Surviving the corporate workplace gets savage in the gonzo and fun 'Send Help'

The poster for “Send Help” advertises the movie arsenic from the manager of “The Evil Dead” and “Drag Me to Hell” — and notably not Sam Raimi’s bigger deed “Spider-Man” (or its 2 sequels). No, the benignant of Raimi movie you’re getting present is irreverent, silly and precise bloody: a quality survey that besides features incredibly goofy scares. Written by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift, “Send Help” is simply a gonzo survivalist riff that works arsenic good arsenic it does due to the fact that it features 2 incredibly crippled actors that surf the question of Raimi’s tonal madness with a blend of implicit glee and cautiously honed skill.

And if that poster were to contiguous the prima of “Send Help” successful the aforesaid mode arsenic Raimi, the tagline would work “from the prima of ‘Red Eye’ and ‘Mean Girls,’” due to the fact that Rachel McAdams is afloat successful her horror-comedy mode here. It’s an fantabulous reminder of her range. Co-star Dylan O’Brien besides proves himself erstwhile again to beryllium 1 of the champion actors of his generation: a erstwhile teen heartthrob who present operates much similar a chameleonic quality actor. Both McAdams and O’Brien determination beyond expectations to present highly expressive, astir clownish performances — successful the champion way.

McAdams is astonishingly dowdy arsenic beleaguered firm workhorse Linda Liddle, a “Survivor”-obsessed loser who is passed implicit for a promotion by her slick caller boss, Bradley Preston (O’Brien), a nepo baby. In an effort to play the bully ol’ boys game, she boards a backstage formation to Bangkok with the team, connected which she bangs retired memos portion they laughter astatine her “Survivor” audition tape. One level clang later, the tables are turned, with the injured Bradley present astatine the mercy of Linda and her endurance skills connected a tropical island.

The swap successful the powerfulness dynamic thrills Linda, calling to caput Ruben Östlund’s “Triangle of Sadness,” specifically the narration betwixt Dolly de Leon and Harris Dickinson. But “Send Help” is much of a intelligence exploration than overt people satire, though it does research the ridiculous conception of what it would beryllium similar to beryllium stranded connected an land with your boss.

McAdams and O’Brien present astir silent-film epoch acting with their faces (there’s 1 bravura agelong changeable of O’Brien eating a bug that’s perfectly virtuosic) and Raimi’s camera playfully pushes the assemblage around, offering exaggerated tilts and close-ups, screaming: Look astatine this. There’s nary subtlety, but would you expect that from the manager of the “Evil Dead” movies? You’re conscionable waiting for the ghouls and humor geysers to popular out. We don’t travel to a Raimi movie for its earthy realism.

If there’s immoderate flaw to “Send Help,” it’s that it generates specified nuance and empathy for some Linda and Bradley, adjacent wrong specified outlandish circumstances and style, that it feels intolerable to basal for conscionable 1 of them to travel retired connected top. The movie paints itself into specified a country erstwhile it comes to their struggle that immoderate ending would consciousness excessively clean, excessively pat. As it stands, the ending is conscionable that. But it’s to Raimi and the actors’ recognition that they negociate to marque specified an odious quality arsenic Bradley really sympathetic — and truthful wide a heroine arsenic Linda analyzable and thorny. Nothing’s cleanable but “Send Help” is simply a blast nevertheless.