Movie Review: 'Drop' is a Pulse Pounding Modern Thriller

Drop

Directed by Christopher Landon

Written by Jillian Jacobs, Chris Roach

Starring Meghann Fahy, Brandon Sklenar, Reed Diamond

Release Date April 11th, 2025

Published April 11th, 2025

Drop stars Meghann Fahy as Violet, a domestic abuse survivor and single mom, dipping her toe back into the dating pool. As you can imagine, this is not an easy decision but her date, Henry (Brandon Sklenar) has proven to be such a nice and caring guy via their dating app messages, she’s willing to give it a try. They’re first date is set for a fancy restaurant at the top of a skyscraper with an awesome view of the Chicago skyline. Romantic right?

Unfortunately, Violet is a character in a thriller so the romance is short lived. After arriving at the restaurant a little before her date, someone clones Violet’s cellphone. Whoever did this begins bombarding Violet with ‘Digi-Drops,’ meme messages that contain text asking her to play a game. After Henry arrives and the two are seated for their dinner, the messages become more insistent and frightening. Eventually a message tells Violet to check her home security cameras.

You can imagine what she sees next. An intruder is in her home with her sister, Jen (Violett Beane) and Violet’s 5 year old son, Toby (Jacob Robinson). The drops tell Violet that she must play along with this disturbing game or her son will be killed. Her instructions are to kill her date with poison that the dropper has hidden in the restaurant. She cannot call police or ask for help because the dropper has access to security cameras and has a vantage point in the restaurant from where he can see every move she makes.

Caught between a rock and a hard place, Violet must find a way to not become a murderer while also protecting her son. Whether she can pull that off is something you will only know if you see this terrifically fun cat and mouse thriller. Drop is an exciting, twisty, fun ride with a terrific lead performance from star Meghann Fahy and exceptional piece of direction from Christopher Landon whose knack for elevating standard genre fare continues to shine with Drop.

Christopher Landon broke through in Hollywood as the director of Happy Death Day and its sequel, Happy Death Day 2 U. Both of those films are tackling different genres from a uniquely skewed angle. In Happy Death Day, a woman is trapped in a Groundhog Day scenario where she is murdered every day only to wake up back at the start of the day to go through it all over again. Essentially, she can only survive by solving her own murder. It’s wildly clever and fun.

In the sequel, our main character enters a sci-fi-time travel story centered on the same idea and once again, Christopher Landon elevates genre conventions with clever twists of logic and stylish direction. Drop is far more conventional than the Happy Death Day films, it’s a straightforward thriller concept. Where Landon elevates the material is in stylishness. With cinematographer Marc Spicer, Landon uses great angles, a moving camera, and smart editing to raise the tension and drop the tension as needed.

When I say drop the tension, I am referring to the film’s sense of humor which is slight but almost perfectly calibrated. Just when the audience needs a moment to breathe, Violet and Henry’s comical waiter, played by comedian Jeffrey Self, will drop by the table. He’s a naturally funny, awkward guy, he’s on his first night as a waiter, and his comedy comes from his odd manner and clumsy, too-eager, energy. Self is a secret MVP in Drop, earning laughs amid the tense standoff between Violet and her unknown correspondent.

Drop is fun, tense, and well crafted. It’s a smartly scripted and well edited thriller that delivers efficient thrills. Christopher Landon continues to prove himself as a mainstream auteur, a smart director working in familiar genres but elevating beyond the confines of mainstream genres via his knack for clever visuals, smart twists, and exceptional eye for casting just the right actors in key roles. I cannot wait to see what Christopher Landon does next, his consistently smart direction is a welcome departure from the sameness of so much modern Hollywood filmmaking.

Find my archive of more than 24 years and more than 2700 movie reviews at SeanattheMovies. Find my modern review archive on my Vocal Profile, linked here. Follow me on Twitter at PodcastSean. Follow the archive blog on Twitter at SeanattheMovies. Also join me on BlueSky, linked here. Listen to me talk about movies on the I Hate Critics Movie Review Podcast. If you have enjoyed what you have read, consider subscribing to my writing here on Vocal. If you’d like to support my writing, you can do so by making a monthly pledge or by leaving a one time tip. Thanks!