Drop (2025) – Pick Me Up

Released: 17th April
Seen: 9th August

Every time a new technology comes out, it feels like it’s only a matter of time before the horror genre takes it on and plays with its darker elements. AI brought us M3GAN, mobile phones led straight to the novel Cell by Stephen King. This goes back to VHS’s ending up inspiring things like The Ring, so every new piece of tech can be used in a terrifying way. A pretty perfect piece of technology for this exact situation would be something like the airdrop, a way for someone to just anonymously drop an image or message onto your phone without needing to know your number. They don’t need to know who you are, you just have to be within range and then you can have whatever they want sent to you. Drop takes this idea of a mysterious man sending secret messages to someone and it is pulse-poundingly brilliant.

Drop starts almost quaint, with newly single Violet (Meghann Fahy) on her first date since getting out of an abusive relationship. Her date is with the seemingly charming Henry (Brandon Sklenar), who has booked them a table at a very fancy high-end restaurant. The night is going well at first, Violet occasionally checking up on her son, who is being babysat back at home and having a good time, until Violet starts receiving drops from a mysterious person. At first, they’re just annoying, little memes that suggest she’s in for a bad night, but then they grow worse and worse until the purpose of her night is made apparent… Violet has to kill her date or else the mystery person behind the drops will kill her son.

Drop’s setup is insanely simple, a cat and mouse game where we spend most of the film just working out where the cat is. Its simplicity allows for some very effective tension; the stakes are set quickly and pointedly with no ambiguity. We are shown the man in the house who can and will kill Violet’s child, we’re shown how quickly they can see what she’s doing, and we’re given no wiggle room when it comes to just what has to happen. It sets all these pieces up quickly, in a mere matter of minutes, so that the tension can start rising while we watch Violet try to figure out how to get out of murdering the decent guy she’s just met. That carefully set up tension really lets the film have fun with where it’s steering the ship, what left turns it’s going to take in order to work its way through the scenario that’s been set up.

While the setup for the main story might be simple, the presentation certainly isn’t. Drop takes full advantage of the heightened feeling that the tension brings by throwing in some incredible stylised visual choices. From little things like the way the text messages are presented to how they change the lighting to emphasise certain people, or how they present the interior thoughts of the main character. What could just be a simple little film set in a single location is turned gigantic through an incredibly clever set of choices that give the film a sense of style that pushes it to new heights. It also allows Drop to get more and more outrageous, so when things hit a climax and they want to push things a little further, the visual style choices help make those moments seem believable. It also just keeps things interesting, 95% of the film takes place at a single table in a restaurant, and that could get visually boring pretty quickly, so finding new ways to play with the visuals keeps the audience engaged.

It’s also very helpful that the central performance by Meghann Fahy is captivating and that she has such incredible chemistry with Brendon Sklenar. The two of them are, for the most part, the only two people we spend any real time with and they have to not only present a romantic date where there’s such an obvious connection that it’s easy for them to sit there for an hour together but they also have to go between dealing with traumas, secrets and the undeniable awkwardness that comes with this situation. Meghann has to try and not show her terror to Brendon, but still show it to us. Brendon has to know something is up, but not be sure what and never catch on to how much danger he’s in. They’re both walking on tightropes throughout the film and they both manage to not only keep everything together but have a great mix of highs and lows, each one getting suspicious of the other in believable ways and ultimately making it believable that neither one of them would get the hell out of this date when it’s so clearly going wrong.

Boy, when this date goes wrong, it goes absolutely down to hell, the way that Drop manages to carefully build a nightmare date that gets more and more elaborate and more unnerving, that’s also undeniably compelling should be studied. The script is expertly written, knowing just when to ratchet everything up and when to reveal a new little twist in the tale. What’s wild is that this script is from the same people who wrote Fantasy Island and Truth or Dare, two of the worst films I’ve ever had the displeasure of suffering through so either those were flukes or they just found a foolproof idea because this is the level of stuff they should be doing more of and I really hope they do. It’s also wonderfully directed by Christopher Landon, but the man is responsible for Happy Death Day and Freaky so he’s a horror icon at this point and knows his way around a good scare. Here, he really holds everything together and makes Drop into something truly spectacular.

Drop is just a joyride of a film that starts simple but builds rapidly, dragging the audience along for the ride and having a ton of fun while doing it. It’s brisk and bold and takes a lot of big swings but manages to pull off a pretty impressive first date. It’s a fun thrill ride that delivers everything you hope it would, a good, effective thriller that will keep you guessing right up until the last possible moment.