Send Help - Sam Raimi between shipwreck and madness in 4K

Sam Raimi returns to having fun with genre cinema, and in Send Help, it's palpable from the very first minutes. The film begins as a venomous satire on the world of work, toxic hierarchies, and those who keep everything running without receiving any recognition, but it quickly changes its skin after a plane crash drags the protagonists into a scenario of extreme survival, flipping their positions.

The true strength of the film lies not so much in the credibility of the plot, which is often over-the-top and full of improbable twists, but in the energy with which Raimi orchestrates the chaos. The director openly embraces the most brazen B-movie spirit: blood, black humor, sudden tension, and deliberately exaggerated characters coexist in a surprisingly effective balance.

A duo that works in disaster

Rachel McAdams carries much of the narrative weight with a very physical and ironic performance, managing to transition from sarcasm to despair without ever breaking the rhythm. Dylan O’Brien responds with a character who is just irritating enough, transforming the relationship between an arrogant boss and an underestimated employee into the engine of the entire film.

The island itself becomes a protagonist, used by Raimi as a wild playground where every natural element can transform into a threat or an opportunity for survival. Send Help is neither a refined nor a particularly subtle film, but it is exactly the kind of dirty, unpredictable, and enjoyable experience one expects from Sam Raimi when he decides to let loose completely.

Digitally shot at variable resolution between 4.6K and 4K (Arri Alexa 35 and iPhone 16 Pro Max), with a native 4K master used for the creation of this splendid HEVC encoding (3840 x 2160/23.97p), on a dual-layer BD-66. The 4K edition shows a clear improvement in definition and color rendition compared to the standard Blu-ray, with more precise details and a richer color palette even in the initial scenes. HDR/Dolby Vision emerges starting from the plane crash and in the island sequences, enhancing skies, water, and vegetation with intense colors and very refined nuances. Some CGI effects and digital backdrops appear more artificial in 4K, but they deliberately contribute to the film's over-the-top aesthetic.

The Dolby Digital Plus 7.1 Italian track is decent (1024 kbps), providing a multichannel listening experience that delivers dialogue, effects, and music with a certain stage presence. The real leap in quality comes with the Dolby True HD 7.1 (24 bit) with ATMOS objects, offering an entertaining spectacle with even more decisive soundtrack elements, greater openness, and dynamic richness.

As extras on the 4K disc, there's an audio commentary for the film by Sam Raimi and producer Zainab Azizi, which is also found on the 2K disc, plus: over an hour of deleted and extended scenes (77'), accompanied by on-set bloopers (6') and various short featurettes dedicated to the making of the film: from the boar hunt sequence (6') to the protagonists' journey from the office to the island (6'), and the transformation of Linda Liddle's character (3'). Also included is a focus on the survival training conducted on set (3') and a special on the music with Danny Elfman (4').