It’s hard not to root for Linda Liddle, Rachel McAdams’s corporate striver turned deserted island survivor in Sam Raimi’s devilishly sharp film Send Help.
Even Raimi, as he reached into his bag of tricks for his return to horror, couldn’t help himself. “I mean, Sam always loves to root for the underdog,” says Zainab Azizi, Send Help’s producer.
For most of the horror film, we’re on her side, too. We want Linda to get the promotion she deserves, and we hate her boss, Bradley Preston (Dylan O’Brien), who was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. We delight in the fact that, when the two are trapped on a deserted island together, she is thriving and he is hapless.
But then, as the film’s plot twists take a darker turn, the story’s true themes start to emerge.
For McAdams, that was half the fun. “I love those moments when you think you’ve landed on solid ground, and then suddenly the rug is pulled out from under you,” she tells The National. “I loved that this movie had a few of those, when suddenly you feel sick to your stomach.”
Warning: this article contains spoilers
So let’s get into it. Throughout their time on the island, Linda does not just enjoy living off nature – she also slowly grows to love having power over her boss.
She becomes more manipulative, playing mind games and banning him from exploring the side of the island where she once saw a ship pass by.
At first, this appears to be about preventing their rescue. But the truth runs deeper than that.
We discover, along with Bradley, that Linda murdered his fiancée and a local guide who came to save them. We then learn that the forbidden area contains a luxurious house – carefully maintained and regularly stocked with food by visiting staff.
Linda ultimately kills Bradley, before the film cuts to the future, where she is seen on a golf course, being interviewed as the heroic woman who survived a plane crash. Her time on the island has never been discovered.
Azizi states plainly what this really means in the eyes of director Raimi.
“Power can corrupt you, and ultimately, it does corrupt Linda,” she says. “There’s a saying – if you can’t beat them, join them. She ultimately becomes the monster that she hates at the beginning of the film. As we find, she is a golfing pro, she’s her own boss, and she’s our anti-hero.”
McAdams adds: “She’s turned rotten, you know? It’s such a rollercoaster.”
By the end, as a viewer, you first celebrate the fact that she “got away with it”, McAdams says. But the more you think about it, the more discomfort you feel – and that’s precisely the point, she adds.
While Raimi intended the audience to feel unease with the resolution, it was also important that viewers question their reaction, rather than simply turning against Linda.
That’s why, during the writing phase, the ending was actually made less bleak than earlier drafts, Azizi reveals.
“We wanted to make sure she was still somewhat redeemable. And I know the story goes full crazy in the third act, but we didn’t want her to get too dark in the halfway point.
“Some of the earlier versions of the script had a much more sinister twist in terms of Linda, and that’s where we took it back a little bit,” she continues.
They weren’t only concerned with the audience’s emotional state by the end, however. A constant debate during filming involved staying ahead of viewer expectations – even down to the smallest details.
“Sam always references ‘Timmy’,” explains O’Brien, referring to Raimi’s imaginary audience member. Raimi would often do an impression of Timmy on set, wondering about small details such as what happened to Linda’s bird, Sweetie.
“Sam kept saying there’s always that one member of the audience who can’t enjoy the movie because they don’t know what happened to the bird,” McAdams adds. That is why Sweetie appears alive and well at the end.
“But wait, who was looking after Sweetie?” O’Brien jokes.
Even casting played a role in shaping audience expectations, Azizi explains.
“It was so exciting working with Rachel McAdams. Especially as a millennial – you know her as Regina George in Mean Girls or Allie Hamilton in The Notebook. So it was fascinating to see her blossom into this dark character,” she says.
Send Help is in cinemas now across the UAE
