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A scene from ‘Send Help’

Fred Hawson

<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1769754073695send-help-linda-and-preston.webp" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" width="960"/>A scene from ‘Send Help’</div>Linda Liddle (Rachel McAdams) may be unpopular among her co-workers, but she was the most efficient employee at the consulting firm of the Preston family. The old boss was about to promote her to vice president, but he passed away before he could announce it. The new CEO, the late boss&#x27;s frat boy son Bradley (Dylan O&#x27;Brien), immediately got turned off by Linda&#x27;s lousy looks and penchant for tuna fish, and promoted someone else as VP.Bradley ordered Linda to join his team flying to Bangkok to close a merger deal. During the flight, someone shared a video of Linda auditioning to join her favorite TV reality show &quot;Survivor,&quot; and all the boys a good laugh at her expense. Suddenly, their private plane experienced engine trouble and crashed into the ocean. In the morning, Linda found herself on the beach of a deserted island. An injured Bradley was the only other survivor.The career of Rachel McAdams blew up big time in 2004 when she starred in two major box office hits that year -- &quot;Mean Girls&quot; and &quot;The Notebook.&quot; Since then, she had been in a steady stream of projects, including a role in &quot;Spotlight&quot; (2015) which earned her a Best Supporting Actress nomination at the Oscars. Dylan O&#x27;Brien broke through in 2014 playing the lead in &quot;The Maze Runner.&quot; HIs highest profile role since then was in &quot;Love and Monsters&quot; (2020). McAdams was in full black comedy mode as mousy Linda gradually and gleefully asserted her dominance over her spoiled sexist boss. As Linda, she totally deglamorized herself, furthest from her iconic Regina George character. Her biggest stunt highlight here was that intense hunting scene with a ferocious wild boar, where she went all caveman in wild physical abandon and brutality that I daresay no one would expect from her. O&#x27;Brien also knew his assignment as Brandon very well. At first, he was positively irritating as that entitled nepo baby conveniently slipping into his late father&#x27;s CEO position from out of nowhere. Predictably, he would still expect Linda to treat him as her boss even when they were already marooned on the island. Eventually, O&#x27;Brien will effectively keep audiences guessing whether he is really warming up or even falling in love with Linda or not.  This story about the conflicts between individuals of different economic status stranded on a desert island have been done before, like &quot;Swept Away&quot; (Lina Wertmuller, 1974), &quot;Triangle of Sadness&quot; (Ruben Östlund, 2022) and even &quot;Temptation Island (Joey Gosiengfiao, 1980). Director Sam Raimi injected this trope his signature energetic style for psychological horror and black comedy to come up with another entertaining and thought-provoking thriller. <div> </div>This review was originally published in the author&#x27;s blog, “<a href="https://said-fred.blogspot.com/2026/01/review-of-send-help-marooned-madness.html">Fred Said</a>.”

Sam Raimi turns a familiar desert-island setup into a gleefully mean black comedy, pitting Rachel McAdams’ long-suffering executive against Dylan O’Brien’s entitled nepo boss.

Sam Raimi turns a familiar desert-island setup into a gleefully mean black comedy, pitting Rachel McAdams’ long-suffering executive against Dylan O’Brien’s entitled nepo boss.

‘Send Help’ review: Sam Raimi makes class conflict deliciously savage

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‘Send Help’ review: Sam Raimi makes class conflict deliciously savage

Fred Hawson

Published Jan 30, 2026 02:29 PM PHT

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movie review

Send Help

Sam Raimi

Rachel McAdams

Dylan O'Brien

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