Send Help (2026) - A Guest Review by Chad Dixon

This is a survival horror thriller film, co-produced and directed by Sam Raimi. Starring Rachel McAdams as the dowdy but highly efficient and completely unappreciated office worker, Linda Liddle. On a day at work where the new CEO, Bradley Preston (Dylan O'Brien), takes over from his father (the man who built the company), Liddle is expecting that a promise made to her by the old man will now be honoured.

So, after seven tough years, she hopes that she will finally be rewarded with the promotion she most definitely deserves. However, Preston disappoints her by brazenly giving the aforementioned promotion to his old fraternity buddy, Donovan (Xavier Samuel), who has only been with the company a few months.

Liddle is incandescent with anger and storms into the CEO’s office to remonstrate against the decision, but Preston ignores her protestations. Although he is impressed enough by her bravado and knowledge of Liddle’s analytical strengths, he asks her to accompany him and a few of the other senior executives on an upcoming, crucial business trip to Bangkok. Still seething, she slinks off home.

A few days later, they are all onboard the company’s Learjet on their way to Thailand, and Donovan shows the other guys a video he’s found online showing Linda’s audition for a TV reality survival show. Seated, she looks up from her work laptop as all the execs start laughing and looking at her. Suddenly, the aircraft gives a massive jolt and the Captain’s voice over the tannoy instructs everyone to sit down and belt up.

Seconds later, a catastrophic explosive decompression rips open the side of the fuselage, and the strapped-in Linda witnesses Donovan and a couple of other executives get sucked out into the night. The plane, with engines on fire, then ditches in the ocean. Liddle gets herself free and watches helplessly as the aircraft quickly sinks beneath the waves. The next morning, she wakes up face-down on a tropical-looking beach and seems to be OK. She immediately starts looking for other survivors and, moments later, a bit further down the same beach, she discovers her boss, Preston, unconscious with a badly cut leg.

This film initially presents as the start of a classic office rom-com and McAdams plays the role well - a meek but hard-working corporate strategist working under an attractive but extremely arrogant male boss. However, her demeanour changes dramatically as the narrative moves to the desert island. All of her fascination with survival TV shows kicks in, and the invalid Preston is now totally reliant on her for his survival.

Knowing that Sam Raimi is behind this project, you know there’s a good chance of some visually bloody moments and, in the third act, that gory style kicks in with a vengeance - there were some occasions that made me wince! Otherwise, there are some chuckle moments and quite a few gross-out scenes that produced the most laugh-out-loud events in the cinema.

The tropical island they are stranded on is, of course, a major character too and always looked authentic. Even the obviously CGI wild animal they encounter looked well done. With no other notable performances to mention here, the main two leads acted their parts very well and spent the vast majority of the film together. As tempers frayed, they both upped the tempo believably, especially when things got extremely fraught. The ending was a bit predictable, though, but it was an enjoyable 1 hour 54 minutes spent on a rainy weekend afternoon.