Send Help: Sam Raimi’s ‘compelling’ plane-crash survival thriller

Sam Raimi “is the furthest thing from a one-note director”, said Brian Viner in the Daily Mail: his “many credits” range from the Tobey Maguire “Spider-Man” trilogy to the “Evil Dead” franchise.

“Send Help” is a further testament to his versatility, blending “comedy, social satire, survivalist-thriller and gross-out body-horror”, to often “compelling” effect.

Rachel McAdams stars as Linda, a mousy office worker who is flying to a meeting in Thailand when the private jet she is in crashes into the ocean, and she becomes stranded on a desert island with her new boss – an “entitled, sexist, slimeball” (Dylan O’Brien) named Bradley.

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The narrative seems to be following a familiar trajectory, as Bradley learns to appreciate his underling’s survival skills (Linda is a dab hand at building shelters). But then the story swerves into new territory – and for those with “a reasonably strong stomach”, what follows is good fun.

I’m afraid I wasn’t entertained by the plot twists, which seemed “derivative”, said Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian. And I found Raimi’s need “to juice everything up with spurious ‘horror’ flourishes” somewhat wearing.

This “eat the rich” parable is undeniably gory, said Clarisse Loughrey in The Independent: its stars are variously drenched in vomit, “bug innards, fish innards, and, of course, several power showers’ worth of spattered blood”. But the story is told with real “wit and viscera”; and McAdams – who initially seems too “glamorous” for the role – acquits herself superbly.