Sam Raimi is a filmmaker who is known for doing horror comedies. Often, his works incorporate some kind of supernatural elements. His signature work is The Evil Dead (1981). That film and its sequels put him into cult status. He achieved mainstream success with Spider-Man (2002) and its sequels, which weren't horror films but possessed some body horror elements, as well as the ridiculous and over-the-top action that he usually embraces. Recently, he did Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022), which is probably the closest to a big-budget, superhero, horror comedy, other than something like The New Mutants (2020).
Raimi shines at more moderately budget horror comedies. His last was Drag Me to Hell (2009), which was rather fun. Yet, even that film incorporated some kind of supernatural elements. This film doesn't have any supernatural stuff, which is odd for Raimi. It probably has something to do with the fact that he didn't write the screenplay here. Raimi didn't write The Gift (2000), which he also directed, but that one still had supernatural elements to it. This film has ridiculous and over-the-top actions that are quite frankly silly rather than scary, but without that supernatural element, this film feels less like a Raimi film. However, Raimi has directed rather straightforward films like The Quick and the Dead (1995) and For the Love of the Game (1999). Those two films though weren't well received at the time of their releases and were seen as box office bombs.
Rachel McAdams (The Notebook and Mean Girls) stars as Linda Liddle, an office worker who has been employed at a financial services company for seven years. She specifically works in the Planning & Strategy department. She's very much a numbers girl. She could be confused for being a nerdy accountant and she in fact is confused for that. She's hoping though to get a promotion at the company and become Vice President. The founder of the company passes away and the job of CEO is given to the founder's son. That son, unfortunately, is very much a frat bro who wants to promote a fellow fraternity brother to Vice President. This frat bro only seems to appreciate people who are young and charming, as well as those who are more concerned with their looks than their work. Linda doesn't care much about her appearance. She's very frumpy and wears glasses in order to underscore her perceived unattractiveness.
Dylan O'Brien (The Maze Runner and Teen Wolf) co-stars as Bradley Preston, the aforementioned, new CEO who is probably 15 years younger than Linda, but he's now her boss. He doesn't value her work. He seems to think that being a CEO is only about having good-looking people around him and playing golf, while generally living a pampered and jet-setting life. He's superficial and vain. He looks down on Linda in disgust and he's not above mocking her, even when she's in earshot. He's a jerk, an entitled one at that. When he takes her along on a private plane to some company event, the plane crashes with Bradley and Linda being the only survivors who wash up on a deserted island, somewhere in the Gulf of Thailand. The power dynamic changes and Bradley can no longer be an entitled jerk and look down on Linda. He has to respect her because she is revealed to be a nature girl who has a wealth of survival skills that he lacks.
The film goes from Office Space (1999) to The Blue Lagoon (1980), combining both into a film that fits into a trend of films that have risen over the past decade, particularly since the Oscar-winning Parasite (2019). The easy comparison would have to be the Oscar-nominated Triangle of Sadness (2022), which involves wealthy people and poor people being stranded on an island and the power dynamic shifting, resulting in deadly consequences. Yes, this is a horror comedy, so having the wealthy people be so villainous or evil is expected. As such, the path this film takes is obvious. Parasite did a better job of depicting the wealthy people with more nuance and not as simply cartoonish in their evil.
By the end though, I wasn't quite sure what Linda wanted or what she expected would happen. There's an implication that she's in love with Bradley. However, there's never an explanation as to why she would be in love with him. Other than seeing him naked at one point and him being young and having a nice body, her obsession with him makes no sense or is never truly explained. It is established that her being stranded on a deserted island is not a nightmare for her. She actually thrives in the situation. However, her wanting to spend time on that island with Bradley, willingly, is never validated. It seems as if the film wanted to be The Blue Lagoon meets Misery (1990), except we skip over the part where the woman is a fan of the man and we land on her simply wanting to punish him. Yet, it's not really about her punishing him. It seems as if she'd be fine if he actually fell in love with her, but, it's revealed that she knows there's a ticking clock, so it's not clear what her endgame is.
Rated R for strong, bloody violence and language.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 53 mins.
In theaters.