Drop, 2025.
Directed by Christopher Landon.
Starring Meghann Fahy, Brandon Sklenar, Violett Beane, Jacob Robinson, Reed Diamond, Gabrielle Ryan, Jeffery Self, Ed Weeks, Travis Nelson, Fiona Browne, Tara Mae, Stephanie Karam, Saoirse Hayden, Jordon-Dion Scanlon, Ellen Reidy, Benjamin Pelletier, and Michael Shea.
SYNOPSIS:
A widowed mother’s first date in years takes a terrifying turn when she’s bombarded with anonymous threatening messages on her phone during their upscale dinner, leaving her questioning if her charming date is behind the harassment.
To call director Christopher Landon’s Drop absurd, annoying, and unconvincing would be an understatement. For a mystery with a rock-solid premise utilizing apps (DigiDrops) as the anonymous source of instigation, not to mention a single mom, Meghann Fahy’s Violet blackmailed into killing her date Henry (Brandon Sklenar), otherwise her son Toby (Jacob Robinson), being babysat by her sister Jen (Violett Beane) will both be murdered by the masked man who has intruded their home at the command of whoever is observing the date inside a luxurious skyrise restaurant, this is wasted potential.
The first misstep is that, presumably because this is a Blumhouse-associated production, Drop (from a screenplay by Jillian Jacobs and Christopher Roach) is obligated to have trauma shoehorned into Violet’s backstory, resulting in disingenuous concerns considering the lasting effects of domestic abuse and a survivor’s life. Violet has been out of that abusive relationship for roughly 5 years now (the film begins with a prologue teasing what happened, gradually revealing the truth across its running time), which also means she has been away from the dating game for a while. The upside is that she has seemingly built a successful career for herself as a therapist/life coach for other domestic abuse survivors. She also has her first date in ages and would have gone dressed resembling a candy cane if it wasn’t for her sister, Jen.
Henry is apologetically running late to the restaurant, which allows a plethora of characters/suspects to be introduced, ranging from the venue’s piano player, others waiting for their dates, potentially up-to-no-good teenagers, a friendly woman bartender (look, everyone is a suspect in these types of movies), and more including an aspiring standup comedian waiter serving as misplaced comedic relief. However, unpredictability is not one of the film’s strengths, as there are only two possible candidates for who could sensibly be behind this. 90% of Drop is waiting for the other shoe to drop, which becomes tiring.
Violet gives up trying to identify who it could be, surrendering herself to the twisted situation she finds herself in, willing to attempt doing whatever it takes to keep her son and sister alive. She mentions the uneasy drops to Henry, who sympathizes and tries to pinpoint who the prankster could be. However, as soon as it’s made clear to Violet that this is not a prank and that there is real danger (security cameras around the restaurant have been hacked into and an intruder is inside her home, visible on her security feeds from her phone), Henry conveniently becomes an aloof idiot and never brings up the drops again. Even as Violet’s behavior becomes increasingly unsettled, paranoid, and erratic, he knows something is off but bafflingly can’t put two and two together.
If Violet says anything to him, tries to call 911, or makes any gesture for help, her tormentor will know and signal for her child and sister to be killed. The only way out of the situation is to kill Henry. The reason why these people want Henry dead isn’t exciting. What is interesting is that Violet is forced into balancing behaving in an off-putting manner without driving Henry away from the date. Her lies and actions are often ridiculous and unconvincing, even if Meghann Fahy is believably stressed and panicked during this horrifying situation. What also makes this a shame is that, once all is revealed, the final 15 minutes are reasonably tense, even if it also opts for one copout after another, stripping the scenario of its urgency and peril.
Outside of the date costumes and fancy restaurant venue, Drop is also an aesthetically ugly movie, making the disastrous choice of placing gigantic stylized text over the screen whenever Violet’s tormentors text her. It resembles a social media advertisement for a film, putting text and subtitles all over the image desperately to entice the user to turn the sound on and listen. On the rare occasion Violet is alone, there is also a visual touch of slowly erasing her surroundings into a black void to drive home her isolation, which might have been effective if the material here wasn’t overly playful and misguidedly jokey.
Even on a moment to moment basis, Drop is predictable (the cheers and applause from the promo side of the press screening during a table-turning moment was obnoxious, as if they had never seen a movie before or if the average viewer is so indifferent to consuming art that is simple rug-pull is now a genuine surprise), which, again, is a crippling issue considering the film isn’t concerned with its characters and certainly isn’t sincere in its exploration of life after domestic abuse trauma. The drop in quality once the premise is revealed is, unfortunately, steep, marking Christopher Landon’s worst film to date.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association, Critics Choice Association, and Online Film Critics Society. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews and follow my BlueSky or Letterboxd
