Sam Raimi, how we’ve missed you. One of the greatest filmmakers in the game has been, well, mostly out of the game for a good while. Raimi, the legend behind The Evil Dead, and the original run of Spider-Man movies, took a near-decade-long break after 2013’s Oz The Great And Powerful, before finally returning to the director’s chair with Doctor Strange In The Multiverse Of Madness in 2022 – a Marvel movie that leaned into his trademark kinetic horror traits. But now, he’s back with his first non-franchise film – and first horror film – since 2009’s cult favourite Drag Me To Hell, a long-long-long-awaited return to a genre that few else can do better. Buckle up (quite literally) for Send Help – here’s the trailer.
There are definite echoes to Drag Me To Hell here, with Rachel McAdams’ Linda finding herself unfairly maligned in a working environment by the strictures of those around her. Rather than falling prey to a terrible curse, she is instead cursed in another way – caught up in a plane crash on a deserted island with her nightmare boss, Dylan O’Brien’s Bradley. Cue a tale of survival that looks to be studded with all the jolts and barbed gags that Raimi has made his trademark for decades. Send Help is described as a “darkly comedic psychological thriller”, and looks to have a particularly committed performance from McAdams – who also starred for Raimi in Multiverse Of Madness.
Fingers crossed we’re in for another rollocking Raimi rollercoaster – we’ll find out when Send Help hits cinemas, courtesy of 20th Century Studios, on 30 January. Hopefully it kicks off a groovy new year.
