#horrors

"Help!" (2025, USA, Canada, UK, Australia, Thailand)

Sam Raimi does not disappoint! I watched the film about two months ago, I think, but the pleasant feelings still warm my soul

This is, of course, a two-actor theater. All the suspense, and indeed the whole story, rests on the shoulders of the duo Rachel McAdams and Dylan O'Brien. If someone had told me that the guy from "The Maze Runner" could deliver such a performance, I wouldn't have believed it, but the guy has grown up [and has already proven it with the film Twinless].

But the queen of the ball here is Rachel McAdams. With her eyes, facial expressions, and body plasticity, she shows how her character — a modest, disrespected, and ignored woman — gradually gains strength, and at the same time unleashes her crazy alter-ego. Watching the power shift in the duo, along with McAdams' character's transformation, is really cool. Perhaps this is her best role of her career

"Help!" is another interpretation of a survival story in extreme conditions on a remote island, but instead of a good-natured Tom Hanks [or any other brave and courageous person] or a group of abandoned children/feral people, here there are essentially two villains, and no one is ready to give in even under threat of death.

I really believe that there are no good characters in this story; they are both bad, and yet you feel some sympathy for both of them alternately. After all, if you are a selfish idiot, it doesn't mean you don't deserve empathy. But still, McAdams' character evokes more emotions, as she is a product of society's attitude, not just born and raised that way.
But neither character evokes full sympathy

The strength of the film "Help!" is that under the genre shell lies a very bold [though not new] statement about the problems of modern society. Moreover, Raimi clearly hints in the finale that everything has only gotten worse [I'm thrilled with the ending]. At the same time, he manages to avoid banal judgments and criticism of capitalism and inequality. His characters are not painted with one color, and the story does not give simple answers. We understand what is bad and what is good, but we experience not the most unambiguous and morally approved emotions

Now I just want even more black comedies from Sam Raimi

#reviews