Drop - Review

Drop, the latest film from Christopher Landon, takes a universal event – the dreaded first date, and makes it a heightened reality nightmare. The word Drop is taken from the Airdrop feature on Apple devices, which allows you to share images with another Apple device. This is supposed to be a feature that allows users to easily distribute information without email or text, but in this film, the non-branded function is used as a way of blackmail.

The film follows widowed Violet (Meghann Fahy), who is on her first date, years after the death of her violent and abusive ex. But her life is now on the up, she has a young son, Toby (Jacob Robinson), and works as a therapist for other domestic abuse victims. But, tonight is a leap of faith moment, a chance to step back into the normal world.

Every precaution has been made, her sister Jen (Violett Beane) is coming over to babysit, and Violet has cameras located in every room of the house which she can access on her phone. So Violet heads to a skyline restaurant, to meet Henry (Brandon Sklenar), who she has been in touch with through online dating for a few months. However, as they get to their table, she receives drops with memes warning her this will be the worst night of your life – and it is, as she is told to kill her date, or her son dies. But who could it be, the creepy piano player, the man who bumped into her heading to the table, or a table of tech-savvy teens?

There is a silly, ludicrous nature to Drop. A fun, if heightened premise that takes many a leap to get into the ultimate scenario it wishes its drama to play out. For instance, at one point, a character attempts to cross reference who is on the app with everyone in this expansive restaurant and apparently succeeds. This is just one of the eye-rolling moments of flawed logic the film has. Yet, this doesn’t matter too much, as Drop is a really fun time – especially if you haven’t seen the trailers, which give large swathes of dramatic beats away. In part it is leaning into the ludicrous nature, it is hyper-stylised, with contrasting lighting and bold words appearing on the screen throughout. This is a film just trying to have fun for 90 minutes.

Yet, there is also jeopardy, after you bypass potential loopholes in how the drop feature has been set up, you really feel helpless for Violet. They genuinely feel like there is no way out. She can’t call the police, pass off secret notes or even leave the building – and obviously, she can’t confide in her date. This gives the film more than enough material to strangle the audience’s attention on the screen for 90 minutes of thrills.

However, the single location setting can become a bit suffocating at times – perhaps that is the point. The characters are suspended in the air, it’s a heightened reality, providing further consequences when everything inevitably drops.