Send Help is a 2026 survival horror thriller directed and co-produced by Sam Raimi and written by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift. The film stars Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien as an employee and her boss who become stranded on a desert island after a plane crash and find themselves increasingly at odds as tensions boil over.
The film premiered at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles on January 21, 2026, before opening wide in the U.S. on January 30 through 20th Century Studios. Running a lean and mean 113 minutes, it wastes no time getting its two leads onto that island and into each other’s throats — sometimes almost literally.
The Plot (No Major Spoilers)
The story follows corporate strategist Linda Liddle, who has spent years waiting for a promotion promised to her, only to watch Bradley Preston — the entitled son of the outgoing CEO — get handed the job instead. When their plane goes down en route to a business trip, the two become the sole survivors, forced to set aside years of workplace resentment (or, more accurately, let it fully boil over) in order to survive.
It’s a premise that sounds simple on paper — basically Cast Away with a side of office politics — but Raimi and company have far more up their sleeves than a straightforward survival tale.
What Works
The Raimi of it all. This is Raimi’s first true horror outing since 2009’s Drag Me to Hell, and longtime fans will recognize his fingerprints everywhere — kinetic camera work, gleeful gore, and a pitch-black sense of humor that refuses to let the film take itself too seriously even as the stakes escalate.
The two leads. Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien are doing genuinely great work here. McAdams gets to sink her teeth into a role that starts as a sympathetic underdog and morphs into something far more unpredictable, while O’Brien is having an absolute blast playing an insufferable, entitled boss who becomes increasingly detestable — and, weirdly, increasingly compelling — as the film goes on.
The tonal balancing act. This is the film’s biggest tightrope walk, and it mostly nails it. One scene will have you laughing at some absurd bit of dark comedy, and the next will have you wincing at a genuinely brutal set piece. It plays like a blend of Horrible Bosses, Cast Away, and Misery, filtered through Raimi’s signature style — and that combination shouldn’t work as well as it does.
The score. Danny Elfman’s music does a lot of heavy lifting, threading the needle between playful and menacing in a way that keeps the audience off-balance in the best way.
The moral murkiness. Without spoiling anything, the film has a lot of fun blurring the line between who the “hero” and “villain” actually are. Just when you think you’ve got the power dynamic figured out, it shifts again.
What Doesn’t Work Quite as Well
The film’s mid-section sags slightly as it settles into the survival-thriller rhythm before the third act ramps back up into full Raimi chaos. A few side characters feel underused given the strength of the ensemble cast around them. And depending on your tolerance for tonal whiplash, the swings between broad comedy and genuine brutality may occasionally feel more jarring than intentional.
The Verdict
Send Help is the rare studio horror-comedy that actually earns both halves of that hyphenate. It’s gory when it wants to be, genuinely funny when it wants to be, and anchored by two lead performances that elevate what could have been a one-note premise into something much more twisted and satisfying. If you’ve been waiting for Sam Raimi to get back to his horror roots, this delivers — with a corporate-thriller edge that gives it its own identity.
Bottom line: A darkly funny, appropriately gnarly survival thriller that proves Sam Raimi hasn’t lost a step. Recommended for horror fans and anyone who’s ever fantasized about getting revenge on a bad boss.
Send Help is rated R and is now available to stream.
RATING: 4/5