The fantasy of getting back at a bad boss comes to life in Send Help, the new psychological thriller starring Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien.
The film, directed by Sam Raimi, follows a woman (McAdams) and her sexist boss (O’Brien), who become stranded on a deserted island after a plane crash — where things quickly get dark (and bloody). It’s a return to the horror(ish) genre for Raimi after nearly two decades away, and sees McAdams break away from her perception as “America’s all-pro sweetheart,” according to Raimi.
“Rachel was a great choice because she’s never gone [this dark] before and she really knows how to, and yet she can do comedy brilliantly,” the director told The Hollywood Reporter at the L.A. premiere on Wednesday. “There’s a very tough woman there who usually just shows off her beauty, her great skills as an actress, her feminine side, but not the monster within. And fortunately, all actors and actresses have monsters within them to bring out; I know from personal experience.”
The story also has some real-life Hollywood workplace trauma baked in, as co-writer Mark Swift noted how he was “an assistant at a law firm, I was an assistant at a movie studio, and I had very tough bosses. I lived in a cubicle and I often fantasized about turning the tables; I’m not saying I conceived [the movie] when I was in a cubicle, but I had the emotional trauma to fantasize about being on a deserted island with my boss.”
Raimi added that although he’s had mostly good bosses, his producer Zainab Azizi would tell stories about working at one of the major Hollywood agencies: “She’s explaining how mean the office situation can be, and how the guys take work from the ladies sometimes and go for the credit, and the newcomer is left behind bewildered and her work was just stolen,” which echoes the dynamic in the film. Azizi herself joked, “There are a couple of lines in there that [McAdams’ character] Linda says that I’ve said before.”
O’Brien said he was drawn to the film for it being both a “campy gore-fest” but also “this amazing humor” as the two colleagues face off on the island. McAdams teased, “I just loved how twisted it got. If I’m being honest I liked how demented it was and that it really pushed the envelope in terms of human behavior — what happens when the training wheels are off and there’s no rules and no one around to tell you you can’t do it this way? You can’t torture your boss, who says?”
Send Help hits theaters on Jan. 30.
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