Send Help (2026)

DIRECTED BY

Sam Raimi 

STARRING 

Rachel McAdams - Linda Liddle 

Dylan O’Brien - Bradley Preston 

Edyll Ismail - Zuri 

Dennis Haysbert - Franklin 

Xavier Samuel - Donovan 

Genre - Thriller/Horror/Comedy 

Running Time - 113 Minutes 

PLOT

Two colleagues become stranded on a deserted island, the only survivors of a plane crash. On the island, they must overcome past grievances and work together to survive, but ultimately, it’s a battle of wills and wits to make it out alive. 

REVIEW

I’m sure if you ask mainstream audiences the first thing they think of when it comes to director/producer Sam Raimi, it’s probably the mega-successful SPIDER-MAN trilogy of the 2000s. While those films are mostly great, us horror fans know the man for scaring us and/or making us laugh with his immortal THE EVIL DEAD trilogy. The same fans who recognize his work on beloved cult classics like DARKMAN, THE QUICK AND THE DEAD, THE GIFT and DRAG ME TO HELL. Raimi also brought some blood and scares to his last film, the successful DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS despite Disney fighting him on certain horror elements to please a bigger audience. So it’s nice to see Raimi back in full horror mode in 2026’s SEND HELP, a film that had me hooked the moment it was announced due to Raimi and the casting of both Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien - two actors I enjoy on screen. Having these two actors antagonize each other on a desert island in devious ways had to be a fun time at the theater. And I was right, as SEND HELP is another highlight in Raimi’s filmography.

SEND HELP is pretty much a story about power dynamics between the sexes and the classes. Linda Liddle is one of the star employees at her financial management job, using her corporate strategy to keep her company successful. Due to her great work, she is promised a promotion to Vice President. Unfortunately her boss has passed away, now replaced by his frat boy and misogynist son Bradley, who has given the position to his best college friend while looking down on her for her frumpy appearance and eating habits. During a flight to Bangkok for a business meeting, the plane crashes onto a deserted island, leaving only Linda and Bradley as the flight’s sole survivors. While Bradley still attempts to order Linda around, he soon realizes that he has no survival skills on an island. However, Linda does, doing all the hunting and shelter building, proving to Bradley that they’re on her domain now. Despite attempts to get along and work together, Bradley’s ego is so bruised that he just wants to get off the island and go back to his fiancee. Linda, though, finally has control and power in her life, doing everything to make sure she stays on the island - even if she has to keep Bradley prisoner to make it happen. 

In a lot of ways, SEND HELP feels like MISERY but on an island. Bradley hurt his leg due to the plane crash, with Linda reluctantly helping him and making sure he heals up. But she keeps certain information from him and makes him reliant on her, keeping him as an unknowing prisoner as revenge for how he has treated her and other women at their workplace. Things become more interesting as we realize, through backstories, why the two characters feel justified in how they treat others. You start to sympathize with both Linda and Bradley and get how they got to be in their current positions to begin with. But Bradley still wants to go back to his old, upper class life while Linda, feeling she has nothing left at home, refuses to find any way of getting off the island to maintain her power over Bradley. This is where the power struggle begins for both the characters and the audience because you go back-and-forth on who to root for here. Linda is the wronged party from the start, but she becomes violently power hungry as the film rolls on. Bradley is a jerk, but it’s due to his neglectful upbringing, using his behavior as a defense mechanism. But he never really changes who he is either, despite all that. I think writers Mark Swift and Damian Shannon do a fantastic job in giving both characters depth and putting each one in a grey area. You definitely root for one character over the other, but there are times where you start questioning your opinion. It’s not a black-and-white world here, which makes the antagonistic nature between our two main characters a lot of fun to watch.

Sam Raimi is in fine form here behind the lens, giving us enough Raimi-isms to make the audience aware that, visually, this is his movie. While it never goes off the rails, in terms of visuals and violence, like his EVIL DEAD films, there are definitely moments where you smile because you know Raimi is having fun. We get the classic first person point-of-view shots where the camera is just zooming all over the place. We get moments where Linda will hunt an animal for sustenance and the animal’s blood gushes on her as if she’s Ash Williams. There is quirky framing of shots that make you laugh because they’re so unserious. And there’s a torture scene that gives us extreme close-ups that raise the tension tenfold. This is a more subtle Raimi, who only brings out the goods when the story calls for it. And I thought the use of the island location was wonderful, with gorgeous shots that display both paradise and dread. Some of the CGI is spotty, especially with the animals, but it’s not a total eyesore. 

What really makes SEND HELP a film to watch is the chemistry between the two lead actors. I’ve been a fan of Dylan O’Brien since MTV’s Teen Wolf days and he’s only gotten better with each project he takes part of. SEND HELP is no exception, as O’Brien really brings out Bradley’s rich, frat boy persona. He’s believably misogynistic and has tantrums whenever he can’t use power on a woman. But O’Brien never goes too far with it, as he gives you glimpses that it may all be a front and he’s just really scared. There are times where you feel sorry for him, which can be challenging to play considering Bradley is a huge jerk. And O’Brien is just so likable as an actor that it almost feels a bit miscast. But he makes it work and shares a fun, frenemy chemistry with Rachel McAdams.

Speaking of McAdams, I think SEND HELP may contain one of the best performances of her career. McAdams plays Linda as this meek, frumpy, insecure and totally socially awkward woman from the start. Along the way, she transforms into this confident and powerful woman, who unfortunately becomes corrupted by that power once she has a real taste of it. She goes from prey to predator throughout the film and it’s believable every step of the way because McAdams captures that change perfectly. From her body language, to the way she dresses, and to the way she speaks to Bradley [which totally evolves], McAdams becomes someone to be wary of. Considering she has the most meat to chew on here, it’s not surprising how much fun McAdams is playing every emotional beat of this character. You can tell she and O’Brien had a blast making this movie, which makes it fun for the audience too.

And any film with Blondie on the soundtrack scores points with me. From “Rip Her to Shreds” to “One Way or Another”, the needledrops are pretty on point. Also, props to Danny Elfman for an engaging musical score. 

THE FINAL HOWL

One of my most anticipated films of 2026, Sam Raimi’s SEND HELP does not disappoint. While not Raimi’s most memorable visually, Raimi still manages to let the audience know he’s at the helm here. While most of the film is very subtle, capturing the bland office setting while later showcasing the beautiful island location to create a bleak paradise, the Raimi tropes do make their presence when the story calls for it. First person zooms. Gushing crimson that sprays on people. Extreme close ups to raise tension and terror. The Raimi horror maker is here and much welcomed.

Helping the visuals are the strong performances by both Dylan O’Brien and [especially] Rachel McAdams, who have great antagonistic chemistry as the two play off each other to see who can outdo the other. The shift in power dynamics between the two is a wild ride, as you sympathize with one over the other, which will then switch vice-versa, then make you feel sorry for both characters, until it shifts right back to the start. The simple writing allows both O’Brien and McAdams to flesh out their characters through body language and facial expressions, which tells their stories more than any dialogue could. It also helps that the two are clearly having fun, which makes it fun for the audience as well.

While I hope we get Raimi to making more horror films in a much crazier style like his older work [there were glimpses in DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS], SEND HELP is still a fine piece of work that I highly recommend if you’re looking for a well-made survival thriller.

SCORE

3 Howls Outta 4

(8 out of 10)

Doctor Strange In the Multiverse of Madness (2022)

DIRECTED BY

Sam Raimi

STARRING

Benedict Cumberbatch - Dr. Stephen Strange

Elizabeth Olsen - Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch 

Chiwetel Ejiofor - Karl Mordo 

Benedict Wong - Wong 

Xochitl Gomez - America Chavez

Rachel McAdams - Christine Palmer 

Genre: Action/Horror/Fantasy/Adventure/Comic Books

Running Time: 126 Minutes

PLOT

Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), with the help of mystical allies both old and new, traverses the mind-bending and dangerous alternate realities of the Multiverse to confront a mysterious new adversary.

REVIEW

After 15 years of not directing a Marvel superhero film since 2007’s SPIDER-MAN 3, Sam Raimi returns to the genre with the latest MCU Phase Four feature - DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS. MCU’s Phase Four seems to be heavily focused on the multiverse, judging by the stories told in WandaVision, Loki and SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME. While DOCTOR STRANGE 2 definitely wants to ride the success of those projects, it’s unfortunately not the best film with that theme. Hell, it isn’t even the best film this year about multiple universes (EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE says hello). But luckily, DOCTOR STRANGE 2 brings up the quality of Phase Four compared to other films included such as BLACK WIDOW and THE ETERNALS.

Marvel promised us a horror film in DOCTOR STRANGE 2 and while it’s never a scary film at all, the imagery that Sam Raimi presents throughout the film are definitely callbacks to his EVIL DEAD franchise, as well as certain elements from DRAG ME TO HELL. And visually, DOCTOR STRANGE 2 is one of the more memorable in the MCU catalog because of it. From possessions, to hideous looking ghouls, to evil mirror reflections and demons and to certain characters looking and acting like zombies, DOCTOR STRANGE 2 has a lot of horror elements that might turn off younger audiences and squeamish viewers. And superheroes actually get murdered in this movie, some in really messed up ways. Marvel and Raimi really pushed that PG-13 rating with some of the film’s brutality, which even surprised me at times considering this is a Disney property.

The cast is really great in this film - in particular both Benedict Cumberbatch and Elizabeth Olsen, who can play their respective roles of Doctor Strange [all of them] and The Scarlet Witch in their sleep at this point. Olsen, especially, is amazing in this film playing through so many emotional beats and making each one of them believable. Newcomer Xochitl Gomez does well with what she’s given. And returning actors Benedict Wong, Rachel McAdams and Chiwetel Ejiofor have memorable moments. I also enjoyed the cameos, although I wish they were in the film more.

Even though I missed Michael Giacchino’s score from the first film, I thought Danny Elfman captured the atmosphere and tone of the film’s story. 

The narrative could have been stronger, as it felt too rushed at times. The film was supposed to be about 35 minutes longer, which makes me wonder what was cut out or reshot as replacements. There were times where you can tell a scene was edited a bit, as it felt a bit incomplete. I also think those lost minutes could have been used for more character development, especially for America Chavez. I also felt that Rick and Morty and Loki scribe Michael Waldron had some cheesy dialogue that didn’t quite work [especially for America Chavez] as well as writing for certain characters that made me think he didn’t watch some of those Disney+ shows that connect to this movie. I also felt the Illuminati stuff could have been longer and felt more important, and what’s the point of a Multiverse movie if you don’t do more with that concept? What we got was pretty neat, but I felt it was more of a teaser for something in the future more than anything. I did dig the mid-credits scene a lot however, as it promises to be a more Doctor Strange type movie that doesn’t deal with any Avengers. So I’m really looking forward to the future.

THE FINAL HOWL

DOCTOR STRANGE IN THE MULTIVERSE OF MADNESS is a flawed movie, but it’s also a very entertaining one. I can see why some didn’t enjoy it as much as I did. Sam Raimi has a certain style that doesn’t cater to everyone, although I feel it helped this film quite a lot. I think Raimi should have wrote the film to make it even crazier, honestly. It also requires audiences to watch a couple of the Disney+ shows to really understand what’s going on with some of the characters. But besides the muddled screenplay and some of the VFX that look like a video game, the acting is great [Elizabeth Olsen needs her own Scarlet Witch movie for sure], the action is pretty cool, the horror elements and brutality even surprised me in a good way and Raimi’s cool nods to previous films in his filmography added a different feel and tone to this MCU property. I don’t think the film matches the hype, which is unfortunate, but it’s one of the better Phase Four films so far and looks to present a more interesting sequel that will cater to comic book Doctor Strange fans. Not a bad way to start the Summer Season.

SCORE

3 Howls Outta 4

(8 out of 10)

[SEQUEL SEPTEMBER] Bobby Morgan Thinks "Evil Dead 2" Is Groovy...

The final contribution for SEQUEL SEPTEMBER is by Bobby Morgan, who writes for both Geeks of Doom and EuroCultAV. Bobby is probably one of my longest friends since I've started using social networking, becoming a true, trusted friend for many years now [when you have my phone number, you know you can be trusted]. Bobby and I seem to share the same tastes in cinema, mocking the terrible and enjoying the great and/or the silly. Bobby is a cinephile of all genres, but he definitely loves his horror and science fiction. He's an awesome person and I definitely wanted him to contribute to SEQUEL SEPTEMBER. Check out his writing at Geeks of Doom and EuroCultAV.com.

Bobby, no surprise to me, decided to write about his favorite sequel [and maybe movie] of all time - 1987's EVIL DEAD II: DEAD BY DAWN. One of Sam Raimi's finest efforts, EVIL DEAD II is definitely a sequel that rivals the first film in terms of entertainment and quality. Check out Bobby's thoughts, as he shares his history and love for Ash Williams second adventure. Thanks Bobby for sharing and for helping out! Much appreciated, brother!

The summer of 1996. I was 17 years old and without a job. I had worked the entire previous summer in my first job at the Paramount’s Kings Dominion amusement park and before my junior year of high school ended they had invited me to come work for them that summer. It was a tough call but after some deliberation I decided not to return. There were several factors that pushed me to make that decision: the commute by bus each day was a chore, the work stunk (more often than not literally as part of my job entailed pushing around a garbage cart the size of a Humvee….in the fucking rain), and the only time I had to hang with my friends was on the weekends. Since I had some money saved from my first income tax refund I could float around on that and have a real summer vacation. There was a video store down the street from my house and I would walk down there every week and trawl the racks for new and vintage titles on video. Among the cooler flicks I saw that summer in the comforts of my own air-conditioned home were FROM DUSK ‘TIL DAWN, HEAT, and Adam Sandler’s finest hour, HAPPY GILMORE.

However there was one particular title that kept catching my eye but for some reason I could never muster up the courage to rent it. The funniest thing about my initial exposure to the EVIL DEAD trilogy was that I watched them in reverse order. In early 1995 I had rented ARMY OF DARKNESS, the third film in the trilogy, from the video section of a local grocery store and loved the movie so much I would watch it several times before returning it (late I might add). Late in the winter of the following year I sat alone in my house as a icy chill whipped through the trees outside and loaded a thirteen-year-old copy of the original HBO/Thorn EMI released of THE EVIL DEAD. Talk about setting a mood. For all its wooden acting and primitive (but highly effective) special effects the original EVIL DEAD remains to this day one of the scariest movies I have ever seen.

But EVIL DEAD II kicks its ass- hard - and it makes no apologies. I’ve seen it countless times in the thirteen years since my first viewing and I can clearly say that it is the single best movie I have ever seen. I even once watched it on the big screen. My friends, that was a genuine thrill. I can quote entire scenes from memory. The music constantly plays in my head. I can watch this movie over and over everyday without tiring of one second of it. I can name every cast member and what character they play, I know who does the special effects, and I even know the story behind the “Rosebud Films” logo that precedes the movie. I’ve watched the “The Gore, the Merrier” documentary on the Anchor Bay DVD almost as many times as the movie itself. When I bought my first Blu-ray player I made pretty damn sure that one of the inaugural Blu-ray discs in my collection would be Lionsgate's spectacular 25th Anniversary Edition disc released late last year. That remains one of my smartest investments.

I can find no fault with EVIL DEAD II. Without exaggeration this movie is perfect, and that is no bullshit.

The story of the first EVIL DEAD’s making and unleashing upon the world is legendary. If you’ve read any of the books about the films, listened to the DVD commentaries, or seen any of the cast and crew at horror conventions, then you would know the behind-the-scenes horror stories by heart. At least those stories resulted in a hell of a happy ending. Launched into the public consciousness thanks to an enthusiastic review by superstar author Stephen King, the movie took the world of horror cinema by storm and set its young director and producer/star on what would prove to be long and fruitful careers in film. Three years later those dreams of cinematic success were almost dashed forever. In 1985 for his first stab at major studio filmmaking (without the use of a Kandarian dagger) director Sam Raimi leapt at the chance to indulge the life-long admiration for over-the-top slapstick comedy that fueled his desire to become a filmmaker with his best friend and unlikely muse Bruce Campbell starring in the lead.

Unfortunately for them Raimi and Campbell were now working for Norman Lear’s Embassy Films and they had a small army of Hollywood studio executives to answer to. Making the original EVIL DEAD may have led Raimi, his producer Robert Tapert, and Campbell to maroon themselves in the woods of rural Tennessee during the winter of 1979-1980 with a $500,000 budget, several buckets of stage blood and a gaggle of overworked and undernourished cast and crew but every frame of the film that was the fruits of their labor could not be touched by any know-nothing industry suit. That was not to be the case with the movie Raimi originally titled THE XYZ MURDERS with Campbell as the hero and EVIL DEAD composer Joseph LoDuca providing the music score. First the Embassy suits decreed that Campbell, after being forced to submit to a screen test, would not star in the movie THEY were now calling CRIMEWAVE. Then they compelled Raimi to cast some obscure schnook with not a shred of comic timing as the hero. Lastly Raimi was coldly informed that his preferred composer LoDuca would not provide the score for THE XY….excuse me, CRIMEWAVE.

This all transpired before filming began.

After shooting was completed and Raimi completed his first cut of the film, the executives at Embassy took the film out of his hands and edited it to the point where it was no longer recognizable to its creators. CRIMEWAVE was ultimately released in a few theaters to fulfill a contractual obligation and barely registered at the box office. The movie may have gained a minor cult following in the years since its video release but Raimi has already disowned it before it hit theater screens. His first dance with the devils of Tinseltown had birthed a celluloid dumpster baby. Now the Michigan wonder boy who made demons melt and cameras leap and fly was in dire need of a job.

With some needed prompting from his EVIL DEAD sales agent, the legendary Irvin Shapiro (best known for suggesting that Raimi change the name of the original from BOOK OF THE DEAD to THE EVIL DEAD), and with Stephen King putting in a good word for Raimi with his MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE financial backer Dino De Laurentiis, Sam Raimi was about to do the unthinkable. With Campbell and Tapert in tow once more he was about to head back into that cursed forest to that hellish cabin to put his long-suffering hero Ash through his paces at the hands of demented and mischievous demonic forces. This time around Raimi wasn’t going back into the woods with meager funding and a skeleton crew forced to wear many hats to save the production some cash. This time Sam Raimi was a more experienced filmmaker and for EVIL DEAD II he would have the best of everything at his disposal, resources he would wisely utilize to make his definitive masterpiece.

Raimi intended for EVIL DEAD II to open with footage from the first film. At the end of the original EVIL DEAD after Ash has supposedly defeated the dark spirits that possessed his friends and beloved Linda and transformed them into murderous creatures that could only be destroyed by, and I quote, “the act of bodily dismemberment”, the demonic forces that roam the woods after being unleashed by Ash and his friends playing a tape recorded recital of incantations from the Kandarian Book of the Dead awake and snatch the bruised and bloodied Ash as he helplessly limps back to civilization. The camera rushes up to Bruce Campbell’s screaming face and the movie cuts to black. The original film’s distributor New Line Cinema refused to license Raimi the desired archival footage so the director, along with his co-writer Scott Spiegel (another friend from his Michigan youth), was put in the position of having to cram a compact remake of his directorial debut into the first five minutes of EVIL DEAD II.

So in a sense EVIL DEAD is both remake and sequel, but the remake part ends halfway through the first reel. Once Ash has had to decapitate his possessed girlfriend Linda (played by Denise Bixler)….again, and the evil Kandarian spirits hit him with a flying tackle that sends him soaring through the trees at a pace equal to that of the Concorde, then EVIL DEAD II truly begins. But from the moment the movie begins every single minute is utterly glorious. Each scene brings with a new surprise as Raimi, ably assisted by an aces cast and technical crew more than up to the challenge of bringing his feverishly insane ideas to life, keeps his imagination on warp speed.

This was the film that brought the now legendary team of Robert Kurtzman, Gregory Nicotero, and Howard Berger (known today as KNB EFX) together for the first time. Until EVIL DEAD II these masters of latex and foam rubber miracles had never worked with each other before. Even to this day the KNB boys have rarely been able to top the wizardry they conjured up with the assistance of Sam Raimi’s demented vision. They created some of the coolest-looking monsters ever seen: from the mad-eyed demons who make Ash’s life a literal living Hell to the monstrous trees who would give the living forest in THE WIZARD OF OZ the heebie jeebies to the team’s piece de resistance, when all of the trees in the haunted forest come together to form the ultimate Kandarian demon and it is both creepy and pretty goofy in a way that I can not help but love dearly. Heads spin, the cabin furniture comes to life, corpses dig out of their graves and do ballet, possessed hands scurry across the room, and untold gallons of blood all colors of the rainbow flood the cabin to name but a few.

Raimi’s most terrifying creation lives just off camera and haunts the dark forest in the form of a endlessly prowling first person point-of-view shot. With his director of photography Peter Deming (replacing original D.P. Eugene Shlugheit, who retained credit for the night exterior photography he completed before leaving the production) Raimi transforms the camera into the most relentless force in the film. He even came up with some interesting ideas for special rigs that would allow the camera to glide over car hoods, ram through windows, and tear ass through the cabin doors and walls in pursuit of our beleaguered hero Ash. The cinematography on EVIL DEAD II is the best of the trilogy. The sets and outdoor locations are brightly lit to the point where they practically look artificial. This works brilliantly as it enhances the fantastical world that the movie takes place within as opposed to the original EVIL DEAD where the sets and the forest were under-lit to play up its blackly horrific atmosphere. The haunted forest of EVIL DEAD II looks like it could have come out of a Grimm fairy tale or a movie such as KWAIDAN or NIGHT OF THE HUNTER. There is not a yellow brick road in these woods to take the characters from the horrors of the Deadites to the safety of civilization but there is a trail heavily guarded by the trees, and unless you are packing a chainsaw (or a pair of pruning shears) you travel it at your peril.

More than anything EVIL DEAD II is the film where the legend of Bruce Campbell began to take shape. In the first EVIL DEAD the character of Ash was more reactive than proactive. It was only towards the end when he really got into the action. In EVIL DEAD II he was no time to be the sensitive wussy boy - the demons are attacking right out of the gate. No other scene in Campbell's lengthy filmography sums up his unchallenged status as a pop culture icon than the moment when he arms up for the final battle. You know what I'm talking about: the expertly-crafted montage where he attaches a chainsaw to the stump where his possessed hand used to be and then uses the saw to chop off the barrel of his trusty shotgun. How many other horror movies or horror comedies have a scene that can equal or even surpass the sheer awesomeness of that singular moment when the camera slowly zooms in on Ash's intense face, the look of a man who has been through a literal Hell since he arrived at that cabin and is now ready for the battle of the ages, and he intones the one word that brilliantly encapsulates Campbell's storied legacy on film and television - "Groovy". If that is not one of the greatest moments ever captured on celluloid I just don't want to be part of this world anymore. 

If you still haven't seen EVIL DEAD II I highly recommend you do right this minute. The chances are good that you will not like it as much as I, and that's if you even like it at all. But bear this in mind before you seek it out: this movie will defy each and every one of your expectations.