Ever since the original Evil Dead, Sam Raimi has been known as a director who puts his cast through a lot. His horror films are not for the squeamish, as they often contain cartoonish levels of blood and gore. His newest film Send Help, starring Rachel McAdams and Dylan O’Brien, is no exception. Although one of the movie’s more brutal scenes apparently wasn’t so bad. Actually, it was delicious.
Send Help sees Rachel McAdams as the overworked and under-appreciated employee of a jerk boss played by Dylan O’Brien. The pair find themselves washed up on an island after a plane crash. Needless to say, things don’t go so well for either of them. The movie does contain the request Raimi floods of fake blood covering the characters, but Rachel McAdams tells Discussing Film that one scene of her near demise was quite tasty. She explained…
I was excited about where I get like almost drowned in a mud puddle, and they said we're going to use brownie mix. We're just gonna put a ton of brownie batter in a hole, and I was like 'That sounds like heaven.'
I mean, if one is going to be nearly drowned, then I can think of worse ways to have it happen than in brownie mix. At least it smells good while somebody is forcing your face into liquid muck and trying to kill you.
Dylan O’Brien goes on to add that “all the things were quite tasty,” and while it’s not entirely clear what “things" he’s referring to, one infers that he’s referring to all the things that looked gross on screen were actually tasty. I don’t know what the fake blood tasted like, but I’ll hand it to the cast for making it all look as disgusting as it appears. It’s all the more impressive if it actually tasted good.
Sam Raimi is at his best when he’s balancing horror and camp. Starting with the Evil Dead trilogy, and moving to other films like the underseen Drag Me To Hell, there’s always been an element of humor balanced with the terror. Send Help is just the latest example of this, and it’s always fun when Raimi plays to his strengths.
Having seen Send Help and being just one of the critics who loved it, in full agreement with CinemaBlend's own review, the near drowning is honestly one of the lighter moments in a movie that has a tendency to go completely off the rails with its violence. Still, it does make that particular moment feel quite different when I realize that Rachel McAdams had her face shoved into brownie mix. When I do that at home, my wife says I ruined dessert.
