Mitch Peart, a frequent contributor who joined via an audition voicemail, joins the conversation. They break down Send Help’s crash-and-survive premise, praise Rachel McAdams’ commanding performance, debate Raimi’s playful gore and overused CGI, and compare the film to Misery, Cast Away and Triangle of Sadness. Lively banter, scoring, and a spooky boar set-piece round out the chat.
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Prefer Practical Effects For Creature Gore
Use practical effects where possible to preserve visceral impact and avoid cartoonish CGI.
Bryce suggests a puppet for the boar could have delivered the same gore while feeling more grounded.
insights INSIGHT
Movie Hints At Mid Budget Thriller Resurgence
Send Help signals a welcome return of mid-budget date-night thrillers that used to be common in the 90s/2000s.
Bryce hopes this and films like The Housemaid will revive that market segment.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Theater Crowd Made Movie More Fun
Max loved the theater experience: big turnout, audible laughs and screams, and strong sound design.
He notes the trailer reveals a lot but the audience reaction still made it enjoyable.
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Send Help stars Rachel McAdams as a frumpy but invaluable office worker over looked for promotion by her asshole entitled boss played by Dylan Obrien
When she is invited on a sausage fest work trip, the plane crashes and she and her boss are the only survivors on a tropical island
She quickly demonstrates her survival knowledge and the power dynamic between her and her boss shifts.
Review of Send Help
Send Help has been described as a mix between Misery and Cast Away. I’ll agree with that and add that it’s also a poor man’s version of The Triangle of Sadness. Any way you compare it, this is a crowd pleaser.
Sam Raimi returns to the horror genre for the first time since Drag Me to Hell. Though this is more on the thriller side of horror, he brings out a lot of the playful and over the top blood and gore that we are used to.
Rachel McAdams largely carries the film with her charisma and screen presence. I’ll admit, she’s largely the reason for me being excited about seeing the film. Dylan O’brien is serviceable, and properly over the top in portraying an entitled asshole.
The script by Damian Shannon and Mark Shift is simple, yet plays with the audience’s expectations. It is better than I would expect from the guys that worked together before on the Baywatch Movie, Freddy Vs. Jason, and 2009’s Friday the 13th reboot. The character development feels a little undercooked, but is there enough to make their motivations understood.
This felt like a movie straight out of the 90’s/early 2000s. This brand of mid-budget thriller was a dime a dozen back then, and for some reason has fallen by the wayside. I’m hoping that this film, along with films like The Housemaid will start a resurgence in mid budget date night thrillers.
Also something I haven’t seen since the 90s/early 2000s is this quality of CGI. It wasn’t completely terrible, but is was distracting how overused it was. Many shots of the island and it’s design felt like I was looking at an obviously designed video game island (X mountains and all). Also, after seeing PRimate successfully pull of great practical effects with a monkey suit, I wondered why they didn’t use a puppet for the boar. They could have achieved the same level of boar gore, but make it less cartoony.
The film doesn’t plumb the depths of the human psyche or explore every facet of the power dynamics in a survival situation, it prefers to keep it pretty surface level in service of moving quickly with the plot. And in my opinion, it works. I had a really good time, and laughed out loud several times at the humor as well as the exploitative gore that Raimi is the expert at bringing.
Horror Movie Talk 
