Drop Review
First dates can be killer. Quite literally for widowed mum Violet (Meghan Fahy), the unlucky protagonist of Drop – the latest horror from Christopher Landon (Happy Death Day, Freaky). Unfortunately for Violet, she has much bigger concerns than whether to order the soup or salad. The lives of her hunky photographer date Henry (Brandon Sklenar), her babysitting sister Jen (Violett Beane) and her adorable 5-year-old son Toby (Jacob Robinson) hang in the balance.
It’s been a long road for Violet to even get to this point where she is ready to start dating again. As the prologue demonstrates, Violet was trapped in an abusive marriage with her now-deceased ex-husband, Blake (Michael Shea). What happened to Blake is a mystery, but subsequent flashbacks become clearer later on. After three months of app-chatting with Henry, she finally plucks up the courage for a face-to-face dinner date with him at a swanky restaurant called Palate, which offers guests a fine dining experience on the 38th floor of a high-rise building with spectacular panoramic views of the Chicago skyline.
Soon after Violet arrives, she is bombarded with a series of threatening memes and messages that are being Airdropped to her phone by a stranger within a 50-foot radius of her location in the restaurant. She soon discovers that her anonymous messenger has an accomplice at her house with a gun aimed at her sister and son. If Violet doesn’t do what the texter demands, or if Henry leaves or suspects something is wrong, then her family is dead. So it’s up to Violet to comply with the instructions of her digital puppeteer, all the while trying to figure out how to save her kin from their captors.
Meghann Fahy is perhaps best known for her role as the privileged, blasé housewife Daphne Sullivan in season 2 of The White Lotus. A much-discussed scene of her being told of her husband’s infidelity with her quietly processing that information marks a high point of that season. It is also probably the reason Fahy was cast in Drop. Fahy is a remarkably skilled actress when it comes to wearing multiple and often contradicting emotions on her face. In The White Lotus, she could all at once project heartbreaking devastation, denial, and reluctant acceptance without any dialogue.
In Drop, the role of Violet also requires her character to be a multifaceted multitasker. She has to keep composed for the sake of her family’s safety, all the while conveying the internalised terror of her situation. Fahy’s performance operates on so many levels: psychologically, emotionally, and physically. Her versatile face is saying one thing to Henry, but her eyes are screaming her true feelings of fear and panic to the audience.
The entire film is a 100-minute tightrope act for Violet to walk across. The high stakes are metaphorically visualised by the vertigo-inducing views of the street below her dining table. But there are lines Violet refuses to cross, and she must use her wits to outsmart her tormentor and discover their identity. It’s a skilfully balanced performance from Fahy, who conveys so much nuanced subtext with her body language and eyes.
She also has genuine chemistry with Brandon Sklenar, who is just impossibly perfect as the hopeful suitor, Henry. The real puzzle of this film isn’t the identity of the shady messenger – it’s how the hell this charming, sensitive, funny, and ruggedly handsome man is still single in his thirties. But it’s a minor plot hole grievance one can overlook because Sklenar and Fahy complement each other so well here. Sparks do fly when they make moon eyes at each other.
The joy of Drop is that despite its bougie restaurant setting, it’s not pretending to be something high-end. Director Landon very much leans into the trashiness of the premise and delivers a gripping, stylish, (mostly) one-location thriller that doesn’t overstay its welcome. There’s a bit of everything in the mix: suspense, mystery, dark comedy, romance, and thrills, and the result is one of the most fun nights out you’ll have at the cinema in 2025. So drop what you’re doing right now and go see Drop.
★★★★
In UK cinemas April 11th / Meghann Fahy, Brandon Sklenar, Violett Beane, Reed Diamond, Gabrielle Ryan, Jeffery Self / Dir: Christopher Landon/ Universal Pictures, Blumhouse / 15
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