Starting from April 10, everyone can watch the thriller «Drop» on the screens of cinemas in their city. According to the official poster, this movie is from the producers of «Megan» і «A Quiet Place», which includes the names of Jason Blum and Michael Bay, respectively, as well as the director of «Happy Death Day» Christopher Landon. In the review below, we’ll tell you what kind of movie this good company offers us and whether it’s worth spending your time on.
Genre thriller
Director Christopher Landon
Starring Megan Fegi, Brandon Sklenar, Violett Bean, Jacob Robinson, Reed Diamond, Gabriel Ryan Spring, Jeffrey Self, Ed Weeks, Travis Nelson
Premiere movie theaters
Year of release 2025
Website IMDb, official website
Violet, a single mother, raises her 5-year-old son Toby and provides psychological support to needy women who have been through abortion. She finally decides to go on a date after meeting a seemingly nice guy, Henry, online while her younger sister, Jen, looks after the baby.
In a luxurious Chicago restaurant with a picturesque view of the city, Jen is preparing for a pleasant evening, and it seems that nothing can stop it. However, she starts receiving strange messages on her phone with meme pictures, which at first may seem like someone’s silly but harmless pranks. However, soon the obsessive sender clearly demonstrates to the terrified Violet that a killer has entered her house, so she must follow all the instructions that come to her phone if she wants to see her family alive again. Thus, the dream date instantly turns into the worst nightmare in the heroine’s life.
The original title of the film, Drop, refers to the AirDrop technology developed by Apple, which allows data to be transferred wirelessly between Apple devices, albeit over a limited distance. And this, in turn, indicates that the mysterious blackmailer is someone present in the restaurant. But the villain can be anyone — from the pianist to Henry himself, which is why the above poster contains the logical inscription «everyone is under suspicion».
In his films, director and screenwriter Christopher Landon is used to mixing genres, including comedy and horror. In «Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse» (2015), as you might guess, funny coexisted with zombie horror. In «Happy Death Day» (2017) and «Freaky» (2020), respectively, stories about «Groundhog Day» and body swapping coexisted with the good old slasher Although in «Drop» in the best traditions of «Scream» the identity of the antagonist is kept secret until the end, and a dangerous kitchen knife appears in the frame, this time the director is far from maniacal passions and the desire to make the viewer laugh. Only a good, silly waiter can bring a slight smile to your face.
Instead, the creators offer a somewhat more serious approach, adding an obvious social commentary to the story. The terrible situation in which the protagonist finds herself clearly hints at an abusive relationship. In this case, an oppressed woman, for one reason or another, cannot tell others about her problem, and they, in turn, are hardly ready to hear her. The presence of this semantic nuance is confirmed by the dialog that takes place at the beginning of the film between Violet and one of her patients, and the flashback of the heroine’s tragic past.
However, any subtext here is still framed in a rather exciting thriller, so «Drop» — is primarily an entertaining genre movie that copes well with its main tasks. Some of my English-speaking colleagues were not even shy about writethat the film was made according to Hitchcock’s wishes.
At first, however, there are not many reasons to hope for something worthwhile — you are especially bored in the first half hour because you can’t say that something really exciting is happening on the screen. Some scumbag starts blackmailing Violet, and the audience follows the woman’s attempts to figure out the situation without much inspiration. Her confusion is shown with the help of an appropriate soundtrack and a sufficient number of Dutch angles. But no matter how much you clutter up the horizon and make the unfortunate woman’s situation a stalemate, it seems that the film, with only one and a half locations, lacks hooks to hook the viewer.
And also logic, because sometimes it is hard to believe in the realism of what is shown. Firstly, the blackmailers’ plan looks questionable, to put it mildly: with a murderer ready to kill a 5-year-old at any moment, all the dirty work falls on the shoulders of an unprepared, frightened woman. Secondly, someone else would have left such a date within 10 minutes of its start, because seeing a pretty, but completely unbalanced, distracted young lady across from you is clearly not what you expect from a romantic dinner. And thirdly, looking ahead, the murderer himself turns out to be quite a craftsman, which is probably why he was not entrusted with the most important job.
But despite the initial skepticism, the story becomes fascinating, and in the final third, the tension is cranked up to the maximum, and then it becomes absolutely impossible to tear yourself away from the screen. And this is exactly what you expect when watching a thriller.
In general, this is a sane genre sample intended for one viewing, no more. The movie is too long, and there are plenty of nonsensical episodes that make you wonder negatively. But at last, there are no regrets about the time spent in this company. Unlike the two loners here, who tried to find happiness but instead found many problems.