Scheduling kept Bruce Campbell out of Sam Raimi’s Send Help
Rachel McAdams reteamed with Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness director Sam Raimi on the 20th Century Studios horror thriller Send Help, produced and directed by Raimi. McAdams was joined in the cast by Dylan O’Brien (The Maze Runner), Chris Pang (Interior Chinatown), and Dennis Haysbert (24)… but one actor who missed out on the fun was Raimi’s longtime friend Bruce Campbell, who is often given at least a cameo in a Raimi movie.
Speaking with Forbes, Campbell confirmed that Raimi had intended to shoot a scene with him, but couldn’t manage to fit it into the production schedule.
Creative Team
In 2007, it was rumored that Sam Raimi would be producing a fantasy film with a screenplay written by Freddy vs. Jason and Friday the 13th 2009 writers Damian Shannon and Mark Swift. That didn’t pan out, but a decade later Raimi considered directing a Bermuda Triangle project that once had Shannon and Swift working on the script. Again, that didn’t pan out, with Scott Derrickson and more recently Marc Webb picking up the project after Raimi dropped it.
In 2019, it was announced that Raimi would be directing an untitled island horror thriller, working from a script by Shannon and Swift. Then the pandemic hit and Raimi went on to direct Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness… but then he circled back to the island horror thriller, and A Quiet Place writers Scott Beck and Bryan Woods did a rewrite of the script. They previously worked with Raimi on the Adam Driver dinosaur movie 65 and the anthology series 50 States of Fright. They also wrote and executive produced the Stephen King adaptation The Boogeyman for 20th Century Studios.
Filming began in early February 2025, putting the film on track for a January 30th, 2026 theatrical release. It has done well at the box office, earning almost $100 million worldwide, and racked up some good reviews (you can read our 8/10 review HERE). The digital release came along on March 24th.
Survival Horror Thriller
When Send Help was first announced, it was said to be like “Misery meets Cast Away” in tone. Deadline mentioned, “the film is described as a two-hander horror thriller set on an island, falling somewhere between Rob Reiner’s Stephen King adaptation Misery and Robert Zemeckis’ classic Castaway.” The film is a survival horror thriller about two colleagues who become stranded on a deserted island, the only survivors of a plane crash. On the island, they must overcome past grievances and work together to survive, but ultimately, it’s a battle of wills and wits to make it out alive.
Why isn’t Bruce Campbell in Send Help?
Campbell told Forbes, “We were going to shoot one day of golfing — something at a golf club just for a day — and then Sam was like, ‘We can’t. We don’t have time for that. So, just send me some pretty pictures.’ So, it just turned into that.”
As seen in one of the trailers, a picture of Campbell was on the Send Help set, and a painting featuring his likeness can be spotted in the film.
Campbell hadn’t had the chance to watch Send Help by the time Forbes caught up with him, but he was delighted to hear reports of scenes where characters get splattered with blood and vomit. He said, “Vomit. Sam loves vomit … I love it. I’m passing the torch, baby.“
He also explained that Raimi is an expert at splashing fake blood. “You take a 4-inch paint brush, dip it in your container of blood and pull it out and flick it. It makes this great polka dot pattern across your face. It says, ‘Splatter.’ It’s a great little splatter thing … Sam is always the one to throw the first [blood spatter] and he’s really good at it. He knows where the camera is and the point where you can see his hand in the shot, so he’ll know just when to stop. His aim is pretty good, too.“
Send Help is rated R for strong/bloody violence and language. It’s the first R-rated movie Raimi has made since The Gift back in 2000, and it’s pretty awesome, even if Bruce Campbell didn’t have the chance to make it to set.
The post Scheduling kept Bruce Campbell out of Sam Raimi’s Send Help appeared first on JoBlo.