If someone asks you what day it is today, you should appropriately respond with “why, it’s Sam Raimi trailer day!” The cinematic madman who transformed the independent movie from hell (“The Evil Dead”) into one of the most consistent horror series ever returns to the genre for the first time since 2009’s “Drag Me to Hell” with “Send Help,” and it looks awesome. The survival horror-thriller, co-written by Damien Shannon and Mark Swift, sees office tensions turn deadly when Linda Laddle (Rachel McAdams) gets marooned on a deserted island with her boorish younger boss Bradley Preston (Dylan O’Brien). Power dynamics are suddenly swapped as Linda revels in the survival skills that give her considerable leverage over her injured employer. And you know it’s a Raimi picture because it isn’t too long until characters have lots of blood on their faces.
“Send Help” looks like if you put “Misery,” “Cast Away,” and “Triangle of Sadness” in a blender, and then chuck in a helping of Raimi’s signature dark humor to make it feel fresh. There’s even a shot that directly references the original poster for “The Evil Dead.” Raimi has largely stuck to the producing angle within the horror space since 2009, with his last genre directorial efforts being the pilot episode of “Ash Vs. Evil Dead” and a few episodes of the Quibi Original anthology series “50 States of Fright.” Although he let his horror freak flag fly throughout 2022’s “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” it’s really great to see Raimi properly returning to the genre that made him a titanic horror figure.
There is one thing, however, that he’s porting over from his brief stint in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and that’s Rachel McAdams with a much meatier role to chew on.
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Send Help reunites Rachel McAdams with Sam Raimi after Doctor Strange 2
Christine Palmer talking to Doctor Strange in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness – Marvel Studios
McAdams initially entered the MCU in 2016 with Scott Derrickson’s “Doctor Strange” as Christine Palmer, a surgeon whom Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) has deep feelings for. When we check in on her in “Multiverse of Madness,” Christine has romantically moved on from the Sorcerer Supreme, yet still admires him as a good friend. McAdams does the best she can throughout her Marvel appearances in spite of how little she’s actually given to do. Raimi seemed to do the best he could to give McAdams more of a presence amid the universe-hopping, but the trailer for “Send Help” puts her firmly in the bloody spotlight.
In some ways, McAdams’ Linda feels like an extension of Christine Brown (Alison Lohman) from “Drag Me to Hell”: a hard-working employee constantly getting steamrolled by her male co-workers. “As an executive, I see no value in you,” Bradley tells her with such a cocky straight face. Nothing elicits cabin fever rage more than being trapped on a deserted island with the equivalent of a Roman Roy (Kieran Culkin) type.
There are plenty of other reasons to be excited for McAdams as the lead of Raimi’s return to horror. It sure looks like she’s able to play within his wheelhouse realm of comedy and horror where one informs the other. Even with all of those shots of Linda brandishing a knife at Bradley’s helpless face, I was sold when she delivers a bonafide horror movie scream in her car before we even get to the island. With all that pent-up anger and frustration brewing behind closed doors, god only knows how far McAdams is going to take her rage.
“Send Help” is set to hit theaters nationwide on January 30, 2026.
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