normal but sweet heroine, but as a disgusting scumbag. Her dress does not fit her, as if all its parts are fighting against the next. Her hair is flat and greasy, as if she has forgotten her hair exists. And he brings a sloppy tuna salad sandwich to work every day for lunch, which ends up all over his desk, on his face, and on his employer’s hand. When he casually tells her that there have been complaints about the “bad” smell in his desk, you can smell the tuna and Miracle Whip on the screen.

I wondered why Raimi cast McAdams in an obnoxious role that sounded like a riff on Roseanne Barr. The Devil. It’s amazing to see this fancy movie star dressed so badly, making a sad, informal conversation in public. But this discomfort is intended, as it will bloom as The Devil anti-heroin. Surprisingly, Linda’s time on the island leads to a natural glow as she regains her confidence. Playing under a waterfall, this is the romantic heroine McAdams audiences know – but not completely.

Always under Linda’s face, something is wrong with her. Even though he’s the protagonist of the film, there’s an unnerving sense that we can’t really tell what’s going on in his head. Sure, at first, audiences may relate to the “eat-the-rich” tale of thriving on a tropical island while the life of a dirty boss is in your hands. But McAdams never relies entirely on his charisma, always keeping an edge on Linda who blinks like her angry eyes or the point of her knife. Raimi takes the fun out of the cat-and-mouse game between Linda and Bradley, where your sympathies can shift from one to the other and back again, and again, and again. By the end of the film, McAdams has changed, not just physically, but from a sad depressed heroine to something more camp and exciting, putting her performance here in the good company of Goldie Hawn and Meryl Streep in one of my favorite comedies of all time, Death Be Him.

Send Help it’s a good and fun time.

Dylan O’Brien in “Send Help.”
Credit: Brook Rushton / 20th Century Studios

McAdams revels in every aspect of this film, and so does O’Brien – who wowed critics with his amazing stunt double in last year’s dark comedy. They don’t have twins – his perfectly paired scene partner. At first, his Bradley is the archetype of a rich asshole, harassing his employees and sexually harassing any hot woman in his lane, while wearing expensive clothes. On the island, however, the power shift makes him sulk, hiss, or apologize – all done with comic awareness. His torture is meant to be horrifying and entertaining, and it is is something, not only because of Raimi’s mastery of building tension but also because O’Brien has a subtle but wonderful ability to play the fool.

He and McAdams collide in such a thrilling way in this movie that it would be fun, even if it wasn’t so bad. But to be honest, the sheer amount of glop Raimi throws at his stars and the screen enhances the sense of chaos and suspense. Just as the script weaves genre elements of romantic fiction, dark humor, and psychological thrillers together to keep the audience off balance, the glop and gore throw us off. For example, just when you think the scene is done with vomit (or blood), there will be another explosion of liquid. And then another. And again. And each time, the audience I was a part of screamed in horror, shock, and awe.

This was an amazing viewing experience; Raimi took me back to being a kid again, watching Evil Dead 2 on VHS and howl about it all. All these years later, it’s hard for me to panic – but he did it again. Watching Send Helpmy stomach rumbled, my jaw dropped, my eyes bulged, and I put my hands over my face a few times to guard against the terrible explosion on the screen. Then I went out crying and giggling, because Send Help it’s not just the worst movie I’ve seen in the last decade. And it’s a roaring rip, no-fucks-to-give a good time.

Send Help opens in theaters Jan. 30.