Send Help, Sam Raimi‘s new film, may have garnered attention for its gripping psychological narrative and tense character dynamics. However, one constant Easter egg from his films, a yellow 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88 — which also showed up in the latest movie — has also drawn attention. Now, in a recent interview, the celebrated filmmaker revealed the personal backstory behind the car.
Sam Raimi tells the story behind yellow car in Send Help and his other movies
While speaking with Cineatomy to promote Send Help, Sam Raimi was asked about the reason behind his inclusion of the yellow 1973 Oldsmobile Delta 88 in his films and its role in his illustrious career.
“That car was my mother’s car in Detroit back in the ’70s,” the Spider-Man filmmaker replied. He recalled realizing that it was the car he could borrow while making Super 8 movies in his youth.
Raimi then shared that his mother gave him and his brother that car when they entered college so that they could use it to ride to the university. He added, “Then, when I made my first feature film [The Evil Dead], I needed a car to put in the film, and the only one I could have access to again was my mother’s car.” Raimi remembered asking his mother if he could put her car in his film, which she agreed to.
He continued, “Then I made the sequel, and it had to be in that because it was established. And I found out after that that it had actually been in all the movies I’d ever made. And I started to just put it in the movies. Because it had always been there. I felt comfortable with it.”
Send Help is currently playing in theaters. In addition to directing the film, Raimi co-produced it with Zainab Azizi. Meanwhile, Damian Shannon and Mark Swift co-wrote the screenplay. Notably, the film holds an impressive certified fresh score of 93% and a robust audience score of 87% on Rotten Tomatoes.
The film’s cast includes Rachel McAdams, Dylan O’Brien, Edyll Ismail, Dennis Haysbert, Xavier Samuel, and Chris Pang, among others.
