{"id":2847,"date":"2026-02-09T22:42:53","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T22:42:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/?p=2847"},"modified":"2026-02-10T19:53:43","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T19:53:43","slug":"rachel-mcadams-film-send-help-2026-makes-comic-gold-out-of-survivor-and-alone-audition-videos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/index.php\/2026\/02\/09\/rachel-mcadams-film-send-help-2026-makes-comic-gold-out-of-survivor-and-alone-audition-videos\/","title":{"rendered":"Rachel McAdams film “Send Help” (2026) Makes Comic Gold Out of “Survivor” and “Alone” Audition Videos"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

So I saw the new Rachel McAdams star vehicle Send Help<\/em>, directed by no less than Mr. Evil Dead himself, Sam Raimi. It\u2019s way fun. As it\u2019s just released and in cinemas, I\u2019ll avoid spoilers as much as possible. As you can guess from the poster below, this isn’t a film reveling in the quiet moments of domestic despair, ala the much-acclaimed Norwegian film Sentimental Value<\/em> (2025). It’s more like in-your-face Action\/Satire. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It’s not quite as gnarly as it looks.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But here\u2019s a connection that\u2019s worth mentioning: It compares nicely to another Sam Raimi gem, Drag Me to Hell<\/em> (2009), though it is less horror\/more comedy: Both films feature a put-upon young woman in an office environment. In both stories the young woman is urged to go \u201cabove and beyond\u201d the job\u2019s requirements in order to be eligible for a promotion. And in both stories said young woman does not get the promotion she most certainly deserves. But all that is a distraction of sorts\u2014or more accurately, motivation for the action. It\u2019s not really about the job, or whether or not she gets the promotion. The stakes are higher than that. The drama is Life or Death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Still one of my favorite Sam Raimi films.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Most of the action takes place on a small island in the Gulf of Thailand. Since I traveled to Thailand last spring it all looked familiar. It makes for a great movie location, with cliffs and beaches and jungle as backdrop to the survivalist plotline. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Maya Bay, Thailand<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Rachel McAdams plays Linda Liddle, superficially the office goofball but actually the savviest employee for business-sense and numbers-crunching. That doesn\u2019t impress the company\u2019s nepo-baby topdog, Bradley, played well by the actor Dylan O\u2019Brien. He\u2019s a callous creep who has led a pampered life and doesn\u2019t know a thing about survival in the outdoors, while Linda is a survivalist who has auditioned for the TV series\u00a0Survivor<\/em>, but who also seems more suited for the better reality series\u00a0Alone<\/em>, because Linda would excel at the survival tasks but likely fail at the social-maneuvering expected of the\u00a0Survivor<\/em> particpants.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fun fact: No Alone contestant has ever been eaten by a Grizzly Bear.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Although McAdams is known for many roles I have to give a shout-out to one of my favorite comedies of the last decade, Game Night<\/em> (2018). Jesse Plemons as their cop-neighbor who pines for his ex-wife is pure genius, and Rachel McAdams has great chemistry with Jason Bateman. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Great comic film<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Send Help<\/em> isn\u2019t as good as Game Night<\/em> . . . I think. I can\u2019t actually say for sure because I missed the ending! Our theater was evacuated due to fire alarms. I\u2019ll have to finish it later, but it was in the final minutes. Someone\u2019s eye was getting popped out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So I saw the new Rachel McAdams star vehicle Send Help, directed by no less than Mr. Evil Dead himself, Sam Raimi. It\u2019s way fun. As it\u2019s just released and in cinemas, I\u2019ll avoid spoilers as much as possible. As you can … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[311,309,310,307,308,255,1],"tags":[313],"class_list":["post-2847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alone-tv-reality-series","category-drag-me-to-hell-film","category-game-night-film","category-send-help-film","category-rachel-mcadams-films","category-thailand-adventures","category-uncategorized","tag-send-help-2"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2847"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2861,"href":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2847\/revisions\/2861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/williamjcobb.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}