I was shocked to find out how divided people are on this when I finished watching. This is a great time! Schlocky B horror perfect for Friday night entertainment. At turns horrifying, funny, gross, gory, tense, and yes, extremely silly.
Nobody would compare this to Citizen Kane, but that’s entirely not the point.
Late edit to add: it’s so nice to see Sam Raimi have fun behind the camera again. Dr. Strange made me wonder if he still had it in him. This proves the man was born to make movies like this.
Sam Raimi and Peter Jackson both made B horror before their breakout early-2000s film trilogies. In both cases, their small doses of horror changed how we think about action and adventure movies. I maintain that Spider-Man and Lord of the Rings both demonstrated that the horror genre is an effective training ground for bigger budgets and larger ideas.
Now look at where we are: every breakout auteur proves their mettle by making high-brow horror. The genre continues to reinvent itself, from Heavenly Creatures to Get Out to Hereditary, and now, to Backrooms.
All this to say that it’s nice to see Raimi pick up from where he left off and do what he clearly thinks he’s best at. Send Help oozes confidence and charm, even when it oozes… other things, and it’s a fun Princess Diaries-esque (she just needs to take off her glasses!) rags-to-riches story for people who think Survivor is actually really freaking horrifying.
In other words, I’m very happy this exists, and I would be very happy to watch it again.