20th Century Studios’ Send Help — opening in theaters on Friday, January 30 — is a psychological survival thriller from director and producer Sam Raimi that tracks the escalating twists and turns that unfold after Linda Liddle (Rachel McAdams), an awkward and overlooked employee at a consulting firm, and her arrogant boss, Bradley Preston (Dylan O’Brien), survive a plane crash and wind up stranded together on a deserted island.
The “rivetingly bonkers” (The Hollywood Reporter) screenplay is by screenwriting duo Damian Shannon and Mark Swift, who pitched it to producer Zainab Azizi, President, Raimi Productions. “When it comes to developing projects with Sam, it’s all about the character,” Azizi said. “When Damian and Mark pitched the idea of Linda Liddle, I knew Sam had to hear it right away.”
Raimi — renowned for his masterful blend of comedy and horror, which includes his signature gonzo visual style — was immediately taken by the story and all its moral ambiguities. “By setting the story on a deserted island with only two people, it allowed Damian and Mark to really get deep with these characters,” Raimi said. “With no one else to interrupt them, it’s easier to lie to each other or try to pull something over on the other.”
In that way, Send Help is “a devilish treat” (Deadline). Indeed, it’s a true-two-hander, with McAdams and O’Brien each showcasing their limitless range as Raimi continually subverts the viewers’ expectations. “When we were developing the script, we always wanted to make sure that we were ahead of the audience,” Azizi said. “Audiences today are so smart, but what Mark and Damian wrote is full of twists and turns and surprises. It’s totally original.”
Raimi added, “We thought it would be really interesting for the audience to go through this transformation of identification. That was one of the unique things about the script, and the actors and I really ran with that. We didn’t know if it had been done before in movies; there’s probably a reason why they don’t do it, because you risk never getting the audience back. So, there were a lot of fears in my head, but the excitement of the possibility of creating something original in that way, if we were successful, far outweighed all my fears.”
Raimi needn’t have worried, as he “knows precisely which buttons to push” (Variety).
“I tried to keep ‘Sam Raimi’ in the box he belongs in, as I was trying to service the script and the characters,” Raimi said. “Yes, when there’s an outrageous moment, that’s where I let ‘Sam’ do his thing and make it a little more outrageous than maybe it should be. But I also wanted to make an entertaining movie. That’s why we’re in this — to give the audience a thrill. I hope the movie stirs people’s imaginations and causes them to talk about ‘what if.’”
