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Films about people turning the tables on horrible bosses have become a bit of a sub genre, what with 9 to 5, Working Girl, Swimming with Sharks, Office Space and of course Horrible Bosses too (and of course Horrible Bosses 2). 

Send Help absolutely fits on this list but with a twist. This comes from director Sam Raimi, who used to firmly be known as the guy that made gnarly horror movies after giving us the Evil Dead trilogy. Then he made the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man films and for a new generation of cinema goers he was the family friendly superhero movie guy. In the years since he has fluctuated between these two directorial personas so that now you never quite know which one you are going to get. His latest movie plays on this a bit as the boorish male boss and the put upon female executive end up as the only two survivors, stranded on a desert island after a plane crash. Frankly the way the story plays out you know these two are either going to bonk or go bonkers, and both are hinted at at various turns.

The direction it takes is not a great surprise; the poster kind of makes it obvious what we are getting here and there is a reason why the tag doesn’t say ‘from Sam Raimi, the director of Oz the Great and Powerful and Doctor Strange 2’. It is great fun watching their progress though and there are still nice surprises before the end. 

Rachel McAdams is great in the female role. Sam Raimi worked with her when he inherited the cast of the first Doctor Strange movie for his sequel and he has said that he realised then that he was not able to use her to her full potential. He has given her some good material here though and she nails it. I’m tempted to say she’s never been better but her Regina George remains a genuine cinematic icon. 2004’s double career whammy of Mean Girls and The Notebook is hard to beat in terms of presenting two contrasting calling cards, one serious and one comedic, and here she gets to showcase her skills in both areas. Opposite her is Dylan O’Brien, who while a little more below the cultural radar has had his own moments with things like Love & Monsters and The Outfit. He essayed a good Dan Ackroyd in Jason Reitman’s recent Saturday Night too. He does well as McAdams’s foil but that is totally his role here. 

The film has apparently gone to pains to make the survival aspects are feasible as the reluctant pairing build shelter, fashion tools and find food in their island isolation. It is possible that other aspects are slightly less realistic but it never quite goes over the top. Like all employee revenge movies you wonder how the players will ever be able to go back to normal life after their actions and this handles its denouement well too.

That title asks for someone to come to the aid of those involved but in truth none is needed. In Raimi’s hands, with this cast, they’ve got all they need. The script is written by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift whose last collaboration was the risible 2017 Baywatch movie so maybe the words send help were written on the front of their script for other reasons. In the end though this, in office parlance, has strong synergy and effectively raises the bar, for all involved and for the audience.