It’s been a month since I started my weekly reviews, and it’s honestly been a bit of a weird January. So lovingly referred to as ‘Dumpuary’, this time of year is where studios typically ‘dump’ the films they don’t really believe in big box office numbers for, that didn’t do well in test screenings and often (though it’s shifted in recent years) genre films. To get a general idea, the notable films of January 2025 included One of Them Days, Companion, Presence and Wolf Man.
This January has felt different. Off the back of A24’s highest grossing film ever Marty Supreme releasing on Christmas Day and exploding in popularity over the month, we’ve received almost exclusively original films in a year when blockbuster films are shaping up to quash the box office. Despite this, Avatar will continue to win the numbers, leading many to the usual doomsday cry that ‘cinema is dying’.
Given the severe underperformance of 28 Years Later (no thanks to the winter weather in the US) in the box office, a lot of horror fans particularly have already begun to sound the alarms on attendance numbers being the number 1 killer of any hope for the future of these films. Sam Raimi’s Send Help looks like a quintessential January film, a thriller that leans into a lot of horror tropes and relies on a familiar concept of ship wrecking on an island. No matter how it performs financially, it contrasts 28 Years Later as another horror/thriller, and shows that the other paths to success could lie outside of relying on a huge attendance. As well as this, it’s a return to the giddy thrill of Evil Dead, and a warm welcome back for a director who’s been on the franchise circuit for a solid 2 decades.
At risk of throwing a lot of trivial numbers out there to address the finance side, (ironic given the backdrop of employment at a ‘Future/newgen fortune 500 company’), Send Help has a reported budget of $40 million. This is a lot more than that of previous budget horror hits in this time like M3gan, produced on $12 million and making $180 million worldwide. For further comparison, it’s $23 million less than 28 Years Later, not including marketing, that took up $70 million, according to Deadline. As before, this really does not seem to have worked in their favour in terms of getting people in seats. Also reported here, a quarter of the budget was given collectively to Danny Boyle, writer Alex Garland and producer Peter Rice, given that none of them even directed this film, that honour went to Nia Dacosta, it indicates the value in IP.
Send Help takes place for the most part on a deserted island, and absolutely could’ve been made for less. The payday for two A-listers in Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien, as well as the legacy of Sam Raimi no doubt made up a large chunk of the budget, with the rest on locations and VFX, after all, a plane has to crash in order to desert them on the island in the first place. Thriller and horror films present a unique opportunity to minimise cast, equipment, and shoot on location, that a lot of other genres simply don’t have. The strength in concept of thrillers like Smile and Weapons when combined with great casting on both accounts, actually seems more like the rule rather than the exception. All of this to say, every movie mentioned here was not only a financial hit, but they were great quality films, beloved by critics and audiences alike (yes, even M3gan), and all with a small marketing budget, thanks to the ever faithful viral marketing. As an aside, IP’s often can’t rely on social media to do the work for them simply due to the fact that audiences have seen the film, and its characters before. M3gan completely took over TikTok, reaching a primary audience of teenagers during the January break, and it was all due to the singing and dancing robot aspects. People honestly enjoy somewhat silly movies during this period, and that’s what Sam Raimi is, as always, able to deliver.
Send Help is as playful as it is biting, reminiscent of The Substance in its sharp analysis of social structures, layered underneath the inordinate filth of its two main characters. Bill Pope’s cinematography is per usual, an absolute joy and he and Raimi bring a creative flair that can’t be matched when it comes to the gory centre of the film. There is such an inappropriate joy to be had in the most violent of Raimi’s filmmaking that only he can produce. There’s a scene in here where Rachel McAdam’s character Linda hunts a boar, and it’s so outrageously brutal that I couldn’t help from smiling the whole way through it, which is kind of a lot for me as a vegetarian. His signature jumpscares are also (unfortunately for me) very present here, including one in a dream sequence that I still find myself annoyed just thinking about it.
The score was done by Danny Elfman, and it feels underutilized for someone of his stature particularly, but it’s possible it just gets lost in the bloody sauce of the film. The story and script together hold the film back from reaching Raimi’s previous heights, but there’s a lot of different aspects to that. The island trope is well overdone and the story is somewhat easy to predict, but given how oversaturated both the trope and the horror genre in general are, the end product is a great achievement. The film was written by duo Mark Swift and Damien Shannon, who did Friday the 13th (2009), Freddy vs Jason and Baywatch (2017). I’m really intrigued by them for…quite obvious reasons. It’s a real list of critical stinkers and Send Help will certainly not be fitting into those boots. Another case for writing for original films.
The relationship between an underappreciated employee and her nepo-baby boss (for lack of a better term), is portrayed quite nicely. It’s a really difficult balance to strike here as many find themselves in Linda’s position but don’t want to relate to her all too much, making Dylan O’Briens Bradley necessarily unlikeable, but not so grating as he is still, the only other character we have. The middle of the film is less favourable in this way, building up tension and rounding out characters in a way that is familiar, and maybe could have been cut down by 10 or so minutes.
Back to the mention of social commentary, it continues to do what so many of the 2020’s great horrors have done, with some great remarks on gluttony, greed and of course, wealth. The ‘hidden’ themes are actually just as militant as the thrills, making for an oddly satiating watch. Bradley’s fiancee’s ring is a recurring symbol throughout the movie, and it is truly just the most obnoxious rock, making what happens to it in the end so humorously satisfying. His camerawork when showing the characters eating, which happens a lot more than you would think in this film, reaches back to The Substance, Dennis Quaid levels of nauseating, and is actually quite important to the heart of the film’s point on greed and power.
Send Help maintains the quality of its recent thriller and horror predecessors on a modest budget, demonstrating the perfect cliche, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Importantly, the core of the film relies on this truth, the 1% are not ‘broke’, so really…what’s another horror about it?