When I first heard that Rachel McAdams AND Dylan O’Brien were starring in a film about being trapped on a deserted island, my immediate reaction was, “I’m sat.”
“Send Help” is a dark, comedic, psychological thriller starring McAdams and O’Brien. Adams’ character, Linda, finds herself deserted on an island with her asshole boss, O’Brien’s character, Bradley. Linda proves she can easily survive because she’s obsessed with the TV show “Survivor.“
The film follows the power shift between the two and explores how far people are willing to go to get what they want. Ultimately, only one of them survives the disaster.
While I love a psychological thriller and adore these actors, this film ultimately had too much gore and too many predictable plot twists.
What I liked
I knew McAdams could play characters with depth like Allie in “The Notebook” or Regina in “Mean Girls” — and those two films alone show her ability to convincingly play polar opposite characters. “Send Help” is no different, because McAdams killed this role.
She starts as this innocent pushover and becomes someone who takes control and does some awful things to people — flipping the narrative completely. Yet, even when she makes terrible choices, I was still rooting for her character because I support women’s rights and women’s wrongs.
McAdams outshone her co-star O’Brien, but that furthers the plot of the story.
This is a thriller, but another aspect of this film is that it was a dark comedy. I wouldn’t say it was funny, but the majority of the film felt lighter, and it didn’t get really intense until the end.
I enjoyed the couple of jump scares throughout the film, which were completely unexpected. As I was watching in the theater, I could hear other people gasping pretty loudly, which told me I wasn’t the only one surprised.
What I didn’t like
While I liked the unexpected jump scares, the entirety of the film was predictable — even for someone like me who gets fooled during thrillers.
You know who will end up surviving from the very beginning, and even if I was rooting for McAdams’s character, a little mystery and suspense would’ve made this film 100% more interesting. With O’Brien’s character, it was even worse. I could see his next steps from a million miles away.
Because it was so predictable, I would catch myself getting bored looking at my watch (yes, I really do wear a watch) to see when the movie would be over.
I also didn’t like how gory it was, and I’ve never been a fan of gore, so take that with a grain of salt. I understand it’s a thriller, but I was expecting more psychological twists — not bloody ones. Just know that you will be seeing lots of blood and death in this movie.
The verdict
I would never get the urge to watch this or be having a casual Sunday afternoon and think, “You know what I’m going to watch? ‘Send Help.’” It’s not a movie I’d ever watch more than once, but it was enjoyable to experience one time with other people in the theater.
So, I’m rating “Send Help” a 2.5 out of five stars. If you’re going to watch it, watch it NOW while it’s still in theaters, but I wouldn’t plan on watching it ever again.
