The name Sam Raimi carries some heavy weight in horror movie circles. The legendary director of the Evil Dead series, Drag Me to Hell, and of course, Spider-Man, needs no introduction. He’s someone that actors consider themselves lucky to get to work with. So, it’s hardly any surprise that Dylan O’Brien and Rachel McAdams bring their absolute A-games to his newest project, Send Help. It’s a good thing that they do, because even though the film has all of Raimi’s trademark gore and wacky violence, it feels like it would very much fall apart if its leads weren’t so darn good.

McAdams plays Linda Liddle, a corporate strategist that is passed over for a promotion when O’Brien’s Bradley Preston takes over his father’s company. Preston is an obnoxious, pampered, rich boy who has little respect for Linda or her work. When the two are in a plane crash and stranded on an island together, however, he has to rely on her and the survival skills she’s studied in order to survive.

As I mentioned, the cornerstone of the movie is the acting. Both McAdams and O’Brien are stellar individually and just unbelievably great together. The duo feels like they could have made any movie good, and Send Help is worth seeing for their performances alone. It certainly helps that the characters are well written and nuanced. A lesser film would have made Linda an unquestioned heroine and Bradley her sniveling, worthless boss. That certainly is the expectation that the movie gives you. Thankfully, that’s not what the film is doing. Both characters are far more than they appear, and there are no heroes here.

The writing and directing are also quite good, though not nearly on the level of the acting. The script is smart and gets the most out of its location. Speaking of which, the island is gorgeous and a very fun locale to explore these characters in. That said, the film isn’t immune to dragging a bit in the middle. It seems like it does the “Bradley tries to survive on his own, fails, and comes crawling back to Linda” bit just a few too many times. Honestly, the movie probably would have been dragged down by those scenes a lot, if O’Brien and McAdams weren’t able to save it.

Still, the cinematography is beautiful, and the action is as exciting as we’ve come to expect from Raimi when it gets going. In particular, the third act is action-packed and absolutely crazy. Even if the rest of the film had been awful, which it isn’t, it would have been worth it to see the last 30 minutes.

If you love Sam Raimi movies, you’ll find plenty to enjoy in Send Help. His style is all over it in the best possible ways. Even the weaknesses of the film, of which there are more than we’re used to from him, are covered by the top-notch acting. It’s not a perfect movie by any stretch of the imagination, but luckily its cast gives it all the help it actually needs.