“Send Help” is just the fourth theatrically released feature film Sam Raimi has directed since 2009. In the past 17 years, Raimi has only directed “Drag Me to Hell,” “Oz the Great and Powerful” and “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.” He’s been busy outside of directing: he’s produced more than a dozen films, overseen production on “Ash vs. Evil Dead” and even wrote a story for the Quibi series “50 States of Fright.” He’s also raising his five children, so we can give him a little grace when he takes a little time to realize.
But “Send Help,” now in theatersis very welcome. Raimi’s new horror comedy tells the story of Linda Liddle (Rachel McAdams), a hard-working office worker in her company’s planning and strategy department who is long overdue for a promotion. Linda, however, has a new, younger boss named Bradley (Dylan O’Brien) who is disgusted by Linda’s mousy appearance and her tuna lunches. He categorically refuses her a promotion, preferring to surround himself with golfing brodogs and pretty girls.
The tables turn when Bradley and Linda, while jetting off on a business trip, crash land on a remote tropical island. Linda has been a long-time “Survivor” fan and knows exactly what it’s like to live on a desert island. Bradley has no idea and suddenly finds himself helpless. The gist of “Send Help” involves the shifting power dynamic between Linda and Bradley, with Linda excited to be powerful and Bradley angry.
Raimi keeps the pace fast and the tone light. It’s as funny as it is horrible. And above all, it’s disgusting and slimy. We’ll get into the revolting details below, but, damn, Raimi sure knows how to shoot goop better than any modern filmmaker.
No modern director can film goop better than Sam Raimi
Some examples of Raimi’s glorious skills with goo: At the start of “Send Help”, Linda realizes that she and Bradley need some protein. Luckily, she spotted a few wild boars around the island. Linda has never killed a wild boar before, but she seems almost eager to try. In one remarkable sequence, Linda cuts open the boar and is covered in its blood. As she stabs the boar, it unleashes a barrage of pig snot directly into her face. Linda screams as blood and snot streams down her face. It’s great.
After so many years of scary and haunting films rated PG-13 to the “The Conjuring,” it’s refreshing to have such a visceral horror sequence. Some of the goo is achieved through CGI, but much of it is clearly due to Rachel McAdams being doused in blood from the scene.
Then, later in the film, there is a scene in which Linda has to vomit (I’ll let you discover the circumstances of this scene). When she vomits, it happens copiously in Bradley’s face. Repeatedly. Spit after spit. It’s pretty disgusting. Raimi fans may remember the facial vomit scene from the filmmaker’s “Drag Me to Hell.” It’s not a Raimi film, it seems, without someone being puked. Maybe that’s what his “Spider-Man” films were missing.
There was a time when Peter Jackson could have challenged Raimi for the title of best gore filmmaker, but that was in the early 1990s, when Jackson was still making weird films, disgusting horror films like “Braindead” (aka “Dead Alive”). Raimi, for his part, returned to the cinema to recover all his titles. “Send Help” has a good pinch of the filmmaker’s signature horror mayhem, and it’s great to see. Hopefully Raimi will do more soon.
