Send Help - 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

Have you ever had the worst co-worker or the worst boss in the world who screws you over every chance they get? Now imagine you’re stuck on an island with that person, and you’re the only one capable of keeping them alive. That’s where we find poor Rachel McAdams in Sam Raimi’s diabolically entertaining horror thriller, Send Help. While you and I might just let that other person wither and die, because screw them, she's got a better heart than we do.

As Linda Liddle, McAdams shines in a role that lets the actress show her range, from the socially awkward office worker to the confident survivalist she always dreamed of becoming. Dylan O’Brien gets his own script flipped as the incoming dude-bro Neppo-baby company president Bradley Preston, who goes from running the show to becoming the kind of pitiful wretch he despises. While Linda spent the last several years working her way up the chain to the point she’d earned a promotion to Vice President, Bradley slides into the top chair with no experience and gives his frat-buddy her promotion.

With one chance left to "prove" she deserves her seat at the big table, Linda is brought along for the company’s big merger negotiations in Japan. Partly because she’s the only one who understands the material. But when the private jet crashes into the ocean, the fight for survival begins when Linda and Bradley are the only survivors to wash up on a deserted island. As much as Bradley would hate to admit it, he needs her a whole hell of a lot more than she needs his worthless ass. 

As Riami brilliantly showcases, this island is pure hell for a guy like Bradley and an absolute paradise for Linda. The power dynamics flip on their head, and it’s a gas to watch this uncomfortable pairing become more contentious. It also gets a little bit gross! See, it wouldn’t be a Raimi horror/thriller if there weren’t copious amounts of noxious fluids… and I’ll leave it there. For decades, we cheered at the abuse Raimi could throw at Bruce Campbell in the Evil Dead films, but now we get to see him work with the next generation of actors, and it’s just as gnarly, hilarious, and immensely satisfying to watch them suffer for our enjoyment. 

Catching this film in a packed-house theater was a riot. The laughs, the shrieks, and the groans were a genuine shared cinematic moment. While his output isn’t as aggressive as it used to be, Send Help is proof that Sam Raimi has a true knack for entertaining an audience. While steeped in patented Raimi-style visuals, the film never loses sight of our characters and their little internal machinations. The lines between hero and villain may blur beneath the gallons of viscous fluids, but the story remains true. My lone regret with this one was that I wasn’t able to see it more than once in the theater in 3D - sadly, it doesn’t look like we’ll be getting that on disc. But, it’s still a hell of a lot of fun in 2160p 2D! 

Vital Disc Stats: The 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray 
After a prosperous run in theaters, Send Help washes ashore for physical media collectors with a two-disc 4K UHD + Blu-ray + Digital release from Disney/20th Century. The 4K is pressed on a BD66 disc, with a BD50 reserved for the 1080p and the huge selection of extras. Both discs are housed in a standard two-disc case with identical slipcover art and load to a language selection screen before arriving at an animated main menu with basic navigation options.

While I will die on the niche format ant hill that I wish there were a 3D disc, I will say Send Help comes home with an impressive 2.35:1 Dolby Vision transfer. Checking the specs, I was a little concerned that the bitrate for this disc was hovering in the mid-50mbps range, topping into the 60s - I looked at the Blu-ray, and that runs half as much, even a third at times, so this is certainly the better viewing. It takes a lot to make a woman like Rachel McAdams look unattractive, but the work from the hair and makeup department pulled it off! Clothing, hair styling, and McAdams’ splotchy skin are all on display. The island scenery is nicely detailed as well, right down to individual grains of sand. The Dolby Vision grade is rich but not overly aggressive, giving the film a natural color feel for primaries, skin tones, and the seaside locations. Black levels are nicely deep and inky, with shadows gaining some extra shading for added depth. Clicking back to the included Blu-ray, I felt like that nuance was noticeably missing when I was flipping between discs. My lone little quibble about the transfer is that some of the expansive CGI scene extensions stand out a bit more now. They made better sense and were used to good effect in 3D, but in 2D, I thought they were a little more obvious. Again, that’s a very small quibble against the greater good. 

On the Dolby Atmos front, again, much like the visuals, this is a Sam Raimi movie, and the man loves good sound design. As much as he uses a wild lens to get uncomfortably close to a droplet of tuna, the guy loves to use sound design for shock and impact. That’s how this Atmos mix rolls. There’s plenty of sonic immersion to go around, but there’s so much pinpoint object-specific channel placement that the track is a riot. Take the plane crash sequence, there’s a moment through all of the chaos where the mix goes almost silent and just focuses on silverware tinkling and clanging down the aisle of the plane - and then there’s a mother of a squishy payoff immediately after. Likewise, the boar hunt, a similar vibe of tension building sounds leading to a big, terrifyingly squishy release. Those releases can come from the side, rear, overhead, or smash through the center channels, depending on the gag. Throughout all of the sonic madness, the dialog never falters, and Danny Elfman’s score is as pitch-perfect as ever for a feature like this.

There are times we lament a lack of bonus features and will go on a little diatribe about that or pointedly needle the quality of the extras - this is not one of those times! Send Help is rescued with an excellent trove of bonus content, at just under two hours' worth, not counting the commentary! Now, to be up front, a whopping hour and 15 minutes of that is dedicated to just the Deleted/Extended scenes! Watching through, I can see why these cuts and trims were made; the film needs to move and have a pace, but damn, there’s some wild stuff in here. I don’t think it’s the sort that would have made a “better” film or supply a need for a Director’s Cut, but, at the same time, I think they reinforce how sharp and ready the script was that they had this much content to work with. After that, we have a bunch of short featurettes for various aspects of the film. They’re not long, but at least they’re focused and interesting. And then, there’s nothing like a Raimi commentary, and this one is a hoot as he works with his producer Zainab Azizi. It might not be as active as the Evil Dead II group track, but damn, it’s funny and very informative at the same time.

• Audio Commentary featuring Sam Raimi and Zainab Azizi
• Deleted/Extended Scenes (HD 1:17:32 Total)
• Bradley's Office
• Franklin at Coffee
• Linda in Car
• Airplane Intro
• Plane Scene Version 1 - Storyboards
• Plane Scene with Pre-Vis
• Plane Scene with Stunt-Vis
• Finding Water and Bradley
• High Ridge 1 and Bamboo
• Night of Horror, Day of Hunger
• Boar Scene with Stunt-Vis
• Boar Scene with Pippet
• Waterfall
• Long Goodbye
• Teaching Montage
• Extended Campfire and Bradley Bathing
• Extended Cave
• Walk and Talk and Dinner
• Castration Scene - Storyboard
• Bee Cave
• Franklin Returns
• Audition Tape 
• Send Bloopers (HD 6:21)
• Constructing the Boar Hunt (HD 5:44)
• From the Office to the Island (HD 6:20)
• Becoming Linda Liddle (HD 3:01)
• Survival Instinct (HD 3:18)

More than ever, I think we need more Sam Raimis working in the movies. From early on in his career, he's displayed a knack for storytelling and delivering a visually and sonically arresting feature - but more than that, he delivers fun films that are worth seeing in theaters. Sure, he’s layered in plenty of social commentary with his work, Send Help certainly has plenty of that, but he knows people are dropping their $12 to have two hours of entertainment. This flick delivers that value and then some. Yeah, I’m bummed we’re not seeing a 3D disc to match the wildly exciting theater experience I enjoyed, but hell, this 4K disc proves the show is a riot in all dimensions. Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien are great foils for this particular island misadventure, and their interplay is a lovely dance of slapstick, a little romance, and outright terror. And it looks great in Dolby Vision and sounds awesome in Atmos. The transfer is damn near picture-perfect, and the audio is a ride all its own. Then you come to the trove of interesting and funny extras, making this a full-value release. Highly Recommended.