Send Help’s Writers Still Can’t Believe They Got Away With Some of the Dark Horror [Exclusive]

Directed by genre legend Sam Raimi and written by Mark Swift and Damian Shannon (Freddy vs. Jason, 2009’s Friday the 13^th), new hit horror Send Help follows socially awkward, but brilliant, Linda Little (Rachel McAdams). She’s having a rough life. At her strategy and planning job, Linda is underappreciated and undervalued by the smug new CEO, Bradley. He even gives the promotion Linda deserves to one of his golf bros. But when a freak plane crash strands Linda and Bradley alone on a deserted island, the power dynamics begin to shift. An injured Bradley learns who is now in charge… and that he may not be going home anytime soon.

Swift and Shannon spoke to ComicBook and revealed they couldn’t believe that some of their ideas were being greenlit, let alone ending up in the final film. Warning: This article constains SPOILERS for Send Help:

Swift: “We thought we were getting away with a lot. Sam loved all of it. Sometimes we would have meetings with a lot of people and a bit of violence would be brought up. There would be three people laughing, namely me, Damian and Sam. We would just be cackling. I honestly think 20^th Century and Disney should be applauded for making a movie like this. This is something studios don’t always do. It’s risky material. It’s wild material and I hope the movie finds an audience, that they are rewarded for their faith and doing something unusual that embraces a wild tone and something the audience hasn’t seen in a while.”

Shannon: “For me, it was the castration scene… the surprises involved in that scene, and the way we designed it, and the fact that through Bob Murawski’s editing, the acting and Sam’s directing and Danny Elfman’s music… It worked so perfectly. We could never have hoped for it to work as perfect as it does. And the reaction is always such a treat to us. Those are our flowers right now, when we sit in the audience and watch that scene. The air goes out of the room and it is just a wonderful thing to witness.” 

The writers also spoke about meshing horror and comedy, collaborating with Sam Raimi, Linda’s unhinged antics, that curveball twist and their upcoming reimagining of 1978’s Magic. In addition, they revisit the Freddy vs. Jason showdown and their undeveloped Friday the 13^th sequel. The rest of the interview follows in full:

ComicBook: How rewarding has it been to see audiences and critics embrace an original IP like Send Help?

Mark Swift: It’s a little surprising, honestly. Sometimes these movies don’t get attention from critics. We were pleasantly surprised. Somebody sent me this morning a rave from the New York Times. It was their critic’s pick. I was a little stunned. We are overwhelmed and thrilled with it.

Damian Shannon: We wrote this thing crazy and with the first audience in mind, which is ourselves. If we entertain ourselves, that’s the only thing we can do and know how to do. And, so, you never know until it gets out there in the mix. We had no idea how it was going to be received. We knew we loved it. We know that Sam absolutely killed it. But then whatever could happen, happens. It’s a real surprise and we are filled with gratitude.

What inspired the script for Send Help? Did you have a boss from Hell? A disastrous plane ride? Were you simply watching Survivor and went, “Oh wait. What if…?” 

Swift: All those things, Damian and I have both toiled in tough jobs. I have worked in a cubicle. I have worked in a law firm with man tough bosses. I have worked in a studio system. But really, it was born out of our love of Sam Raimi. He had fallen in love with a couple of our other scripts that did not get made, so we had the opportunity to pitch him something new. We sort of retooled an old idea, but re-spun it for Sam, specifically. What we wanted to do was mix tones because that is what we love to do and what Sam is so great at. We wanted to mix laughs with gasps, with horror and thrills, and just give the audience a little bit of everything. That was out goal. 

Speaking of Sam Raimi, how big of a pinch me moment was it when he became attached as director?

Shannon: Incredible. This was a project that came together pretty quickly in terms of actually putting the pitch together and later writing it. For some reason, it was incredibly fast. But we put this pitch together in a day and a half. Then, Zainab Azizi, the producer who brought us in to pitch Sam, who was a big fan of a screenplay we wrote and Sam was interested in directing for a while… We go there and we pitch Sam and he is pretty engaged.

We are just not used to that because there are people who are standoffish when you are in a pitch. They don’t want to show you how they are feeling. Sam was leaning in. He had a lot of physical actions. We couldn’t believe it. At the end of the pitch, he said, “I am going to direct this.” It flipped our wigs. We couldn’t believe what was happening. They tell you not to meet your heroes but for us, it was the complete opposite. We met him. He was great to us. This experience has been incredible. It’s been a collaboration like no other and a dream come true creatively. 

When you think about your Freddy vs Jason, director Ronny Yu’s fingerprints are all over it. What about Send Help screams Sam Raimi?

Swift: It’s the same thing. For us, Freddy vs Jason is an action-horror-comedy. Those are really hard to pull off. Believe it or not, it was Damian and I pushing to get Ronny Yu hired for that movie because we were such fans of his work and we knew he was great at balancing tone. That’s exactly what we wanted with Sam. We are experts in his films and we wanted to give Sam slow pitches over the plate that we knew he would hit it out of the park. And he did. The reason why, also, that it all came together is we had two actors who were brilliant at balancing tone. Rachel McAdams is so adept at drama and comedy. So is Dylan O’Brien. They can do both and sometimes in the same scene. That’s why Damian and I really loved writing this thing and they all pulled it off perfectly. 

Shannon: Yeah, we got really lucky that the studio cast Rachel and Dylan because I can’t picture another two people nailing this. Their chemistry is electric. This movie, besides Sam’s directing, really relies on what they do because it’s just two people in this movie and their reactions and how they ground something so crazy. There are some scenes in here that ground you to their characters in an emotional way and they have to be able to pull that off. I think they do it beautifully. It’s a showcase for both actors.

This was definitely against type for Rachel McAdams. Fans are used to this poised beautiful actress that can do anything. But here she is with no makeup, in the mud, getting down and dirty. She just kills it.

Swift: It’s incredible how many people already have come up to us and say,” We think this is the greatest role of her career.” To even hear that… We are so happy for her and we feel really lucky to have gotten her because she is the nicest person in the world. Damian and I always asked ourselves about the perfect person… “Could you picture them hunting a boar?” If the answers is, “No,” then you are on the right track. But to have Rachel McAdams doing those thing, it’s so far from anything that she’s ever done. I think it’s a real treat for the audience.

Shannon: She told us personally that this was the most fun she’s ever had on our set. She got to do things she would never get to do. That is a really exciting thing for us. 

Swift: She might have had less fun when they were pouring 20 gallons of blood on her face, when Sam was spraying her.

Shannon: But she also said that it was incredibly cathartic and that primal scream… She doesn’t get to do that in her movies. She did like that, too. That’s what she told us… That she loved the experience. 

People joke that you probably cackled as you were banging out this script. Was there a sequence that you were surprised made it to the screen?

Swift: All of it. And I am not trying to be facetious. We thought we were getting away with a lot. Sam loved all of it. Sometimes we would have meetings with a lot of people and a bit of violence would be brought up. There would be three people laughing, namely me, Damian and Sam. We would just be cackling. I honestly think 20^th Century and Disney should be applauded for making a movie like this. This is something studios don’t always do. It’s risky material. It’s wild material and I hope the movie finds an audience, that they are rewarded for their faith and doing something unusual that embraces a wild tone and something the audience hasn’t seen in a while.

Shannon: And an original IP at this budget range. Obviously, we have some big actors and a huge name in Sam, but we need more of these movies. It’s getting harder and harder to sell them, but if you get the right material, it’s always worth the risk.

Linda puking in Bradley’s face repeatedly elicited laughter. Since you sat in multiple screenings, was there a scene that you were happy with the audience’s reaction or that made you giddy that the audience got?

Swift: Again, you bring up the vomit as a perfect example. We have seen this movie play with an audience at least 10 times. Every time it’s a combination of laughter and squeamishness. It’s gratifying that they embraced it the way we hoped. The movie is full of those scenes.

Shannon: For me, it was the castration scene. It was a centerpiece. Put a spoiler on this. I won’t go into it but the surprises involved in that scene, and the way we designed it, and the fact that through Bob Murawski’s editing, the acting and Sam’s directing and Danny Elfman’s music… It worked so perfectly. We could never have hoped for it to work as perfect as it does. And the reaction is always such a treat to us. Those are our flowers right now, when we sit in the audience and watch that scene. The air goes out of the room and it is just a wonderful thing to witness. 

Shannon: And that scene is a real showcase for Rachel. I think it’s six pages of dialogue and I don’t think she missed a word. She really is incredible. 

There’s plenty of twists and turns. At one point, Linda encounters two other people on the island… and very bad things happen. In your opinion, was that the moment she crosses the line?

Swift: I think that’s for the audience to decide. I would say there’s a moment earlier where she, and I don’t want to give spoilers, but when she raises her hand to perhaps call at something and then her hand comes down. Perhaps that was the first moment. Or perhaps even earlier than that with leaving Bradley on the beach for more than a day. Perhaps that was the moment. I think some people are going to be on Linda’s side. Some people will question her. But it was really exciting for us to write a woman, I’ll say of a certain age, playing an anti-hero, which doesn’t come around too often. We hope Linda Little becomes part of a cultural conversation about characters like that. We certainly fell in love with her and to see Rachel bring her to life was amazing for us. 

Linda essentially holds Bradley hostage. She does some awful things. And Linda is slightly wackadoodle. Should audiences be rooting for her? How challenging was it balance likeability and unpredictability, without her becoming too unhinged?

Swift: One of the things we came up with early in this story was that challenge. Let’s create this character, where we just beat the shit out of her for the first act and we get the audience to fall in love with her and completely empathize with her. And then see how long we can hold them, no matter what crazy shit she does. That’s something we pitched Sam immediately. Of course, the idea that maybe now we start tilting towards Bradley. We hear why he’s like who he is. This idea of who am I rooting for made Sam excited. And it made us incredibly excited. That was probably the main challenge we took when writing this thing, was that balance you are talking about. 

Then, at the end of the day, we leave it to the audience. It’s none of our business. We are not going to choose who you root for. We are going to make it complicated for you. We are going to make it muddy, but if you cast somebody who is incredibly likeable, we are going to get away with a lot. Because they chose Rachel, I often ask the audience during these screenings, “How many people here think Linda Little is a hero?” It’s either hero, anti-hero or villain. I’ll tell you what. Mostly they say hero, which is very surprising to me, but that’s none of my business. I love to see it.

Shannon: I would add to that one of the most important lines in the film is when Linda is talking to Bradley and she says, “Monsters aren’t born. They are created.” She is saying that to Bradley, but consciously she’s also saying it to herself and to the audience. At the end of the day, we don’t judge Linda but if she is a monster, she was made that way by the system that she is trapped in, by the relationship that she had in her backstory and by her boss. I think a lot of people can relate to being on the bottom. This is also a movie about haves and have nots, people on the top and people on the bottom. If you can relate to that and you believe she did some monstrous things, maybe you will think she was made that way.

The twist ending takes a big swing. How did you land on that and what kind of opportunities did it present the characters?

Swift: I will say that ending was always there from the pitch. Damian and I actually got on our feet and we pitched that match cut, which I don’t want to give away. But it was so exciting for us because we feel it’s an ending you don’t see a lot in movies. We’ve seen it play with a lot of audiences and we get a lot of shock and thrill and satisfaction. In a way, it’s a brave ending and the studio embraced it and the actors embraced it and Sam embraced it. We all pulled it off, but we will see what the audience thinks going forward. But the ones I have seen it with love it. 

Looking ahead, before Chucky there was Fats. Magic is your next project. Is it a remake? Is it a reboot? Is it a sequel? What’s your take on it?

Swift: We are not going to reveal too much. I will say it’s not a straight remake. We are doing what we think William Goldman would do if he were around right now. William Goldman is the original writer of the book and the movie. But we do have a fresh take on it. I think fans of that original movie will be extremely happy in the direction that we are going. Unlike Send Help, it’s going to be more straight scares and more straight horror. We are really excited about it.

Shannon: Absolutely. I feel like it’s a more modern version with some big differences. We don’t want to say too much, but we just turned in a draft to Sam. He’s going to read it very soon and we are excited to see what he thinks. We dig it. We are down with it. It may not have all the laughs that Send Help does, but it has some really fucked up moments.

You guys penned Freddy vs Jason. When you look at that ending, it could have gone the Clue route. Here’s one way it could have happened. Here’s another… But this is how it really happened. What kind of conversations did you have over who would come out on top?

Swift: It’s interesting that you say that because we probably wrote 10 endings and shot at least three. It was difficult. The ending we always wanted was sort of a Rorschach Test for the audiences. We wanted the Jason fans to feel that he won. We wanted the Freddy fans to feel that he won. The way it landed, we were satisfied. To us, it always seemed like Jason won the battle, but perhaps the war is not over, that Freddy is still around. We were happy with the ending, but yeah, it was a challenge and also a lot of fun.

Shannon: We also made sure to give each of them a moment of winning throughout the movie. I feel that balancing act was very difficult. Those fans are serious, man. Both sides. Jason fans were really hating on Freddy and otherwise. That was a lot of damn fun for us. 

You weren’t done with Jason. You also wrote the 2009 Friday the 13^thremake. It culminated with leaving audiences wanting more. Had you penned a script for the sequel? Did you know where you wanted to take those movies?

Swift: Yes, we wrote a sequel for Friday the 13^th. And we sold it. It was going to be made but, ultimately, Jason has gotten into rights issues. We had an extended opening sequence in the winter, with a frozen Crystal Lake. That is one of those screenplays that never got out there because we always dreamed of getting it made some day. We will see. But we were very happy with the sequel. There were bigger kills. They were crazier. Everyone loved it but it just never got made.

Shannon: That would have been number 13. It would have been Friday the 13^th Part 13. We had big ambitions for it. I think it was called The Death of Jason Voorhees. Camp Blood: The Death of Jason Voorhees. We had a really awesome zipline kill that I always loved. 

Swift: We reopened the camp again. We hadn’t seen the camp reopen in many years. We brought a couple of returning characters back. We were excited about it.

Would it have picked up with Jared Padalecki and Amanda Righetti’s sibling characters, Clay and Whitney?

Swift: You find out what happens to them at the very beginning. I gotta tell you. If you wanted to see them alive, you might be disappointed.

What made winter the perfect season for a Friday the 13^th sequel and in what ways would that snowy setting have informed the kills, if at all?

Swift: Quite simply, winter has never been done in the Friday the 13^th franchise and we’ve always dreamed about it. We want to see visible breath coming through the holes in the hockey mask. We want to see red blood drips in pristine white snow. We want Jason to jab a long sharp icicle through a camp counselor’s eye. In the opening scene, Crystal Lake is frozen solid. Two naughty teens go out onto the frozen ice to play hockey. The puck slides… and stops right on top of what appears to be a dead girl under the ice. It’s Whitney from our last chapter. Then on the shoreline, they see an imposing figure who looks like he wants to join them. Only he isn’t holding a hockey stick. It’s a machete.

Considering Jason “dies” in every chapter, how would the film have earned the Death of Jason Voorhees tagline? Did you have something final planned for our mask-wearing slasher?

Swift: I don’t want to spoil what happens to Jason in the end. But yes, it was called Camp Blood: The Death of Jason Voorhees.

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