This thriller is bad to the last ‘Drop'

Boston Globe

09-04-2025

Handing her the pistol, the husband dares his wife to shoot him. There's a close up of the woman's bloodied, tear-stained face as she aims the gun.
Suddenly, the screen goes black, and you hear that same woman's voice say 'let's go back a few minutes.'
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This implies that 'Drop' is leading up to that vicious sequence. It is not. The entire film takes place several years later, but its repercussions will be offensively used in an absurd woman-in-peril plot that makes no sense whatsoever. The screenplay by Jillian Jacobs and Chris Roach is so implausible that it makes last year's 'Trap' look reasonable. If you recall, that
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Violett Beane as Jen in Drop, directed by Christopher Landon. (Universal Pictures)
Universal Pictures
As a result of her ordeal, the now-widowed Violet counsels women survivors of domestic violence. Her son, Toby (Jacob Robinson), has grown into a clever lad around 6 or 7 years old; he sends her sweet handwritten notes on a remote controlled vehicle.
Violet also has a great relationship with her sister, Jen (Violett Beane). Jen is babysitting Toby because Violet has a date with Henry (Brandon Sklenar), a man she's been chatting with online for over three months. This will be their first meeting in person. After Jen picks out a sexy red number for her sister to wear, Violet takes an Uber to a fancy restaurant in a Chicago high rise.
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This dining establishment is a jaw-dropping piece of set design, a ritzy extravaganza with a lighted tunnel of a hallway and floor to ceiling windows offering a glorious view of Chicago. The awesome bar, tended by the friendly mixologist Cara (Gabrielle Ryan), is a brightly lit invitation to get blitzed. I don't think we're talking Applebee's prices on the menu here, either.
(from left) Henry (Brandon Sklenar) and Violet (Meghann Fahy) in Drop, directed by Christopher Landon. (Bernard Walsh/Universal Pictures)
Bernard Walsh/Universal Pictures
Violet and Henry barely get to eat dinner. As soon as the couple sits down, Violet starts receiving sinister drops on her phone — a lot of them. These unsolicited messages sent via Bluetooth order her to complete a series of unexplained tasks, then murder Henry. To ensure that the dropper's demands are met, Violet is told to look at her home security cameras. She sees a masked man beating the hell out of Jen and threatening to kill Toby.
If she calls the cops, Toby dies. If she fails to follow instructions, Toby dies. If she tells Henry anything about the drops, Toby dies. You get the idea.
Director Christopher Landon (who made the far better 'Happy Death Day' and 'Freaky') tries to keep things visually interesting by posting the drop messages in large, dramatic letters on the screen while ominous music plays. He fails at that endeavor, but his swooping camerawork is occasionally inspiring.
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Once Violet is engaged in the nefarious plot, 'Drop' becomes a mystery that also has to sustain a first date where one party is acting like a paranoid weirdo. The pressing question is: Who is sending these evil drops to Violet? Is it Matt (Jeffery Self), their overly friendly waiter? Is it the creepy, stern hostess (Sarah McCormack) who grows impatient with Violet's increasingly erratic behavior?
(from left) Cara (Gabrielle Ryan) and Henry (Brandon Sklenar) in Drop, directed by Christopher Landon. (Universal Pictures)
Universal Pictures
Could it be the smarmy piano player who hit on Violet while she was waiting for Henry's late arrival? Or is it the awkward older man (Reed Diamond) who mistakes Violet for his blind date?
Even Henry becomes a suspect, which is ludicrous because the only person on the phone at their table is Violet. But this movie has so little respect for your intelligence that I'd be surprised if it
didn't
try that angle. I figured out who the bad guy was before Henry even showed up, so all I felt was aggravation as the film twisted itself into preposterous plot pretzels before dropping the big reveal.
Just wait until you find out what the villain's plan is. It's so convoluted, and so dependent upon coincidences, that it embarrasses the mindless-but-fun thriller genre.
Meghann Fahy as Violet in Drop, directed by Christopher Landon. (Universal Pictures)
Universal Pictures
The absurd plot twists in 'Drop,' might be tolerable if the film weren't so distastefully tethered to domestic violence. A major point of the villain's manipulation of Violet is that she apparently killed her husband, so the cops will believe that she's able to kill again. Had the film not opened on such a horrific note, I might not have been so repulsed by its dopey shenanigans.
In fact, those gruesome flashbacks weren't even necessary. There's a scene where Violet reveals her past to Henry, and the two swap stories about the events that traumatized them. Fahy and Sklenar are so good in this scene that I wanted more of them engaging with each other on their date. Instead, 'Drop' opts to go for the usual climactic cheap thrills. Unfortunately, the film doesn't earn enough goodwill to pay for them.
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★
DROP
Directed by Christopher Landon. Written by Jillian Jacobs, Chris Roach. Starring Meghann Fahy, Brandon Sklenar, Violett Beane, Jacob Robinson, Gabrielle Ryan, Jeffery Self, Sarah McCormack, Reed Diamond. At AMC Boston Common, Landmark Kendall Square, Alamo Drafthouse Seaport, AMC Causeway, suburbs. 100 min. PG-13 (brutal violence, extreme plot stupidity)
Odie Henderson is the Boston Globe's film critic.