Send Help Doesn’t Need a Hand at the Box Office
Sam Raimi’s Send Help has achieved a box office feat , but what’s making audiences and critics alike go crazy for this dark and quirky thriller?
by Cee
You wake up stranded on an island, injured and scared. Against the odds, you’ve survived a plane crash, but in true nightmare fashion, you’re stranded with your ego-tripping, unempathetic, womanizing boss. But hey, there’s an upside. There is no one around to see what you do to him. You’re the boss now.
This is the delightfully dark setup of Sam Raimi’s “Send Help.” Office “pariah” and survival enthusiast Linda Liddle (Rachel McAdams) is passed over for a promotion by her new boss, Bradley Preston (Dylan O’Brien), after years of faithful service to her company. In an effort to take advantage of her, Bradley says he’ll reconsider if she can help find a solution to a business problem involving an important account. They get on a plane to China that suffers a massive failure and ends up crash-landing in the ocean. Only they survive.
“Send Help” is still going strong into Week 4 — having dropped just 1% overall going into its third week and losing 500 movie theater screens — which is a feat as difficult as surviving on a desert island. It’s clearly resonating with both audiences and critics, and that’s because Raimi and the cast bring levity to an otherwise dark situation.
The power dynamic shift and psychological battle that ensues is what makes the film such a fun watch. It feels like a sun-soaked take on Stephen King’s “Misery.” Like Annie Wilkes, Linda is manipulating her situation with Bradley on a psychological level. However, Linda’s obsession is with the new life she has found. Once cast aside and mocked for her quirks (including her devotion to “Survivor”), she is now the most capable person on the island. She gets to taste authority and control, a flavor she finds as sweet as the ripe mangos on the island. Bradley — who tries to make it a point to still exert his now nonexistent authority — finally learns what it is like to be put in his place and, more importantly, what it is like to feel powerless.
She would stay on this island forever if she could — so why shouldn’t she? That’s the gas that fuels Raimi’s potboiler and almost leaves the audience feeling complicit. We’re rooting for Linda in this cat-and-mouse game against Bradley. That investment doesn’t happen without two strong leading performances. McAdams sells Linda as the office outcast turned murderous survivalist, and we root for her because of how much heart she brings to the role. We feel for her as she tells herself “don’t cry” hopelessly while the whole office watches.
O’Brien, on the other hand, absolutely nails the immature bravado of the power-tripping Bradley Preston. He is able to capture both the hubris of rich entitlement and the panic of a man confronting the fragility of his ego and mortality. He’s downright hateful, which is exactly the type of buy-in we need as an audience to go along for this ride.
“Send Help” scratches the itch in the darkest part of the human mind, offering a cathartic fantasy for anyone who has ever had an asshole boss. It also hits closer to home because of all the abuses of power we are currently witnessing in the real world, which only makes the reverie more satisfying. What makes it work, however, is the distance Raimi creates through his comedic undertones and campy visuals (Linda battling a boar to its death, a zombie-like figure that jump-scares us, reminiscent of an “Evil Dead” creature), allowing us to enjoy Linda’s unraveling from a safe distance and have a bloody good time while doing it. If you haven’t seen it yet, I’d suggest skipping work and giving it a go. I’m sure your boss won’t mind, and if they do, tell them Linda Liddle sent you.
