Send Help: parents' guide
Best for ages 16 and up. Rated R for strong/bloody violence and language.
A gory, darkly funny survival thriller from Sam Raimi for older teens: after a plane crash, an overlooked employee and the arrogant boss who humiliated her are stranded on a deserted island, and the power between them flips. Expect bloody fights with biting, scalping and eye-gouging, a decompression that sucks passengers out of the plane, and a wild boar stabbed repeatedly on screen. There are about 25 f-words, a bare bottom, and drunkenness on homemade wine. The violence escalates sharply late in the film, so we suggest 16.
What's in it
Violence
StrongBloody and escalating: passengers are sucked from a plane, the leads stab, bite, choke and scalp each other, a boar is stabbed to death, and later two people plunge from a cliff and a man is bludgeoned to death.
Language
StrongFrequent: one count found about 25 f-words and 15 s-words, plus motherf----r, c--k, p---y, a--hole and bitch, about ten misuses of God's name, and middle-finger gestures.
Sex and nudity
ModerateA man's bare backside is shown while he bathes, and a woman wears underwear as a swimsuit and poses suggestively with a breast partly exposed. The two huddle for warmth, and a boss's interview questions carry predatory overtones.
Drinking, drugs and smoking
ModerateThe castaways brew fermented toilet wine and get drunk, and one wakes up hungover. Earlier the heroine drinks a bottle of wine alone, and she describes her late husband's alcoholism and fatal drunk-driving crash.
Scary or intense scenes
ModerateA terrifying midair decompression and crash, jump scares, gory corpses, and a deadly cat-and-mouse game between two people who may each kill the other. One character is poisoned and another is paralyzed.
Sensitive topics
- Animal death
- Bullying
Worth talking about
Linda goes from bullied employee to the person holding all the power. Does the film want us to cheer her on, and where does fighting back turn into becoming the bully?
On our lists
Similar picks around 16+
Checked October 13th, 2026 against Common Sense Media, Plugged In, Wikipedia, the MPA, movieguide.org, bbfc.co.uk. The age is our judgment, not an official rating, and every family draws its lines differently: read the notes, not just the number. Spotted something we missed? Tell us. How we rate.