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Dylan O'Brien plays the most horrible of horrible bosses in new horror-comedy Send Help – but he would've been a little softer around the edges if it was solely up to director Sam Raimi.
Fortunately for O'Brien (and we viewers, too), the Evil Dead helmer wasn't a workplace jerk. He took the actor's suggestion on board of making Bradley, the grinning, golf-obsessed guy Rachel McAdams's dowdy assistant has to answer to, even nastier. Though he admits it took him a while to be fully convinced...
"Dylan and I had disagreements about how dark his character could be in the office," Raimi tells GamesRadar+. "I would say to him, 'Dylan, remember, we're going to do this unusual thing where we're going to have the audience stop identifying with her, and I want them to identify with you at this point? We're gonna reveal things. We're going to have actions take place that will make that happen. But I'm afraid if you push it as hard as you are, we're going to have trouble getting back.'
"He said, 'But that's what makes it worth it.' And I said, 'Okay, let's try it. Let's try it as hard as you're talking about, and we'll see what happens.' And he was right. It was only worth it by going that far – to come back and be surprised that we're now almost rooting for Dylan's character," he continues. "So, yeah, it was a game of puppets and strings to play the audience a little bit. And [Dylan] wasn't afraid to go all the way to the edge. He was gung-ho, he loved this job."
Written by Damian Shannon and Mark Swift (Freddy vs Jason), Send Help sees O'Brien's Bradley take over his father's company, following the latter's sudden death. Great news for Bradley's lazy office bestie Donovan (Xavier Samuel), less so for McAdams' hard-grafter Linda, who was promised a big promotion by the recently deceased.
When Donovan gets given the gig, Linda kicks off, and Bradley has no choice but to bring her along for an upcoming business trip. But when the company plane crash lands in the Gulf of Thailand, the sparring pair find themselves on a remote island – and Bradley becomes dependent on Survivor-mad, slightly unhinged Linda.
"I love that. I love that. I don't know that we're ever heroes…" O'Brien laughs, when we commend the movie's ability to portray Bradley as both hero and villain. "But yeah, it was a fun game, and it was really freeing. I just don't think that, like, a flawed character necessarily equates to unlikability. I love watching flawed characters, so I guess I just don't understand that conversation, that sort of takes place behind the scenes. Sometimes people can be, like, a little scared of that. I don't know, I feel like all my favorite characters in my favorite movies are flawed."
Send Help is out in US cinemas now, and will be released in the UK on February 5. For more, check out our guide to all the upcoming horror movies heading our way.
