{"id":399632,"date":"2026-01-30T23:39:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T23:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/399632\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T23:39:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T23:39:09","slug":"send-help-is-sam-raimis-first-horror-movie-in-years-will-you-be-able-to-take-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/399632\/","title":{"rendered":"Send Help is Sam Raimi\u2019s first horror movie in years. Will you be able to take it?"},"content":{"rendered":"

For die-hards, no horror movie can be too scary. But for you, a wimp, the wrong one can leave you miserable. Never fear, scaredies, because Slate\u2019s Scaredy Scale<\/a> is here to help. We\u2019ve put together a highly scientific and mostly spoiler-free system for rating new horror movies, comparing them with classics along a 10-point scale. And because not everyone is scared by the same things\u2014some viewers can\u2019t stand jump scares, while others are haunted by more psychological terrors or can\u2019t stomach arterial spurts\u2014it breaks down each movie\u2019s scares across three criteria: suspense, spookiness, and gore.<\/p>\n

Dust off your Necronomicons<\/a> and fire up your chainsaws because Sam Raimi is back, baby! The beloved director\u2014best known for his work spanning both the comic book and horror genres, namely the Evil Dead<\/a> and Spider-Man<\/a> trilogies\u2014has returned with Send Help, his first horror film since 2009\u2019s acclaimed Drag Me to Hell<\/a>. The fact that the script was written by Mark Swift and Damian Shannon, the writing duo behind both Freddy vs. Jason<\/a> and 2017\u2019s Baywatch<\/a>, should further tell you that this comeback promises to be both bloody and zany. And so goes Send Help, which follows an overworked and overlooked employee (Rachel McAdams) who butts heads with her fratty nepo baby of a new boss (Dylan O\u2019Brien) as a plane crash leaves them stranded on an island. If Raimi\u2019s r\u00e9sum\u00e9 tells us anything it\u2019s that ticket holders for Send Help are in for a good ride; the film is receiving pretty favorable reviews<\/a> and is already predicted to take the top spot at the box office this weekend. But just how grisly of a ride will that be? Let me give you the 4-1-1 so you won\u2019t have to call 9-1-1.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Photo illustration by Slate. Send Help photos by 20th Century Studios.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019ve seen Drag Me to Hell, then you might be expecting this movie to be a frightfest. But, when it comes to jumps, Send Help strives for quality over quantity: Thankfully, for the anxious among us, the movie isn\u2019t full of nonstop scares, just a few well-placed ones. Still, it\u2019s worth noting that a couple of those tense moments really addled me and my fellow moviegoers. Of course, the plane crash itself is pretty loud (if leavened by some airborne slapstick), but the more intense jolts come later on, as the two workmates find themselves alone with just each other, fighting for survival. After all, an abandoned island can be a dangerous place to be, if not for the island itself, than for the company you keep. The shocks are actually so few and far between that it would be a spoiler to even hint at them, but I can assure you that, though your heart rate will certainly spike here and there, suspense will not be the overriding feeling you\u2019ll have while watching this movie.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Photo illustration by Slate. Send Help photos by 20th Century Studios. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It Might Be the Most Overlooked Deal in Streaming. Now It\u2019s Back for Another Year.
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

We Need to Talk About the Toxic Fans Ruining TV\u2019s Breakout Hit
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

If there\u2019s one thing that\u2019s simply not up for debate, it\u2019s how much Raimi loves to disgust his audience, whether that\u2019s through the more niche revolting details or via the ole classic: vats and vats of blood. Send Help is no different. There are a number of scenes in which crimson geysers burst forth, but perhaps none flow more amply than in a scene that had my audience roaring, when McAdams\u2019 previously meek corporate strategist attempts to hunt a boar. Eyeballs are gouged, knives are wielded, and all that\u2019s to say nothing of the particularly gruesome deaths one would expect in an aviation disaster directed by Raimi. If you\u2019re like me and can tolerate gore but perhaps have a harder time with the Fear Factor school of squick, I\u2019m here to tell you that this movie has plenty of that, too, with vomiting and the kinds of creepy-crawly, high-protein meals that only the truly starving would resort to eating. All of which is to say, if you\u2019re someone who prefers to see bodily liquids stay inside of the human form, maybe you should stay inside and sit this one out.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Photo illustration by Slate. Send Help photos by 20th Century Studios. <\/p>\n

As always, spookiness tends to be the one category where viewers\u2019 mileage most varies, and Send Help will similarly provoke a wide range of outcomes. To be clear: This flick is so fun! Our theater was laughing and cheering at least as much as it was screaming! For most people, the lasting feeling once the credits roll will likely be: Man, what a time! However, if you\u2019re a specific type of person who has some particular phobias, this movie might be a difficult watch for you. In particular, for people who have severe fears of flying, the crash scene is going to be hard to bear, and might stick with you. However, if you\u2019re not as sensitive to this variety of freak accident, the movie really isn\u2019t that spooky at all\u2014it\u2019s mostly an entertaining romp. The only people to whom this story truly serves as a cautionary tale are asshole bosses.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Photo illustration by Slate. Send Help photos by 20th Century Studios.<\/p>\n

Send Help, if you can stomach it, is a delight. It doesn\u2019t take itself seriously at all, has a little something to keep everyone on their toes, and is led by two great performances. With that being said, while Raimi\u2019s latest is the type of movie that\u2019s not all that unnerving generally, it could be deeply disturbing to specific groups of people, like those with aerophobia or who thought Lost was too frightening. I guess it could also be something of a tough watch for smarmy jerks who inherit Fortune 500 companies and mistreat their workers, but they deserve the nightmares.<\/p>\n

Get the best of movies, TV, books, music, and more.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For die-hards, no horror movie can be too scary. But for you, a wimp, the wrong one can…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399633,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[105566,96,12663,2839,149572,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-399632","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-air-safety","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-horror","11":"tag-movies","12":"tag-scaredy-scale","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom","15":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}