Sam Raimi Returns to R Ratings After Over 20 Years With Send Help

If you like your horror with a side of workplace drama and marooned-on-a-deserted-island panic, you might want to keep an eye on Send Help – the next movie from Sam Raimi. (Yes, that Sam Raimi. It's been way too long since he made anything with a hard R, and this is finally breaking that streak.)

The Setup: Raimi Goes R-Rated (Again!)

Raimi, who lately has been more PG-13 than not—seriously, even Drag Me to Hell wasn’t rated R—hasn’t had a full-on R-rated movie since The Gift in 2000. That changes with Send Help, which the MPA just stamped with an R for 'strong/bloody violence and language'. In other words, it sounds like classic Raimi is back.

The Cast: McAdams, O'Brien, and a Crash Landing

Here's the rundown:

• Rachel McAdams – plays Linda, the classic 'competent but underestimated' employee. McAdams seems like a perfect fit for this, especially considering she went toe-to-toe with Cillian Murphy in Red Eye all those years ago.
• Dylan O'Brien – he's been cast, and while exact details are still under wraps, odds are good he's Linda's nightmare boss (see below).
• Chris Pang & Dennis Haysbert – also aboard, but we probably won't see much of them if the crash premise is to be believed. (R.I.P. fellow passengers?)

The Story: 'Misery' with Coconuts?

So what's Send Help about? At its core, it's a two-hander horror-thriller set on a deserted island. Imagine Misery mashed together with Cast Away: only two survivors after a business-plane crash, forced to rely on each other—at least, until things get ugly.

The plot follows Linda, the highly capable (but totally overlooked) underling, and her infuriating, misogynistic boss Bradley. They're stranded. She's got survival skills and he...really doesn't. If you’re getting flashbacks to any story where the most miserable person at work suddenly becomes the key to survival, you’re not alone.

Here’s how one recent scoop put it:

For the trivia-minded: Sandra Bullock was actually considered for Linda at one point. Honestly, I can see it, but I’m glad we got McAdams instead.

The Creative Team: A Script That Refused to Die

The road to Send Help actually started back in 2007. Raimi almost produced a fantasy movie from Damian Shannon and Mark Swift (the writers behind Freddy vs. Jason), then again circled an island thriller script from the same duo a decade later. The idea changed hands—Scott Derrickson, Marc Webb, and more—until Raimi finally came back for another shot at 'island horror’, this time with a rewrite from Scott Beck and Bryan Woods. If those names sound familiar, they’re behind the A Quiet Place script and worked with Raimi on the sci-fi oddity 65 (dinosaurs! Adam Driver!).

Beck and Woods also delivered the Stephen King adaptation The Boogeyman, so they know their way around dark, claustrophobic stories. And in case you’re wondering: Zainab Azizi, Raimi Productions’ president, is producing with him.

Timeline Check

Fast facts for those keeping score:

• Filming kicked off in early February 2024.
• The release date is already set: January 30, 2026—in theaters.
• That gives Raimi plenty of time to make things as 'really outrageous' (his words) and bloody as promised.

Final Thoughts

To recap: Sam Raimi’s back in R-rated horror territory for the first time in over two decades, Rachel McAdams is getting to flex her survivalist muscles, and it sounds like a wild—possibly darkly funny—take on the office-from-hell genre, but with more sand and sharp objects. Sign me up.

Anyone else excited to see just how 'outrageous' Raimi can make a deserted island horror movie?