There’s an art to the single-location thriller, and most films fail to master it. Ramping up the stakes, keeping the tension high, and refusing to insult the audience’s intelligence are tough to balance. Drop, Christopher Landon’s silly and mildly exciting film about a first date from Hell, is held together by the performance of The White Lotus breakout Meghann Fahy, but it doesn’t fully embrace the premise’s campiness until too late.
Fahy stars as Violet, a single mother just putting herself back out there after years off the dating market. We can understand why. We’re introduced to her in flashback, beaten and bloodied by her ex-husband who nearly kills their newborn son. Violet and the child survive the ordeal, but she’s been content being a mother to him and leading a support group for other survivors of domestic violence.
Brandon Sklenar, once again as the nice guy to an abused love interest as he was in It Ends with Us, plays Henry. He met Violet on the apps and has been chatting her up for months. Finally convincing her to meet him in person, they’re booked for a swanky dinner in a high-rise restaurant. Violet is super awkward, but Henry is easy to talk to, handsome, and understanding of her situation. Then the drops begin. Airdrops, intrusive digital files sent to her phone that tease something ominous. They’re easy enough to ignore until they tell Violet to check her security cameras. If she doesn’t follow instructions to the letter, a masked man in her home will kill her son and sister Jen (Violett Beane) who is playing babysitter for the night.
Landon is at his best when directing from his own screenplays, as he does with the wildly popular horror comedies Happy Death Day and Freaky. Unfortunately, Drop doesn’t feature his words and the lack of humor is noticeable. That’s not to say there isn’t any; the chatty, oversharing waiter (Jeffrey Self) is worth a few chuckles but the film moves too slowly to be so serious. The pacing leaves you time to analyze everything that doesn’t make a lot of sense, such as Henry’s ability to tolerate Violet’s flaky treatment. She’s constantly gone from the table, ignoring him to look at her phone, and making oddball requests for no apparent reason. Everybody wants to make a good first impression, and clearly Henry is a good dude, but it just doesn’t ring as true that he’d stick around for so much drama.
It’s Fahy’s performance as Violet that keeps us engaged and entertained. As a survivor of abuse experiencing a familiar loss of control, Violet is forced to keep Henry interested while fearing for her family and doing as she’s commanded, all while projecting an air of normalcy. There’s a surprising amount of depth to Violet that Fahy makes a full meal from, and one hopes it leads to her getting more roles that show off her talent.
Drop finally gets its act together in the final stretch. The fast-paced, over-the-top finale fully embraces the outrageousness and self-aware comedy that it could’ve been all along, something akin to the recent Netflix thriller, Carry-On. While you won’t be looking for a full commitment when it’s over, Drop is a date worth going on at least once.
Universal Pictures opens Drop in theaters on April 11th.
