Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Tori Preston | Film | January 31, 2026
Look, we all know Bruce Campbell is Sam Raimi’s perfect muse. He possessed an unlikely combination of classic Hollywood beauty, slapstick prowess, and willingness to go over the top that Raimi deployed to his advantage in the Evil Dead films and beyond. And don’t worry, if you keep your eyes peeled, you’ll find that Campbell leaves his mark on Raimi’s latest effort, Send Help, as well. But Send Help proves that sometimes lightning can strike twice, because Raimi may have just found his next perfect muse: Rachel McAdams.
Raimi told IGN that he knew he needed to work with McAdams again after directing her in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, citing how she never questioned the absurdity of the scenarios but instead threw herself into them wholeheartedly. Which, if you think about it, is basically the top requirement for anyone working with Raimi when he’s in horror mode and splashing buckets of blood, snot, vomit, and other bodily fluids at the screen. While McAdams’ time in the MCU can be summed up as “Most Underused Love Interest,” it’s hard to be mad if Send Help is the result. Yup, Send Help might be the greatest gift Marvel ever gave to the world.
Hyperbolic? Sure. But I’m still riding high off the thrill of this movie, so forgive me. McAdams plays Linda Liddle, a socially awkward but brilliant corporate strategist at a financial management firm who is waiting for the big promotion promised to her by her former CEO. But when that CEO’s son, Bradley (Dylan O’Brien), takes the reins of the company, he gives the job to one of his golfing buddies instead of Linda, citing her lack of people skills (and tuna breath). He’s still relying on Linda’s skills for their next big deal, however, so he invites her to tag along on the corporate jet to a meeting in Bangkok. While in the air, Bradley conveniently discovers Linda’s audition tape for Survivor online, and after having a good chuckle at her mortified expense, the jet hits some turbulence and crashes in the Gulf of Thailand. Linda washes ashore on a deserted island to find an injured Bradley and no other, ahem, survivors.
Linda absolutely thrives on the island. She knows how to make a shelter, forage for food, and - in a particularly gooey sequence featuring Raimi’s love of blood and snot - even proves she’s quite a hunter. Bradley, on the other hand, is out of his element and struggling to accept this new, upended power dynamic that forces him to rely on Linda’s knowledge and kindness. As the days turn into weeks with no rescue in sight, Bradley knows they need to take proactive steps to get noticed. So why isn’t Linda concerned?
As Linda and Bradley navigate their new circumstances, Send Help, written by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift (Freddy Vs. Jason), proves it owes more to Stephen King’s Misery than Castaway. What would Misery look like if the audience was encouraged to root for Annie Wilkes the whole time? That’s Send Help in a nutshell, and it makes for a hysterically fun ride. Linda soon transforms from a tuna-smeared mess into a golden goddess on the island, and McAdams leverages all of her charm to keep Linda sympathetic even as her character takes some darker turns. And to his credit, O’Brien gamely keeps pace as Bradley slowly realizes that Linda is both the key to his survival and the greatest threat to it. The push and pull of Linda’s joy and Bradley’s resentment is the bedrock of the character journeys, and if some of the evolutions don’t quite click, hey - at least there’s some projectile vomit to distract you!
In different hands, Send Help would pass its time as a psychological thriller, but Raimi’s uniquely comic horror sensibilities make it so much more. Every action set piece is a chance for bigger splatters and more fluids, and McAdams plays it all with infectious zeal. I laughed harder during this movie than I have in a long time, and I left the theater heartened. We deserve to see Raimi doing his pure, uncut gross-out schtick in between his studio franchise forays, and we deserve to see McAdams sink her teeth into roles that allow her to do and be everything - the hero, the villain, and sure, maybe even a love interest too.
If you’ve followed the promotion circuit for this film, you’ve likely seen people gushing over their favorite Rachel McAdams movies. O’Brien turned his love of The Hot Chick into a running gag, while Halle Berry sat on Graham Norton’s couch and told McAdams that she uses The Notebook as her personal blueprint for romance. Around the Pajiba water cooler, that honor would likely go to Game Night, but my favorite McAdams movie has always been Red Eye, a Wes Craven thriller where McAdams also runs into some trouble on a plane. Her character takes all the Final Girl tropes Craven laid out in Scream and upends them to become not just the girl who survives, but the woman who wins. Anyway, Red Eye is now my second-favorite Rachel McAdams movie, after Send Help. Hollywood, please put this woman on another plane sometime soon!
