‘Drop's Director Talks Word Of Mouth Marketing And X-Rated Easter Eggs

Forbes

11-04-2025

Christopher Landon attends the premiere of Universal Pictures' 'Drop' at TCL Chinese Theatre on ... More April 08, 2025 in Hollywood, California.
Happy Death Day director Christopher Landon wants everyone to talk about his latest movie, Drop. As impressive and extensive as the Blumhouse thriller's marketing campaign is, strong word-of-mouth marketing is where the film's financial success lies.
"The first time I saw Drop with an audience was a test screening. I had two test screenings, and we experienced the same thing: very loud reactions, which got everybody excited about the movie," Landon recalls as we chatted in a suite at the Four Seasons Beverly Hills. 'After that, we had a really big world premiere at South by Southwest, and that was the best audience I've ever had. It was like a party, and I felt I had peaked there. We had another screening in LA with Beyond Fest, then at the Overlook Film Festival in New Orleans, Louisiana, and the studio has been showing the movie quite a bit. We've done a college campus screening series, so the idea is that we feel like our best weapon is word of mouth. That's why they've been showing it a lot.'
Thankfully, no one has ruined the film by revealing plot twists and spoilers.
Landon continues, 'I remember when I saw Alien 3, and I saw it with my sister and her dope boyfriend, who stuck his head out of the car window on opening day and screamed, 'She dies at the end.' He was compelled to ruin it for everybody. So many people out there want to ruin it for others, and I hate it.'
Drop stars The White Lotus' Meghann Fahy as Violet, a widowed single mother who heads out on her first date in years. However, her romantic evening with handsome Henry, played by It Ends With Us' Brandon Sklenar, turns terrifying when an unidentified person starts tormenting her with anonymous drops to her phone, instructing her to kill her date. If she fails to comply, everyone she loves will die. Drop lands exclusively in theaters on Friday, April 11, 2025.
An original take on classic genre tropes, Drop is inspired by everything from classic Hitchcock to Wes Craven's Red Eye and 80s tech-infused thrillers like Cloak and Dagger.
"I think my whole career is like a hodgepodge stew of all the movies that I grew up watching," Landon reveals. 'Even when I'm not acutely aware of the influence, it's there. I think it's always present helping to guide me through something, so I would say absolutely.'
While the filmmaker, also known for Freaky and writing five of the Paranormal Activity movies, prefers to play with homages rather than recreate them, he does love to plant Easter eggs.
"I will plant little hidden, weird things that are amusing to me, so there's stuff in the movie that you have to pay close attention to, and if you do, you're going to giggle. I'll give an example," Landon reveals. 'There's a moment when Violet is at the bar by herself in the back half of the movie, and it's a top-down shot from pretty high up, and if you pay attention to the gentleman sitting on the far side of the bar, he's looking at something on his phone that may not be very appropriate for public consumption. That's how I amuse myself.'
(Left to right) Director Christopher Landon and Meghann Fahy on the set of 'Drop.'
The whole premise of Drop is tied to messages being sent to a cell phone, and because technology evolves quickly, he avoids the film dating quickly by thinking outside the box—or device.
"When you watch a movie from the late 90s or early 2000s, you're always like, 'Oh, my God. That's what cell phones looked like? What the f**k?' so you have to deal with it," he says. 'What I wanted to do as quickly as possible was to get away from them, so early on in the movie, we stopped looking at phones, and we started experiencing this sinister dialog between Violet and her tormentor presented on-screen with text. We also wanted to do that in a way that I think is different. It doesn't look like a phone, it doesn't feel like a phone, it feels like a conversation.'
'Those messages are subtly animated and interactive; they change and do different things throughout the movie because I wanted it to be a personality and help reflect the person behind the messages. That's the only way to at least try to preserve the timelessness of a story. Don't stay in something for too long.'
(Left to right) Henry , played by Brandon Sklenar, and Violet, played by Meghann Fahy, dine in ... More 'Drop.'
From the Paranormal Activity franchise to the Happy Death Day movies to Freaky, Drop is the latest of many movies that Landon has made with Jason Blum's Blumhouse Productions. So, why does he keep working with the company over and over again?
"It's down to creative freedom. That's it," the Heart Eyes co-writer explains. 'They are so hands off, but also collaborative, and you get to make the movie you want, as long as you fit it into a certain budget. It's just an enriching experience. How many other places are allowing filmmakers free reign to make the movie they want to make the way they want to make it? I can't really name any that do it quite that way. If anybody keeps returning to the Blumhouse well, it's because of that. It borders on addiction.'
'You go off, and you make something somewhere else, and suddenly, you have a committee of people telling you what to do, what they don't like and do like and all of that stuff, and it completely muddies the creative waters. The other part about what Blumhouse does very well is that they give me notes, it's not like they stay out, but the notes aren't like, 'You have to do them.' The notes are, 'Take it or leave it. It's just a suggestion. See how it feels.' What's also rad about Blumhouse is that you're way more receptive to that kind of a note. I've had producers or studios give me notes, and it wasn't like a polite like, 'Oh, you know, just think about it,' it's like, 'You're doing this note. You're doing this thing,' and you suddenly feel like you're in detention. If you ask me, it's not fun, and it's not very creatively conducive.'
(Left to right) Cara, played by Gabrielle Ryan, and Henry, played by Brandon Sklenar, in 'Drop.'
While Landon has never had a problem attracting talent to any of his projects, he rarely uses big-name players. The closest he has ever come was casting Vince Vaughan in Freaky. However, all of his cast members have a solid track record of work and are picked for their quality, not their status.
"It's deliberate. I don't like the distraction of celebrity because I think it takes you out of a movie," the filmmaker explains. 'There are certain kinds of movies where it's okay. I just saw Minecraft, and of course, you're going to put Jack Black in that movie. It's built for that kind of a thing but when I make something, my goal and my job as a director is investment. It's making the audience believe that this thing is happening, and if you cast the wrong person, and it's purely like, 'Oh, here's a famous person that we got, and maybe it's going to boost our sales,' I think the audience can feel how disingenuous that is.'
'There's also a certain proof in making something that is at least high concept enough so that you don't need celebrity to sell it. We've all seen gigantic movies packed with stars flop, so it's not like it's some magic guarantee. I think it's some assurance to a studio person who's spending a certain amount of money, but when you're making a Blumhouse movie on a Blumhouse budget, you don't have the financial pressure; I think that a lot of other movies have.'
(Left to right) Henry, played by Brandon Sklenar, and Matt, Jeffrey Self, in 'Drop.'
Fahy and Sklenar are Drop's leads and engage throughout with their performances and chemistry; however, Jeffery Self steals scenes left and right as Matt, their server.
"It was so tricky to find the right person for the role. Many of the people I saw either overplayed it and made him really annoying, or they didn't make any choices at all, and he seemed bland," Landon recalls. 'Jeffrey self-taped for the movie. He lives in New York, and I saw his audition. It was one of those where I finished the tape, and I immediately called our casting director and said, 'Done. Stop looking. That's the guy.' It was because he brought a certain kind of adorable charm to the annoying aspect of the character. We've all had that waiter who overshares, is intrusive, comes at the wrong moment, and makes it about them. That's what's so funny about the character, but I also knew that I needed someone who could improvise. All the other roles in the movie, you really can't improvise. He's the only character that gets away with it because he is the movie's comedic relief. Jeffrey, as an actor, is incredibly smart and witty, and he's not like that character at all in person, but when the camera rolled, he would turn this thing on and make everybody laugh.'
Another fun player in the high-concept whodunnit is Ed Weeks, best known for The Mindy Project and LA to Vegas, who plays Phil, the dashing but obsequious restaurant piano player.
"He does it with a certain charm, which I love about Ed. When I was casting that role, many people who came through did smarmy and gross," Landon laughs. "There was still something adorably gross Ed's read in the way that he's hitting on her, playing that lounge lizard vibe; it's also a sad part because he's a functional alcoholic trying to figure it all out and get a date. Ed's great. He's such a good actor."
(Left to right)Cameron Fuller, Christopher Landon, Meghann Fahy, Brandon Sklenar, Bradley Fuller, ... More Michael Bay, and Sam Lerner attend the premiere of Universal Pictures' 'Drop' at TCL Chinese Theatre on April 08, 2025 in Hollywood, California.
Drop plays out in a skyline restaurant with floor-to-ceiling windows and stunning city views. However, it doesn't exist. The entire space was created from scratch, even down to an operating POS system so people could appear to pay for their food and drink. The level of detail is impressive, even down to checking that the name of the restaurant, Palate, didn't already exist.
"Even with that stuff, you definitely have to still go through a clearance process," Landon confirms. "The rules are always all over the place, and it's tough for me to follow because sometimes you can clear something that seems like it would be a problem, but then other times you'll find out, like, 'Oh, we couldn't clear the wallpaper,' and I'm like, 'Wait, you have to clear wallpaper?' It's a real thing. Palate was the restaurant's name from day one, and the clearance Gods said yes, so I took it and ran with it because it was the perfect name. It's got just the right amount of pretentious."
The Drop filmmaker concludes, "The way I describe the restaurant to our production team was, 'This is an A+ view with a like B- menu.' It's one of those restaurants that rests on its visual laurels; it's got the view, so the food doesn't have to be great. Everybody comes here for a special event, and that's about it. Unless you're one character, it's not a restaurant you keep going to. It's okay, you know? That's what these places are typically like."