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| Director Christopher Landon |
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| Michael Landon with his son Christopher |
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| director on the set with actress Meghann Fahey |
DROP C USA Ireland (95 mi) 2025 ‘Scope d: Christopher Landon
A modern technology horror thriller, a whodunit for the digital age meshed together with the awkwardness of the bad date genre, mostly taking place at a single location while playing out in real time, it takes advantage of some latest technology that never existed before, developing a peculiar story around this specific product, the file-sharing system AirDrop, a phenomenon introduced by Apple on their iPhones and iPads in 2013, a feature that allows you to share photos, videos, and files with other nearby iPhone users (within 30 feet) without any fuss, with no Internet connection needed, though Bluetooth is required, but if the settings are not adjusted to just your own contacts, unsolicited strangers can also gain access. In this case, that is exactly what the villain is relying upon, hacking into an unsuspecting woman’s system like a virus, literally taking over her life in unexpected ways, all revolving around heavily abusive control issues, exploring how invasive technology can be weaponized, reminiscent of “the call is coming from inside the house” horror scenarios, where she unwittingly sets a trap for herself and then can’t find a way out. In 2024 it was revealed that Chinese hackers had been obtaining access to supposedly private and protected information on people’s iPhones via the AirDrop service for years (Apple AirDrop leaks user data like a sieve. Chinese ...). In the tradition of Fred Walton’s WHEN A STRANGER CALLS (1976), Joel Schumacher’s PHONE BOOTH (2002), Wes Craven’s RED EYE (2005), Jaume Collet-Serra’s more recent CARRY-ON (2024), also his earlier films NON-STOP (2014) and THE COMMUTER (2018), or even as early as Anatole Litvak’s SORRY, WRONG NUMBER (1948), these films create tension around mysterious, threatening phone messages to build suspense. In the event people are curiously interested with their phones and the outlandish things they can do, this film may carry some weight, but for those who find phone technology the bane of our existence, as our obsession with staring at phones has destroyed our social mores and the cultural fabric of our nation, as evidenced by the re-election of a President whose populism is a dangerous sham, something right out of Frank Capra’s MEET JOHN DOE (1941), where that wouldn’t have happened without our narcissistic obsession with phones and social media (Is Technology Really Ruining Teens' Lives? - The New Yorker), this film is a complete waste of time, as it’s little more than a technology-gone-wrong fantasy, perhaps best exemplified by one of the most creatively inventive, Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (1982), as opposed to the more middle of the road, Joseph Kosinski’s TRON: Legacy in 3D at IMAX (2010), which this more closely resembles. Written by Jillian Jacobs and Chris Roach, produced by Michael Bay, whose films tend to be pretentiously over-the-top, while directed by Christopher Landon (son of TV star Michael Landon), a specialist of mixing genres, who was a writer of one of the gay-themed episodes of BOYS LIFE 3 (2000), co-writer on D.J. Caruso’s DISTURBIA (2007), a Hitchcock REAR WINDOW-inspired crime thriller before directing a series of forgettable horror comedies, actually opting out of SCREAM 7 before making this film. Some may find an interesting dynamic developing with one character completely caught down the rabbit hole of a horror thriller while the other is stuck in the bad date genre, edited in a choppy manner, with quick cuts, feeling overly contrived and nonsensical, yet they’re both attempting, mostly unsuccessfully, to cross that divide.
At the center of the picture is Violet (Meghann Fahey from the anthology TV series The White Lotus, 2022 Season Two), a widow whose relationship with her abusive husband opens the movie in a shockingly violent way, a punishingly violent confrontation between a bloodied and dazed Violet and her agitated husband Blake (Michael Shea), where we never learn the source of his anger, but we do learn this is a flashback that ends badly. Scenes of this play out early and again late in the picture, revisiting the scene with additional context, where it actually sets the stage for what follows. But Violet has turned her life around, as she now counsels fellow domestic abuse survivors, and is about to go on her first date since the death of her husband, something she’s obviously very nervous about, having a hard time picking out the right outfit to wear, where her younger sister Jen (Violett Beane), who’s there to babysit her young bespectacled son Toby (Jacob Robinson), urges her to go with a plunging neckline, suggesting getting laid could be the answer to all her problems. Given the gnarly images of the earlier abuse, one suspects we’re in real trouble when this is the kind of glib advice given. After months of texting on a dating app, she has hesitantly agreed to finally meet a professional photographer, Henry (Brandon Sklenar), for dinner at a lavishly upscale penthouse Chicago restaurant at the top of a skyscraper with floor to ceiling windows, sitting at a window table overlooking the illuminated city below. The luxuriousness is almost too perfect for words, as it just exudes exclusivity, created by production designer Susie Cullen in Ireland’s Ardmore Studios just outside Dublin, displaying an opulence that exists only in the movies, the kind of place ordinary people never see. While sitting at the bar waiting for Henry to arrive, Violet meets another nervous man on a blind date, Richard (Reed Diamond), and offers him some encouragement. When they’re finally seated, Henry is charming and relaxed, Drop Movie Clip - Henry Arrives (2025) YouTube (1:06), showing extreme patience and understanding when she continually frets with her phone and makes repeated exits to the ladies room, as she starts to receive creepy AirDrop messages that she initially ignores, but they steadily grow more menacing. Richard is familiar with the technology, believing you have to be within 50 feet to generate the messages, so he helpfully looks around for possible suspects, but finds no one that stands out, Drop Exclusive Movie Clip - We Can Figure This Out (2025) YouTube (47 seconds). However, the evening immediately takes a sharp turn for the worse when the persistent pest tells Violet to check her home security cameras, where she spots a masked intruder with a gun, receiving instructions that if she tells anyone what’s going on, or refuses to comply with what she’s ordered to do, her son and sister will die, Drop (2025) 4K - There's A Killer in Your House | Movieclips YouTube (3:44). That is the premise for the film, as she’s caught between trying to have a good time on a date and having the worst night of her life, spending most of the date away from the table, which is bugged, as is the entire restaurant, where the nightmarish instructions only grow more threatening and controlling, forcing her to do something evil, testing the limits of how far one is willing to go, and whether murder is on the list.
The unpleasantness has only begun, growing weirder and more twisted as things start spiraling out of control, with Violet drawn into this cruel variation on Michael Haneke’s Funny Games (1997), where the key is accentuating the same isolated helplessness she felt from domestic abuse, the same male toxic behavior that is sadistically punishing, as she’s experienced being the victim before, with suspense shrewdly built by concealing the identity of the perpetrator. The chaotic disorientation she feels while on a date is undercut even further by being humiliated by the awkwardness of the circumstances, as she’s surrounded by the picture of lavish extravagance that turns into claustrophobic confinement, where she’s threatened beyond belief, but can’t escape, and can’t tell anyone, though Henry, who remains a perfect gentleman throughout, suspects something is up by how easily distracted she is by the phone, which is constantly interrupting their evening. As she looks around the room, nearly all are glued to their phones, as any number of people come into play, all of whom raise suspicions, from the weirdly off-putting yet eager and energetic waiter Matt (Jeffery Self), the circumspect hostess (Sarah McCormack), the benevolent bartender Cara (Gabrielle Ryan), the in-house lounge pianist Phil (Ed Weeks), the handsome young man who claims to be waiting for his sister (Travis Nelson), a group of high school kids out on prom night, to the bumbling older man nervous about his blind date (Fiona Browne), who unexpectedly walks out on their date, leaving him with a few choice words. The constant interruptions may leave a few exasperated viewers, as we’re continually jolted into sinister territory that grows increasingly preposterous, becoming more luridly threatening, Drop (2025) 4K - Kill Your Date! | Movieclips YouTube (4:29). The problem is there’s very little self-reflection in this film, which means it’s all surface level, which typically doesn’t carry films very far unless it’s an action adventure, which this isn’t until the last few minutes, instead the drama is carried by a continual stream of phone messaging, where watching a woman’s incessant texting, with the words flashing onscreen, is not exactly a picture of excitement, as no one yet has found a way to make texting cinematic, but it feeds into the short attention span of audiences today, with everything spoonfed to you at length so that nothing is left open to interpretation. While it does reflect the modern day obsession with phones, and how frighteningly exposed that leaves us, where our safety is easily compromised, this simply isn’t anything new, with no real revelations to speak of other than the fact there are no end credits. If it was a menacing woman behind the scenes mercilessly carrying out this kind of outlandish scheme, that might have turned some heads, as it’s something we rarely see, as psychopath-driven behavior is typically male. The excitement level is little more than standard fare, Drop (2025) 4K - Mommy vs. Child Killer | Movieclips YouTube (4:39), where watching the pummeling of a woman by a man is not exactly what you sign up for at the movies, but carries an age-old tradition of misogynist behavior, where men are typically the bullies on the block. While domestic violence is conveniently interwoven into the narrative, the movie never addresses this in any substantial way, as opposed to Miia Tervo’s Finnish film 2024 Top Ten List #10 The Missile (Ohjus), for instance, which makes a deep and long-lasting impression, leaving viewers with an emptiness afterwards that just doesn’t sit right.
