Blog Project 2- Gabriel Townsend
Send Help
Send Help! The movie of my choice for our second blog project, is the recently produced Sam Raimi film, Send Help. I chose this film, because it is my latest in-theater watch! It stands out to me because of its rambunctious timeline, as well as the key roles of the actors who partook in filming the movie. Before actually going and seeing it, I found the trailer for this movie on a TikTok video, which took from Fox News.
Directed by Sam Raimi, Send Help is a perfect example of how talented Raimi is when it comes to blending horror, and dark humor. Raimi also directed movies like, " The Evil Dead", as well as "Spider-Man". However, in Send Help, Raimi tends to more of a psychological suspense, with the frenzy my brain was put into after finishing the movie, I can vouch for it. The film follows two survivors stranded after a very catastrophic event, which leaves them both isolated and far away from the outside world. With no signal and very limited resources, the two are faced with several physical dangers around them like wildlife, extreme weather and food resources. As well as the physical struggles, each of them feel seeking dangers with personal fears, secrets and mistrust. Overall, the film focuses on the desperation they each feel, and how it can either bring people together or completely tear them down. Right now the product budget is sitting at around $40 million, and debuted at #1 at the domestic box office, earning around $20 million in its opening weekend.
In comparison to some of Sam Raimi's early horror work, Send Help seems a little more grounded. Regarding jump scares and that supernatural, eery feeling, the tension in this movie really builds with the silence from the stranded survivors. The ongoing conflict between the two builds higher and higher with attempts at killing each other and leaving. I would go as far as to say that the camera work even emphasizes an isolated feeling, the very open landscapes contrast with many close up shots during heated conflict and many other despairs. Amongst the survivor/thriller genre, the film shares similarities with "Cast Away", and "The Shallows". I found these two as good comparisons due to the relation where characters rely on instinct rather than getting outside help.
In this film, I am brought to believe its significance matters because of its societal truth, that is that we as people are connected, however we can be emotionally fragile when connections disappear. This film does a great job with expressing so, especially when confidence is bursted by a collapsed Wi-Fi, GPS and instant text thread. It almost poses a question, can we survive without digital assistance? The target audience seems to be Gen Z viewers. I believe this not only due to statistics, but also because the question that whether or not we as Gen Z can survive without digital assistance, after growing up with smartphones and social media as a daily accompany. The movie generally avoids strong stereotypes, especially since each character deals with many flaws. The mistakes made, feel human rather than over exaggerated, which I believe strengthens some of the message given by the movie.
A core strength in this film, would be the overall pacing. A gradual tension is built throughout, strengthening in one bit, and then easing off in the next bit. Each performance is believable, for example in one bit, Dylan O'brien (Bradley Preston), asks Rachel McAdams (Linda Liddle) to have dinner with her, the feeling is romantic, until it isn't. Bradley Preston spiked Linda Liddle's drink and then shot for the woods, not long before sprinting full speed out to the ocean where he attempted to find other human life, he is quickly presented the strength and resentment the ocean holds near the island they are on. The weakness that has been brought up, is also the pacing. Some viewers really enjoyed it, and some didn't which primarily comes up because they expect non-stop action. Critics have sort of praised Raimi and his return to suspense driven story telling, primarily because of the psychological elements presented, which differ from normal techniques amongst horror. This film is definitely memorable because of its own twist on survival, many critics come to an agreement that the twist is effective and that the film itself is generally different, and viewers have been wanting that.
The engagement on social media has been high! Threads like Instagram and TikTok were buzzing with different discussions about the realism of the scenario at hand. An ongoing meme about, " low battery anxiety" has been surfacing as well, almost proving that a certain nerve was struck with some viewers, likely do to the different feeling of survival genre. I have seen movies like, "Doctor strange" and "Spider Man" in the past, but ever since I have not tuned in. My dad is a big marvel freak, and he has rewatched Doctor strange several times and thinks it's the most unique marvel movie! So I say he enjoys Raimis work.
Amongst my research, I found that Raimi has a deep bag of movie genre. He is a mastermind when it comes down to it, being able to provide us a mental frenzy with suspense, as well as deep synthetic moments on film. In his most recent work, he reminds us that as much as technology connects us, it can also cause some serious social issue.
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