‘Drop’ is a Fun but Frustrating Experience [Review]

To start, it’s important to preface my review of the newest Christopher Landon thriller movie, Drop, with an introductory reminder that I am a massive fan of PG-13 self-aware horror, original concepts being told in a conventional storytelling structure and of course, Christopher Landon the filmmaker. I’m pinning this here because I understand the movie I went to see, and I am not coming out of this thing thirsting for blood with a pitchfork in one hand and a torch in the other.

Normally, I’m very open minded and down for whatever when it comes to PG-13 horror, especially when it is released wide. Hell, I gave AfrAId a reasonably positive review, and there’s an 86% chance that the movie was written by a computer program. Ironic, of course, considering the title and subject matter, but I digress. For additional context, I went into Drop excited. Trailer looked good. The performers felt like a breath of fresh air and weren’t the usual suspects who have been in a million of these types of movies, or brand new faces who we have zero history with as an audience. Also, like I mentioned, I’m a massive Christopher Landon fan. I’ve reviewed his work both publicly and been following his career for like twenty years at this point, since I started really following this stuff closely enough to know who he was as a screenwriter, and it’s been awesome seeing him thrive as a filmmaker. More on him shortly though. I want to finish my point. Like I said, I was excited to see Drop in a movie theater with a crowd. I walked in a little bit trepidatious of what to expect, but mostly just ready for some fun. Somehow, I walked out enraged, despondent and confused. Important to note, not entirely the fault of Drop why I felt this way, but it for sure contributed towards it. So, let’s get into it…

Shifting gears back to giving out some flowers, I have to start this by urging those out there to go and check out all of Christopher Landon’s work as both a screenwriter and director. Landon has found a lane in the horror genre that works beautifully for him, and really enhances his skill set. Drop wasn’t written by Landon, like his work as a director usually is, but he is the perfect guy for this type of material. Now, did it work? Let’s hash it out…

Drop

Finally, we made it to the movie itself. Let me set the scene. I sat down in an empty theater at the late showing on opening weekend. I’m thinking, great, this is the perfect way to experience this movie, albeit a little depressing that this would be the prime time to see this movie, especially considering it will probably be out of theaters in less than seven days. An issue we can litigate some other time. Of course, a couple of other people rolled in, and obnoxiously sat like two seats down from me in the theater. So, I got up and moved over about five seats. No offense to them, but I’m not down for that. Luckily, to avoid the dreaded three people in a theater situation, a few more people strolled in as well as a group of girls. Mind you, the movie has already started at this point. Not only do people not care about trailers anymore, but I guess we gave up on the beginning of movies now too. Lucky for them, the beginning of Drop was about as nonessential as it possibly could have been. Lumping the subpar opening credit sequence as part of the uneventful, nonessential opening. There was a couple in front of me who showed up fifteen minutes late to a ninety minute movie, ordered food, and I swear they just finished their meals when the credits rolled. Flat out irresponsible use of money if you ask me.

For those who follow this stuff. The Minecraft movie is in theaters right now as well, and where I went, it might have been playing in three different auditoriums at the same damn time, and it was pandemonium. There were high school kids crawling all over that theater. Pure chaos, and I believe when that chicken fight or whatever started in the Minecraft movie, I could hear the ruckus from afar. I would rather be stripped naked and left for dead in Antarctica than have to sit through that alone. On second thought, it might be the best experience ever cutting it loose with all the fellas? Who knows. I’m glad business is being helped by those tickets and concessions being sold, but I would be lying if I didn’t say part of me died seeing the pandemonium surrounding the Minecraft movie, then hearing the UFC fight going on in a different auditorium. This is a movie theater, damnit! We come to this place for magic, and to laugh, cry and care. We’ve lost our way, and it sucks. Anyways, back to Drop…

Drop is about a widowed mom, Violet, played by Meghann Fahey, who is a domestic abuse survivor and has a cute son named Toby, played by Jacob Robinson. Because lord knows we need more trauma-core movies centered around domestic abuse. Violet has a date with a guy she has been talking to for a few months, and even though she is struggling leaving her son with her sister to go on this date, she ends up going.

The date, Henry, played by Brandon Sklenar, who is to the trauma-core genre what Robert De Niro was for the gangster genre, is a photographer, and has booked a really nice dinner at a high end fine dining restaurant in Chicago. Violet arrives early, mingles with some of the other folk in the restaurant, with the interactions feeling wooden and like you are watching a movie more than ever, and starts to receive some mysterious Air Drop messages on her phone, brushing it off at first, until they keep coming, and keep getting more aggressive. Henry finally shows up, late, unbelievably rude for a first date, and the two of them sit at their beautiful window seat. The messages persist, and hi-jinx ensues, unraveling a deadly situation exactly like the recent Netflix hit with Taron Egerton, Carry-On.

To avoid spoilers, I’ll avoid plot specifics. Generally speaking, when it comes to movies that utilize this conceptual structure, like Carry-On and one of my favorites of all time, Phone Booth with Colin Farrell, the tension comes from the great chemistry between the prey and the predator, to go with great reaction work and the desperation and confusion that comes from it. In Drop, this is all presented as text, there is no voice, and the date is brought into the fold basically immediately. So, it becomes a co-issue, kind of, but not really. Henry is just kind of there. Yes, there were stakes, as you can see in the trailer, this person Air Dropping Violet wants something out of her, and her son and sister are in danger unless she cooperates. Yawn.

To be honest, I know there needs to be a reason for Violet to be forced to participate, as it goes for all movies in this ilk, but I never felt the tension stemming from her family ever actually being in danger, which leads to I just want to solve the mystery of who this Air Dropper is, and that’s basically it…

A Lot Going On in So Little Time

This is a story that could have been told simply by having Violet just being a single mom, going on a date, and then boom a bunch of hi-jinks ensue revolving around a slew of messages she is receiving from a stranger who has to be within fifty feet of her, forcing her to commit a vicious crime, killing her date! But for whatever reason, and I get it kind of if it’s the story the filmmakers are trying to tell, there is a domestic abuse subplot shoehorned into seemingly just give the characters things to talk about, because otherwise, there was absolutely no reason at all to see the opening scene when the now deceased husband is abusing Violet, pointing a gun around and all that crazy stuff. What frustrated me the most about this was that this scene was used for the opening scene in the movie, and that this abusive husband is begging Violet to shoot him, but just before pulling the trigger, cut to credits.

Thank god later on in the movie they went  back to that moment, and we got to see what actually happened. Those people in my theater who missed the beginning were probably like, “wait what on earth is this now?” Or maybe they didn’t at all, because it was completely unnecessary and had nothing to do with anything going on in the situation that has presented itself to Violet in this first date gone totally wrong. I don’t mean to be facetious and inconsiderate to those types of stories centered around domestic abuse, as I believe they are important and can be great work, but it just made absolutely zero sense in a movie like Drop, in my opinion…

The acting was just meh. I mean there’s just no way to sugarcoat it. I thought Reed Diamond was a ton of fun, as he was just gobbling it up and knew exactly what movie he was in. But, I don’t think the same can be said for the rest. I think Meghann Fahey is a phenomenal actress, was nothing short of outstanding in season two of The White Lotus, and seems like a really great stage actress. But, I just didn’t see her as a movie star who could carry a movie like Drop, not yet at least. I believe the same can be said for Brandon Sklenar to an extent. He has the look, great looking guy and can dial it up emotionally, maybe not as much as Fahey is able to, but still can be in the same ballpark, sort of.

With that said, there is something missing there with his movie star screen presence where he was really not bringing much of anything to the table. Was very straight faced, speaking in monotone, and quite frankly boring to watch, for the entirety of the movie. I couldn’t tell if Fahey and Sklenar just didn’t have any chemistry, or if they were just first timers leading a big movie and the lights might have been a little bright. I couldn’t totally tell, but something was off there. Everyone else was okay too, the sister delivered some of the most annoying line deliveries of the year, but that’s attributed to the writing and not her performance. Performance wise she was good. All in all, I’d say the performances didn’t sink the movie, but I can’t imagine anything big will come of it for any of the performers based on this movie alone…

Downshifting from the negative energy that I’m spraying around, I did like some aspects of Drop. The mystery itself was fun and when resolved, paid off big time. I just wished there was more of figuring out what the hell was going on and why this person was harassing Violet to complete a task. I also thought Landon did a really great job with the presentation. Opening credits aside, Drop is a good looking movie, from someone who knows how to make a movie for the big screen. So much of what we see today digitally shot just looks so boring and has no life. Landon won’t be confused for Quentin Tarantino when it comes to visual purists when it comes to film vs. digital, but he is also no slouch in that department, and all of his work looks great, including Drop. I’m glad the folks over at Universal are releasing Drop wide, not that they have a choice, but if Drop makes back its budget and then some, I’d consider that a massive success. Small and steady wins the race. Don’t need one enormous movie, just give us a bunch of modest, mindless movies that we can enjoy, and can do good enough business where ten wins and five losses still keeps the board happy…

A Sad State of Affairs

As you can probably already tell, I walked out of Drop with my head held extremely low. Not only was my favorite theater overrun with the Minecraft’s and the UFC pay-per-views of the world, but the movie I went to see fell flat considering my expectations. It made me think, if Drop was just released on like a Netflix or Paramount+ or any other streamer who wants to pay me for a plug next time, would I have appreciated it more for what it was? Do I go into movie theaters expecting too much now? Even though the horror industry is still booming in the theatrical business, with the slate being consistently robust with something to go see weekly, I find it incredibly depressing that the Minecraft movie is a runaway train at the box office, which I already know has awoken a sleeping giant, where we can expect to see video game movies in hordes. I’d imagine Drop will be a modest success, but it’s hard to justify its existence if going to the movies now is an experience in a different way than it used to be. To quote Rick Pitino, David Lynch and David Fincher aren’t walking through that door anymore. It’s critical now more than ever for genre movies targeted at adults to improve in scale, audacity and overall quality. I really wanted Drop to play like a sleek thriller that you leave and tell everyone to go see, but instead it was just another movie with nothing special about it taking up space at a movie theater. Filler movies are historically no masterpieces, but the hidden gems are fewer and farther between. All of this led me to have a much harsher opinion of Drop than it most likely actually deserved…

All in All

Drop isn’t terrible, it’s fine, but for such a cool concept that has proven to work in the past getting so bogged down in bullshit was unfortunate. There was way too much fat on a movie that needed to be lean and mean. I never felt any real stakes, and the way Violet handled the situation from moment to moment was more frustrating than it was thrilling. It just felt like business as usual. Which sucks because of how highly I think of Landon as a filmmaker. Obviously that won’t change, but I wanted much more. Last thing, tonally speaking, Drop was absolutely all over the place. The seriousness of the domestic abuse stuff, to the outrageous nature of the hostage like situation infused with comedic moments that would be followed by heavy and soulful dialogue seemed like an incorrect recipe. Especially considering the lighthearted ending filled with quips and jokes that just made me angry. To conclude, I would say the tonal inconsistency was the most frustrating aspect, considering there was a potentially really slick concept that if told in a way that was more direct and focused, would have worked moons better, in my opinion. As a supporter of this type of movie, I’m glad Drop is seemingly being received well, so far at least, I just didn’t see it that way…

Wicked Horror Rating: 5.5/10

From Universal Pictures, Drop is playing exclusively in theaters as of April 11th, 2025.