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Send Help review: GLOP! Youre not ready for Rachel McAdams latest… but I love it
Bless Sam Raimi. With the Evil Dead trilogy, this subversive American filmmaker bestowed upon horror fans an outrageous collision of horror, comedy, and gross-outs gags that became truly iconic. His madcap energy made the Spider-Man trilogy a foundation in superhero cinema, and then the grisly Drag Me to Hell (2009) assured fans that his foray into family-friendly fare didn't mean he'd lost his touch. Now, nearly 45 years since The Evil Dead debuted, he's once again serving up gloppy, gnarly, and hilarious horror with Send Help.
2026 is off to an incredible start in terms of horror cinema, thanks to Nia DaCosta's epic 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple. And even though that zombie movie involves a prolonged scene of torture and flaying, Raimi's Send Help is far more likely to have audiences gagging, thanks to an almost gratuitous amount of glop. We're talking blood, sweat, vomit, and whatever else might ooze in quantities that had a packed theater of critics gasping and yelping in shock and deranged delight. But all this gross spectacle is just the start of what makes Send Help a totally twisted thrill ride.
Send Help plays like Romancing the Stone meets Triangle of Sadness… meets Misery.
Credit: Brook Rushton / 20th Century Studios
Rachel McAdams stars as middle-aged pencil pusher Linda Liddle; she's diligent, smart, and has a lot of unexpected skills, thanks to her deep love of Survivor. So, she's pretty pissed off when her nepo baby boss, Bradley Preston (Twinless' Dylan O'Brien), decides the promotion she deserves will go to one of his frat bros. However, their power dynamic shifts dramatically when a business trip leaves them both shipwrecked on a desert island.
While a wounded Bradley is useless in building shelter, foraging, hunting, or gathering water, Linda's untapped survival skills make her a force to be reckoned with in the wild. So, yeah, it's basically like the third act of Triangle of Sadness, when the sunken yacht's cleaning lady, Abigail (Dolly de Leon), takes charge of the spoiled, rotten rich folk who've washed up on shore. However, Send Help's screenplay — by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift — pushes this premise beyond the expected "eat-the-rich" comedy into terrain that is both familiar and strange.
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Some scenes hint at an enemies-to-lovers arc, where, forced to survive together, Linda and Bradley find the good in each other, despite their differences. Perhaps, in the wild, they'll get past their egos and fall for each other like Kathleen Turner and Michael Douglas did in Romancing the Stone? There's certainly enough tousled curls and bared flesh for the possibility. However, other scenes suggest that Linda's interest in Bradley isn't so simple. Her obsession with not only showing him her worth, but also making him pay for his bad behavior leads to scenes that are jaw-dropping in their menace. As she flashes the only knife they have at him, I couldn't stop thinking about the hobbling scene in Misery, wondering just how dark Send Help would go. And in this weird space of genre mash-up, McAdams is riveting and darkly, darkly funny.
Rachel McAdams is unexpectedly brilliant in Send Help.
Credit: Brook Rushton / 20th Century Studios
No shade to the Oscar-nominated Canadian movie star, but for the first half of this movie I thought she'd been miscast. The premise of Send Help and some of its flirtier scenes might suggest that a rom-com icon like The Notebook star would be well-suited to the role of Linda. However, from the opening frames of this film, Raimi paints Linda not as a standard quirky-but-cute heroine, but as a repulsive mess. Her attire is ill-fitting, as if every piece of it is fighting with the next. Her hair is flat and greasy, as if she's forgotten that her hair even exists. And she brings a sloppy tuna salad sandwich to work every day for lunch, which ends up smudged onto her desk, her face, and even her boss' hand. When he coldly tells her there have been complaints about the "noxious" smells at her desk, you can practically get a whiff of the tuna and Miracle Whip through the screen.
I marveled at why Raimi would cast McAdams in a repulsive role that felt like a riff on Roseanne Barr in She-Devil. It's strange to see this elegant movie star dressed badly, making cringeworthy, socially awkward conversation. But this discomfort is intended, as she will bloom like the She-Devil anti-heroine. Incredibly, Linda's time on the island leads to her getting a natural glow-up as she rediscovers her confidence. Frolicking under a waterfall, this is the romantic heroine McAdams audiences are familiar with — but not entirely.
Always under the surface of Linda, there's something off about her. Despite her being the protagonist of the film, there's the unnerving sense that we can't really tell what's going on in her head. Sure, at first, audiences might well relate to the "eat-the-rich" fantasy of thriving on a tropical island while a shitty boss' life is in your hands. But McAdams never leans fully into her charisma, always keeping an edge to Linda that flickers like her annoyed eyes or the blade of her knife. Raimi wrings excitement out of a cat-and-mouse game between Linda and Bradley, where your empathy might well shift from one to the other and back again, and again, and again. By the film's end, McAdams has transformed, not just physically, but from a pitiable heroine in distress to something far more camp and thrilling, putting her performance here in the good company of Goldie Hawn and Meryl Streep in one of my all-time favorite comedies, Death Becomes Her.
Send Help is a gross and glorious good time.
Credit: Brook Rushton / 20th Century Studios
McAdams feasts on every frame of this movie, and O'Brien — who thrilled critics with his astounding double act in last year's dark comedy Twinless — is her perfectly paired scene partner. At the start, his Bradley is an archetype of a rich asshole, brashly bullying his employees and casually sexually harassing any hot woman in his orbit, while wearing obscenely expensive clothing. On the island, however, the power dynamic shift pitches him into sulking, whimpering, or cajoling — all done with a keen comedic awareness. His torment is meant to be horrifying and hilarious, and it is, not only because of Raimi's mastery at building tension but also because O'Brien has sly but stellar skill for the playing the fool.
He and McAdams collide so sensationally in this movie that it could have been fun, even if it were less gross. But honestly, the sheer amount of glop that Raimi flings at his stars and onto the screen enhances the sense of mayhem and suspense. Just as the script slams genre elements of romantic fantasy, dark comedy, and psychological thriller together to keep the audience off balance, the glop and gore knocks us out. For example, just when you think a scene is done with the vomit (or the blood), there will be another burst of fluid. Then another. And again. And each time, the audience I was part of screamed in horror, shock, and awe.
This was an incredible viewing experience; Raimi took me back to being a kid again, watching Evil Dead 2 on VHS and squealing at the sheer outrageousness of it all. All these years later, I'm much harder to shock — and yet he did it again. Watching Send Help, my stomach churned, my jaw dropped, my eyes bulged, and I threw my hands over my face a few times to guard from the gross explosion on screen. Then I walked out cackling and giddy, because Send Help is not just one of the grossest movies I've seen in the last decade. It's also a rip-roaring, no-fucks-to-give good time.
Send Help opens in theaters on Jan. 30.
Save 50%: As of Feb. 23, My Best Buy Plus annual memberships are on sale for $24.99. Compared to their $49.99 full price, you'll save $25 total. You have to pay in full up-front, but cost-wise, this deal brings the membership down to a cost of just $2.08 per month.
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Amazon Prime may be one the most popular shopping memberships, but it's not your only worthwhile option — especially when other ones go on sale.
Case in point: as of Feb. 23, My Best Buy Plus annual memberships are on sale for just $24.99 , bringing their cost down to just $2.08 per month — though you will have to pay in full upfront. Typically, the annual cost would run you $49.99 (or $4.16 per month).
For comparison, Prime will run you $14.99 per month, or $139 up front for the year (which calculates out to about $11.58 per month). While Amazon's service does come with plenty of perks like Prime Video and GrubHub savings, if you're looking for strictly shopping benefits, Best Buy may be the more cost effective route for you.
So what exactly do you get with a Best Buy Plus membership? In addition to free two-day shipping, Plus members enjoy early access to sales, an extended 60-day return window on most of Best Buy's catalog, and exclusive sale pricing on regular items and Best Buy Drops. For instance, at the time of writing, both the 15-inch Apple MacBook Air and Shokz OpenRun Pro 2 earbuds have exclusive Plus member-only markdowns.
Best Buy does offer a free membership option that gives shoppers access to free shipping. They also offer a more premium membership tier, My Best Buy Total, which for $179.99 gives customers access to more round-the-clock tech support and repair services.
Paradise Season 2 introduces a whole new host of post-apocalyptic survivors, those who didn't have access to the Colorado bunker during Season 1's volcano-tsunami mass extinction event. Among them are Link (Thomas Doherty) and Geiger (Michael McGrady), two leaders of a group heading across the United States to get to the bunker.
When we meet them in episode 1, they're making a pit stop at Elvis Presley's Graceland mansion, where tour guide Annie (Shailene Woodley) has been hiding out for the past three years. Before the group moves on, Annie overhears Link and Geiger talking about their next steps.
"We've got to get to the bunker, we've got to get inside, and we've got to kill Alex," Geiger tells Link.
Sounds like a plan, guys! I just have one teeny question: Who the heck is Alex? No Season 1 character had that name, especially none of the major power players in the bunker.
Thankfully, Paradise Season 2 does reveal who Alex is in its third episode. Unthankfully, the reveal raises more questions than answers. Let's get into it.
We've already met Alex in Paradise.
In the flashback portions of episode 3, Samantha "Sinatra" Redmond (Julianne Nicholson) hires Billy Pace (Jon Beavers) to take out an unnamed professor (Patrick Fischler). He's the developer of a technology that she desperately needs for a secret project tied to the bunker. In refusing to sign it over, he signed his own death warrant.
Billy goes to the professor's house, where he finds him caring for his bed-ridden wife (Gwen Holloway), who has Huntington's disease. Her name? Alex.
Not only does the name match up to Link's target, but Alex also knew Link. He was her husband's ace student-turned-business partner, and the closest thing to a son the couple had.
Case cracked, right? Not so fast. Knowing he's about to die when Billy shows up, the professor euthanizes Alex, telling her he'll be seeing her again soon. That means Alex is long dead by the time Link and Geiger head to the bunker. However, there's no such thing as a coincidence in Paradise. There has to be some tie between the late Alex and the Alex whom Link is determined to kill.
My guess? We're looking at some sort of time travel or multiversal shenanigans. That could explain why Link kept getting nosebleeds at the mention of Alex in episode 1 — maybe she's an anomaly in our reality.
Alex is involved in Sinatra's secret project.
Credit: Disney / Ser Baffo
Episode 3 reveals that there's even more to the Alex puzzle than meets the eye. During a conversation with her housekeeper (and apparent co-conspirator) Carmen (Maria-Elena Laas), Sinatra asks, "How is Alex?"
"Alex is well," Carmen responds.
The following conversation is extra cryptic, all concerning Sinatra's secret project, which is big enough that it requires her to siphon power from the bunker.
"Any other messages? Do they have an estimate?" Sinatra asks.
"No messages," Carmen says.
"Any estimate?"
"It's too unpredictable," Carmen replies. "But she is getting closer."
What are the messages? Who are "they," and what are they estimating? And what is Alex getting closer to?
More importantly, is Alex even a person? Could "Alex" be a code name for the professor's technology that Sinatra co-opted? And if so, why would Link want to destroy — or "kill" — it if Sinatra is so sure it can save the world?
Paradise hasn't given us any of those answers yet, but it did give me a nosebleed just thinking about all of it.
Paradise is now streaming on Hulu, with new episodes every Monday.
Something strange is afoot in Paradise Season 2.
Everyone's getting nosebleeds. Xavier Collins (Sterling K. Brown) keeps seeing visions of a man he's never met. And Samantha "Sinatra" Redmond (Julianne Nicholson) is working on a project that's somehow even more secret and important than the apocalypse bunker. I don't know about you, but I smell a twist coming, and it could be one of two things: time travel or multiversal shenanigans. Maybe it's even some combination of the two. After all, Paradise ended its very first episode with the earth-shattering reveal that it was taking place in an underground city. If you want to follow that up, you've got to go big or go home — and both time travel or the multiverse would count as going big.
Here are all the clues from Paradise Season 2's three-episode premiere that point to time travel.
The one thing Sinatra doesn't have is time.
Credit: Disney / Ser Baffo
In a flashback in episode 3, Sinatra has a disheartening talk with Dr. Louge (Geoffrey Arend), who is convinced a supervolcano-megatsunami combo will destroy the world. (And wouldn't you know it, he winds up being right!)
Dr. Louge tells Sinatra that even if people did somehow manage to survive the initial disaster and rapid cooling that would follow, the trapped greenhouse gases would soon heat Earth back up to an unlivable temperature. Anyone still around would die due to the heat or crushing pressure. Basically, Sinatra's bunker would only buy people a few more years.
"There's only one thing that can fix this, and it's the one thing even you can't buy," Dr. Louge tells Sinatra.
"And what is that?" she replies.
"Time."
Dr. Louge may intend that statement to be a hard truth, but Sinatra likely takes it as a challenge. Have we ever known Sinatra to back down from a challenge? Absolutely not. This is the woman who built a whole underground city to weather the apocalypse. If someone tells her she doesn't have time, she is going to find a way to make more time. And how do you make more time? Perhaps with the help of a time machine. Speaking of…
Sinatra has a secret project.
Episode 3 reveals that in addition to building the bunker, Sinatra has been working on another project this whole time, one that's so big she needs to siphon power from the bunker to keep it running. Paradise has yet to reveal what the project is, but based on how anxious Sinatra is about it, it seems like she's banking on this project to solve her pesky time problem. Could she actually be building a time machine? Seems like it, but I'm not ruling out multiversal shenanigans quite yet.
Let's talk about "Advanced Wave Functions, Superposition, and Quantum Entanglement."
In order to kickstart her project, Sinatra needs to buy the company of a brilliant professor (Patrick Fischler). We don't learn his name or what his company does, but we do learn the name of the class he teaches for grad students: Advanced Wave Functions, Superposition, and Quantum Entanglement.
Now, I'm no quantum physicist. I'm not even a regular physicist. But I have seen too many Marvel movies, so even just looking at those words makes me think of the multiverse. That thought only persists when you dig into the actual definitions of the terms.
In quantum mechanics, superposition means that systems can exist in multiple states at once — at least, until we observe them. The Schrödinger's cat thought experiment is the classic example of this. Let's say you put a cat in a box along with a Geiger counter, a minuscule amount of radioactive substance, and a mechanism that will shatter a vial of poison should the radioactive atoms decay. If you leave this box alone and have no knowledge of whether the atoms have decayed or not, then the cat is theoretically both alive and fatally poisoned until you open the box.
Elsewhere, according to NASA, quantum entanglement is "the idea that particles of the same origin, which were once connected, always stay connected… If something happens to one particle, it affects all the others with which it’s entangled."
That's all heady stuff, but in the world of Paradise, perhaps it means that the professor was trying to find a solution to our dying planet through quantum physics. Is there a state in which Earth is simultaneously destroyed and not, and if so, how do we make the "not" option a reality? Or could he be trying to find another version of Earth that's entangled with ours?
These theories are more multiverse-focused than time travel-focused, but one element of the professor's involvement brings me all the way back to the time travel element. Right before Billy Pace (Jon Beavers) assassinates him, the professor says, "Today, I am choosing to believe that it all worked. That you are supposed to be here."
Sir, what is "it"? What are you working on that might have worked and led Billy to you on purpose? Is it some experiment that will only occur in the future and reverberate through the past? My head hurts.
What's going on with Paradise's nosebleeds?
Credit: Disney / Ser Baffo
You know who else's heads hurt? Everyone who's getting nosebleeds and disorienting headaches, that's who. Link (Thomas Doherty) gets two nosebleeds in the first episode: both times when he and Geiger (Michael McGrady) are discussing heading to the Colorado bunker and killing Alex (which is its whole own thing). We also learn that Link was the professor's protégé, so if anyone is able to understand whatever quantum shenanigans are going on here, it would be him.
In episode 2, Xavier gets a nosebleed while flying his plane through an unusual storm that makes him crash. He gets one again while experiencing a vision of him and Link walking together through a white hallway. In episode 3, Billy also gets a nosebleed after meeting Link and sparing his life. Somehow, the professor anticipated this was coming and handed Billy a tissue before he died. Did he know the meeting was coming because the meeting was pre-ordained and he'd witnessed it through time travel? Whatever the answer, something about Link and his relationship to the bunker is causing nosebleeds left and right, and somehow it will impact the fate of the world.
(Again, how do we really know this? Has someone traveled to the apocalyptic future and learned all the events that led to it?)
How did Xavier and Link meet?
Xavier's strange visions of him and Link might also point to time travel. As of yet, we don't know if these two characters have ever met in the past, although it seems unlikely. That means they might meet in the future, in which case, why and how is Xavier seeing this? It has to be time travel, right? Or a dream of some other universe where they've teamed up? Please, Paradise, I'm begging for answers. My yarn wall can only get so big.
Paradise is now streaming on Hulu, with new episodes every Monday.
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Send Help review: GLOP! Youre not ready for Rachel McAdams latest… but I love it
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