‘Send Help’ review: Sam Raimi’s island thriller with Rachel McAdams
The New York Times' Critic's Pick published Jan. 29, 2026 reviews Send Help, a Sam Raimi–directed horror-thriller starring Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien. The review notes the film is in theaters, is rated R and has a running time of 1 hour 53 minutes. The review outlines the premise: McAdams plays Linda Liddle, a mousy, socially awkward but indispensable employee whose odious boss Bradley (Dylan O’Brien) awards a promised promotion to a frat brother and invites Linda on a client trip.
Their private jet crashes into the ocean near an island, and the review says Bradley and Linda are the sole survivors, setting up a battle for dominance. The critic describes the film as unmistakably Raimi, citing a cheeky score by Danny Elfman, a darkly humorous tone and playfully yucky special effects.
The review calls Raimi "at his most gleeful and twisted," and traces the movie’s momentum to Linda’s transformation from meek employee to an agent of violent power shifts. On performances and craft, the review praises McAdams as a "gloriously dorkified" heroine who revels in the role, while O’Brien is said to play low and sneaky.
The screenplay is credited to Damian Shannon and Mark Swift, the camera work to Bill Pope, and the film is reported to have been shot in Australia and Thailand using a blend of digital and practical effects; the review also repeatedly notes the abundance of revolting bodily fluids.
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