The opening scenes of Send Help play like one of those AI-generated clips proliferating online. A bully is tormenting someone well-meaning and ill-equipped to deal with the onslaught. When the tables are turned, the bully is thoroughly humiliated, and their victim comes out on top.

And that’s where the film’s air of predictability evaporates. Once director Sam Raimi’s

enthusiasm for black humour goes to work on this set-up, you’re not sure what’s going to happen next.

At the start, Rachel McAdams’ Linda Liddle, the office nerd with a genius for mathematics, is being verbally abused by Bradley Preston (Dylan O’Brien), her new boss, a loudmouth determined to put her down because she was a favourite of his father, her former boss. Having awarded her promised promotion to a member of the boys’ club who makes up his circle of chief executives, he grudgingly includes her in a business trip to Thailand aboard the company’s plane, but the plane crashes en route, killing everybody aboard except for Bradley and Linda.

They wash up together on a remote island that looks a little like the one that became home to Tom Hanks in Cast Away, but there’s no sign of Wilson, the volleyball that kept him company. Instead, Linda and Bradley must deal with one another as they navigate a radical shift in status.

After treating Bradley’s leg wound, Linda, an avid fan of the TV series Survivor, swiftly rigs up a shelter, secures a supply of drinking water, catches a fish dinner and manages to coax a campfire into being by using two sticks and a lot of friction. After making a feeble attempt to pull rank, Bradley finds that he can do little but lie back and watch her in action.

Raimi, who shot part of the film in Sydney, rejoices in the comedy of exaggeration. Linda’s finest moment comes when she sharpens a stick and goes into battle with a wild boar, emerging blood-soaked and victorious to dump the boar’s severed head beside Bradley on the sand. But the script’s main focus is on Linda and Bradley’s see-sawing relationship – especially when they start being nice to one another. Even though we’re encouraged to conjure with the possibility that romance is in the air, it’s hard to imagine that Bradley could ever be trusted.

And Linda, too, is hiding a few secrets which are gradually revealed as she adapts to her altered circumstances. McAdams brings great verve and humour to the part. Linda, in office mode, is another exercise in exaggeration, dressed up in a beige cardigan, battered lace-ups, and a chronic stoop, all of which highlight the makeover taking place on the island through her delirious discovery of the warrior woman within. The big question is how far she’s going to go with this new version of herself.

O’Brien is also good at ringing the changes. As the two of them sit by the fire one night, exchanging confidences about unhappy episodes in the past, they give every sign of being sincere – something which adds an extra charge to the next inevitable act of betrayal.

There are gaping holes in the plot, which become very obvious by the end, but Raimi has issued an early warning that he’s not out to make sense here. He treats us to a crafty mix of blood, gore and gallows humour featuring two actors inviting us to share in the great time they’re having.

7.5/10 it’s a fun one

Bolu
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Boluwatife Adesina is a media writer and the helmer of the Downtown Review page. He’s probably in a cinema near you.