“Send Help” is director Sam Raimi’s return to the gory mischief that has endeared him to fans for the past 45 years. The filmmaker behind the “Evil Dead” trilogy, “Darkman,” and “Drag Me to Hell” is up to his yucky old tricks in this horror-tinged thriller. Actors in a Raimi movie are often covered in natural (and unnatural) bodily fluids before the credits roll — and sickos like me wouldn’t have it any other way. During one particularly disgusting onscreen moment, the guy behind me muttered “well, I’ve never seen that before!” Then the scene got even grosser, as if the movie heard his complaint and upped the ante. Composer Danny Elfman’s bouncy score convinced me that the movie was indeed listening. The script, by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift, buffers its rage with a very funny streak of pitch black humor. They’ve crafted a cross between Lina Wertmüller’s controversial 1974 desert island satire “Swept Away” and the Stephen King horror movie, “Misery.” “Send Help” exchanges Wertmüller’s class-based war between a rich woman and a poor man for a tale of workplace politics. However, they adhere to the battle of the sexes concept while shifting the power dynamic. And of course, they keep the desert island.
Published: January 26, 2026 5:30 pm
Source: The Boston Globe — Read original