Sam Raimi's Send Help Is A Secret Horror Remake Of An Acclaimed Oscar Nominated Film

This article contains spoilers for "Send Help."

Sam Raimi's new thriller "Send Help" follows the adventures of Linda Liddle (Rachel McAdams), a hardworking employee in the planning and strategy department of a wealthy, high-profile company. Linda is an employee the company cannot survive without, but her toil is rarely recognized, or even actively ignored, by her smarmy, less qualified bosses. The company's new CEO, Bradley (Dylan O'Brien), actively dislikes Linda right away, recoiling from her mousy appearance and pointing out that she smells of her tuna lunches. The tables turn when, on their way to a notable business summit, their plane crashes into the ocean, leaving Linda and Bradley stranded alone together on a lost tropical island. 

Linda, as it so happens, is a "Survivor" fanatic and has spent years practicing wilderness survival skills, so she is right at home. Bradley, meanwhile, has no applicable survival skills whatsoever. Indeed, his only skills seem to be schmoozing, playing golf, and being generally cruel to his employees. Linda, because she is such a kind and decent person, nurses Bradley back to health (he sustained an injury in the crash), and carefully begins to explain that here, on this island, she wields all the power. Bradley begins to realize that his golfing and bullying skills are not the least bit useful. 

Just reading that premise, one might immediately be reminded of the ending of Ruben Östlund's 2022 satire "Triangle of Sadness," a film that was nominated for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay at the Academy Awards. Both films are very much about how wealthy, disconnected a-holes, when plunged into a survival situation on a remote tropical island, become completely helpless. Only their perceived "underlings" can take control of the situation with their applicable survival skills. 

"Send Help" is a little more of a character study than "Triangle of Sadness." Sam Raimi's film follows Linda's journey toward assertiveness, as she finally learns to speak plainly and aggressively to the boss she previously shrank from. Bradley, meanwhile, may (or may not) learn to be less of a jerk and accept that bullying and badgering his employees won't get him anywhere on a deserted island. It's never said out loud in "Send Help," but his money will get him nothing on a remote island. 

"Triangle of Sadness" is a little more tonally acidic, treating its wealthy characters like a helpless, amorphous mass. Partway through the film, a well-moneyed yacht suffers damage in a storm, and the rich people on board wash up on an island. The rich people are merchants, models, and other people who don't actually do any work. They fight over the remaining packages of food that have washed up on shore, and none of them know how to make a fire. Dolly de Leon plays the ship's toilet manager, Abigail, who, as it so happens, is the only one who knows how to start a fire and do any kind of salvaging from the island around them. 

Abigail, while seen as a poor and disregarded member of "the help" on the yacht, quickly takes control of the situation on the island. She demands that she be given more comfortable sleeping quarters (a portion of the boat also washes up on shore), first access to food, and even willing sex partners in exchange for her survival skills. The power dynamic is totally flipped. Both films are about the formerly powerless enjoying their new power in an environment where the rules have been reset. 

As it so happens, both "Send Help" and "Triangle of Sadness" feature similar twist endings. Without giving too much away, I can say "Triangle of Sadness" sports a fun, ironic surprise development right near the end that Sam Raimi's film echoes. It's revealed that they were actually on an inhabited island all along, as it served as the location for a high-end tropical resort. When Abigail and the model Yaya (Charbli Dean) discover this fact while out exploring alone, it changes everything. Yaya is relieved that re-entry into civilization is nigh, while Abigail contemplates murdering Yaya to keep the resort secret and retain her power over the wealthy. 

"Send Help" also features a scene where Linda is faced with potentially committing a murder to keep a very similar secret. There may be an interruption to Linda's beach idyll, and Linda may kill to protect it. On the beach, Linda knows how to find water and build shelter. She has learned how to hunt the local boars and catch the local fish. For Linda, this island — far, far away from the stuffy high-rise office where she worked — is paradise. And, as icing on the cake, she gets to lord her skills and intelligence over the blowhard, wealthy jerk who always assumed he was better than her. 

In "Triangle of Sadness," Abigail's island is less idyllic, but Abigail similarly gets to lord her skills and intelligence over the idiotic bourgeoisie that previously ignored her. "Send Help" is the more violent, horror/comedy version of "Triangle of Sadness." Of course, at heart, both films are also essentially "Gilligan's Island." Also, both films feature a lot of puking. Like a lot. They have so much in common.