Posted in: 20th Century Studios, Movies | Tagged: 20th century studios, sam raimi, Send Help

Send Help Director on Making Sure the Film Was Shown in Theaters

The director of the new horror film Send Help explains that the film was always meant to have a theatrical release.

Sam Raimi's new film Send Help is already making noise at the box office, but it apparently came very close to skipping theaters altogether. As of now, the darkly funny survival thriller, which premiered in late January, has earned around $54 million worldwide on a reported $40 million budget, giving 20th Century Studios a modest early-year hit and Raimi another crowd-pleasing horror outing. However, when speaking to The Wrap, Raimi described the uphill battle to keep Send Help in cinemas rather than sending it straight to streaming, as the project faced pandemic-related hurdles.

Raimi tells the outlet, "We tried to get financing different ways, but then COVID hit, and the studio, at the time, said, 'We can't make this as a theatrical film. We could make it as a lower-budget, controlled streaming film." He then elaborated, "I don't mean to be a snob, but I'm designing this as an audience experience. I wanted the interaction of the theater to make it work, because I know that flavor, and I need that. I design my movies to play upon the audience in the theater. I really do. I think it's a different approach you take."

Raimi ultimately took the project to 20th Century Studios, who embraced the oddball tone and backed a theatrical rollout. That gamble appears to be paying off. Reviews have repeatedly praised Rachel McAdams for one of the most memorable genre performances of her career and praised the film's escalating tension between Linda and Bradley, even when the third act gets especially wild.

Send Help Synopsis and Official Cast

Send Help follows Linda Liddle, played by McAdams, a stressed and overlooked strategist at a New York financial firm, who ends up stranded on a remote island after a company plane crash with her obnoxious new CEO, Bradley, played by Dylan O'Brien. What starts as a straightforward survival setup quickly mutates into a vicious power struggle, as Linda's long-dismissed skills and simmering resentment collide with Bradley's arrogance and desperation. Outside of its core duo, the film also stars Edyll Ismail, Xavier Samuel, Chris Pang, and Dennis Haysbert.

With word-of-mouth building and early box office numbers holding steady, at least Send Help is proving to be the kind of communal horror experience Raimi was fighting for in the first place.

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