Sam Raimi’s new horror film is an unlikely but welcome Marvel Reunion

If someone asks you what day it is, you should appropriately respond with, “Why, it’s Sam Raimi trailer day!” The cinematic madman who turned the indie movie from hell (“The Evil Dead”) into One of the most consistent horror series of all time He returns to the genre for the first time since 2009’s “Drag Me to Hell” with “Send Help,” and it sounds great. The survival horror thriller, co-written by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift, sees office tensions turn deadly when Linda Ladle (Rachel McAdams) is stranded on a deserted island with her rude younger boss Bradley Preston (Dylan O’Brien). The power dynamics are suddenly switched as Linda revels in survival skills that give her great leverage over her injured employer. And you know it’s a picture of Remy because it’s not long before the characters have a lot of blood on their faces.

“Send Help” feels like you put “Misery,” “Outcast,” and “Sadness Triangle” into a blender, then added a helping of Raimi’s signature black humor to make it feel fresh. There’s even a shot that directly references the original poster for “The Evil Dead.” Raimi has largely stuck to the horror production angle since 2009, with his most recent directorial efforts being the pilot episode of “Ash Vs. Evil Dead” and a few episodes of the “Ash Vs. Evil Dead” series. Quibi’s original anthology series “50 Fears.”Although he let his horror flag fly throughout 2022’s “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” it’s actually great to see Raimi properly return to the genre that made him a giant horror character.

One thing, however, moving on from his brief stint in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is that Rachel McAdams has a more significant role to chew on.

McAdams first entered the MCU in 2016 with Scott Derrickson’s “Doctor Strange” as Christine Palmer, a surgeon for whom Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) has deep feelings. When we check in on her in “The Multiverse of Madness,” Christine has moved on romantically from the Sorcerer SupremeHowever he still admires him as a good friend. McAdams does her best throughout her Marvel appearances despite having little to actually do. Raimi seems to be doing her best to give McAdams a bigger presence amid the universe hopping, but the trailer for “Send Help” puts her firmly in the bloody spotlight.

In some ways, McAdams’s Linda seems like an extension of Christine Brown (Alison Lohman) in Drag Me to Hell: a hard-working female employee who is constantly beaten up by her male co-workers. “As a CEO, I don’t see any value in you,” Bradley told her with a cocky, straight face. Nothing incites cabin fever more than being stranded on a deserted island with the equivalent of a Roman Roy type (Kieran Culkin).

There are plenty of other reasons to be excited about McAdams as the leader of Raimi’s return to horror. It certainly seems like it can play into its own world of comedy and horror as one informs the other. Even with all the footage of Linda swinging a knife at Bradley’s helpless face, I was sold when she delivered a perfect horror movie scream in her car before we even got to the island. With all this pent-up anger and frustration brewing behind closed doors, God only knows how far McAdams will take her anger.

“Send Help” is scheduled to hit theaters nationwide on January 30, 2026.