Sam Raimi has always been a filmmaker most alive at the intersections—where horror meets humor, where mayhem coexists with sincerity, where the familiar becomes strange again. With Send Help, his new survival thriller starring Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien, Raimi leans into that instinct with renewed gusto.
On the red carpet at the film’s Hollywood premiere, he summed up the approach with characteristic simplicity: “We tried to take as original an approach as possible… It’s a lot of old Hollywood traditions just jammed together in a new mash-up.”
For Raimi, the foundation of Send Help is almost deceptively classic. As he put it, the film begins with “the oldest story in the world, two people that didn’t get along and have grievances crash land on a deserted island.” But while the premise echoes Golden Age studio adventures, Raimi twists the dynamic into something far more contemporary. The movie becomes a psychological survival thriller wrapped inside a satirical takedown of office hierarchies—a cocky nepo-boss pitted against his hard-working, socially awkward employee, forced into mutual dependence under the harshest conditions.
And yet, threaded through the suspense is something even older: a shift in power often denied in real life. “The transformation of a more abused character coming into their own and becoming the hero of the piece and not the underdog is an old Hollywood tradition,” Raimi said.
The film, then, becomes a remix—a survival tale where personal reclamation and absurd workplace dynamics coexist on the same deserted island.
Behind the scenes, the chaos was just as carefully engineered. Raimi was effusive about the crews that had to manage the physical deterioration of characters and the unforgiving terrain. “It’s this whole itinerary of things we have to figure out in pre-production,” he explained. “And the actors have to go through that same puzzle on set.” Heat, grime, sweat, and endless continuity puzzles become part of the film’s texture—and part of its charm.
Dylan O’Brien recalls the conditions with a mix of truth and fondness. “It’s hard to work in heat, so good morale is really important,” he said, laughing as he remembered commiserating with McAdams about their experience. “We had such a fun and silly time, such a good vibe… Sam is so silly and funny and sweet. And Rachel’s the best.” Even on their most exhausted days, he added, the set felt like “a late-night sleepover.”
McAdams, now having survived her second cinematic aerial disaster, was asked whether she’d fare better in the world of Red Eye or Send Help. Her answer captured the film’s playful tone perfectly: “Being terrorized on a plane by an evil guy or being terrorized on an island by this guy? I’ll take my chances on the island… I can just hide in the bushes.”
With Send Help hitting theaters on Jan. 30, Sam Raimi seems firmly back in his element—conjuring danger, humor, and catharsis in equal measure. It’s a return not to any one genre, but to the beautiful, chaotic space where he has always belonged.
Courtesy: The Wrap
