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After being skipped over for a promotion at work, Linda Liddle confronts CEO Bradley Preston, who gave the position to his former frat buddy Donovan. Her daring impresses him, and he asks her to accompany him, Donovan and two other executives to Bangkok for a business trip. On the flight, Linda is busy working while the guys are partying. However, things don’t go quite as planned.

Let me start off by saying, I love Sam Raimi’s work—The Evil Dead series is one of my favorites! I had only seen a little bit of the plot for this movie, but I was confident I would like it based on Raimi’s previous movies.

Rachel McAdams as Linda Liddle

Dylan O’Brien as Bradley Preston

As the film opens, we meet Linda Liddle, someone who doesn’t fit into the corporate world. She’s smart, but she lacks polish and “the look.” She even eats tuna fish for lunch!

Her boss, Bradley Preston, has it all: money, good looks and an attractive fiancé with a big diamond ring. He’s also a jerk, as proven when he shows Linda’s Survivor audition video to the other guys on the plane for a cheap laugh. This humiliates and hurts Linda.

While passing through a storm, their plane loses power, and chaos ensues. The plane is ripped open, bodies are sucked out into the storm and the plane goes down. Cut to Linda waking up on a beach, seemingly the only survivor. But she isn’t alone. Bradley is there.

Linda isn’t just smart; her obsession with Survivor pays off. She’s able to treat Bradley’s injuries, build a shelter, start a fire, catch fish and even manages to kill a wild boar. Linda is in her element. But Bradley continues to treat her poorly, so she abandons him for a couple of days just to see how he fares. Unsurprisingly, he doesn’t do very well.

Bradley eventually begins to accept that Linda is the real leader out here, not him, and he starts to warm up to her. Or does he? One day while out gathering food, Linda sees a boat and thinks about getting off the island. But does she really want to be rescued? And how far will she go to stay on the island?

This was a fun movie. Rachel McAdams is so good in this. I wasn’t familiar with Dylan O’Brien, but he certainly plays an arrogant jerk quite convincingly. They both have great comedic timing as well.

As with the Evil Dead series and Drag Me to Hell, Sam Raimi combines horror and humor exceptionally well. I was laughing in some scenes over what Linda was able to do. Sun in your eyes? Weave a hat! Bradley is lucky he can pick up a log. Linda makes sushi, Bradley eats a bug. There are some interesting surprises, some dark moments and even a Raimi-trademark bloody, over-the-top fight.

Send Help is a movie I plan to see again. If you like this movie and are looking for more, I highly recommend Drag Me to Hell and the Evil Dead trilogy with Bruce Campbell. We have copies of all these titles. Sam Raimi has also directed several non-horror movies, such as Spider-Man 3 and Oz the Great and Powerful.