Sam Raimi: Stephen King "gave [him] his chance" after supporting The Evil Dead

Sam Raimi is bringing a brand-new story to screens this weekend with Send Help, and it’s already received immense praise from critics, being his best-reviewed movie since Spider-Man 2. Raimi said he owed a lot to Stephen King, who saw his directorial debut when it began making the rounds at the Cannes Film Festival in 1982 and "gave us a great review in Twilight Zone magazine." "Well, nobody would touch Evil Dead with a ten-foot plague pole," Raimi recalled.

"And I was so honored because he was my giantest, largest hero, still is. He's a tremendous influence." When Send Help was announced it was described as a hybrid of Misery and Cast Away, but Raimi said he avoided those references during development. "I thought, ‘I’d rather not have those references,'" he explained, and he "consciously didn’t watch" the films again, working with the writers "to take it in opposite directions" so it "wouldn’t have that moniker." You can see if Send Help is an island unto itself now that it’s in theaters.