You know him, you love him, you probably grew up with some of his movies, and now Sam Raimi is back on top with what is, so far, the best Rotten Tomatoes-scored wide-release movie of 2026.
The main responsible for the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man trilogy, Drag Me To Hell, Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, and of course, the Evil Dead series, is back in the horror genre with Send Help, starring Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien. Here’s the synopsis:
It almost sounds like a romcom, but it is certainly not that. And critics love it. Right now, Send Help is the highest critic-scored movie on Rotten Tomatoes this year. Here’s the list, with some fluctuation happening over time, of course:
- Send Help – 94% critic score
- 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple – 93% critic score
- Dead Man’s Wire – 91% critic score
- We Bury the Dead – 86%
- The Rip – 80%
- Primate – 79%
This is notable because it is January, generally thought of as a time when poor movies are dumped into theaters (or on streaming, now, I suppose), which this is not. And it’s also significant that the top two films are both horror movies, when last year Sinners was the top-scoring film of the year, also in the genre. There have been some huge stinkers more akin to January productions, Mercy with a 23%, and Return to Silent Hill with an 18%. Generally speaking, however, this has been a better January than most.
Raimi also made headlines recently, saying that he was A) done with the Spider-Man series as he said the series has now fully moved into a new era that doesn’t need his version to return and B) he would be open to directing a Batman movie in the DCU, a character he tried to tackle in the past but could not get the rights. Fans spammed DCU head James Gunn on social media until he acknowledged that he had heard the statement. But if anything came of this, it would be ages away. Batman: The Brave and the Bold is reportedly still being directed by IT guru Andy Muschietti, and that seems unlikely to change. Another Bat-sequel would be years and years off.
For now, however, who cares? Send Help is arriving this weekend, and that’s clearly worth your time. It may, however, be unseated when NEON ends up releasing another horror film, Leviticus, which it just acquired after Sundance. That has a 100% score…
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Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/paultassi/2026/01/28/sam-raimi-just-released-the-best-rotten-tomatoes-scored-movie-of-2026/
