Sam Raimi Horror ‘Send Help’ Shatters Spider-Man Rotten Tomatoes Score

Send Help is the new horror joint from Sam Raimi, four years since his last directorial outing with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. Led by that very movie’s Rachel McAdams, and Dylan O’Brien (The Maze Runner), this one finds the tables well and truly turned on a mouthy corporate boss who survives a plane crash with the company strategist he just majorly insulted. Suffice it to say, he comes to regret that move.

After landing in cinemas yesterday (Jan. 30), Raimi’s movie has only gone and equaled his highest-ever audience score on Rotten Tomatoes; 89% for Evil Dead II. That’s a chunky improvement on 82% for Spider-Man 2 as well, which is up there in the conversation for greatest superhero sequel of all-time thanks to its stylish battle between Tobey Maguire’s webslinger and Alfred Molina’s Doctor Octopus. His first Spider-Man sits at 67%, bizarrely, while the dud that was Spider-Man 3 is all the way down at 51%.

But it’s not just the public that’s really enjoying Send Help, because the film is currently ranking at a stunning 93% on the Tomatometer — a career-best for the cult filmmaker who’s also given us the Fargo-esque A Simple Plan, Drag Me to Hell, and Darkman. In the official MovieWeb review, writer Mark Keizer applauded the “beautifully modulated performances” from both McAdams and O’Brien, and called Send Help a “delicious two-hander that keeps you guessing” right up until that jaw-on-the-floor twist ending.

‘Send Help’ Director Warned Fans It Would Be “Outrageous”

Dylan O’Brien’s Bradley Preston and Rachel McAdams’ Linda Liddle on the beach in Send Help

20th Century Studios

This comes after Raimi previewed his latest flick in a conversation with Empire Magazine; telling them that it would be a mayhemic ride even by his standards. He is, of course, renowned in the industry for bonkers visual flourishes and great big dollops of absurdism.

“It’s a battle of wills. Its theme is that of power dynamics being turned on their head. The fellas [screenwriters Damian Shannon and Mark Swift] pitched the story, and I laughed and couldn’t believe they were doing this. It was really outrageous, even for me, who makes outrageous horror films.”

Besides the final 15 minutes or so, the outrageousness he referred to is no doubt linked to the bloodlusting of its co-main character, Linda Liddle, who transforms from a meek office worker into a force straight out of Lord of the Flies. The various trailers and stills from Send Help tell you all you need to know about this woman: she’s out for revenge, and she’s relishing every second of it. With Raimi’s history of gory, nasty horror, it is not surprising that Send Help doesn’t hold back in its blood-dripping moments or its frequently wild violence. It seems that even after all this time, Raimi is still right at the top of his game in the genre he redefined in the earliy 1980s.