First dates can be a special brand of horror for those embarking on them. Everything from choosing the right outfit to opening up to someone new can cause great anxiety. It is this sense of fear and vulnerability that director Christopher Landon’s latest film Drop attempts to exploit for thrills.
Primarily set within the confines of a fancy restaurant, Drop follows single mother Violet (Meghann Fahy) as she endures what turns out to be the date from hell. Still haunted by the trauma inflicted by her abusive ex-husband, Violet is apprehensive about dipping her toes back into romantic waters. Convinced by her sister Jen (Violett Beane), who has volunteered to babysit her son Toby (Jacob Robinson), to give herself some grace to have fun, the widowed mother agrees to finally meet Henry (Brandon Sklenar), a photographer who she has been messaging with online for three months.
Unfortunately for Violet, her evening takes a dark turn before the candles of love can be properly lit. Shortly after arriving at the restaurant, she begins receiving strange Airdropped messages on her iPhone. Initially brushing off the meme-based messages, she has no choice but to take them seriously when she discovers that Toby and Jen’s lives are in danger. A masked intruder is in her house and will kill her family if she does not follow the instructions being sent to her.
Complicating matters is the fact that the mysterious message sender wants her to steal an SD card that is in Henry’s camera. Caught between a rock and a hard place, Violet must convey the façade of being on a normal date, without letting anyone know about her family’s predicament, while searching for the puppet master in the restaurant pulling the deadly strings.
Deciphering who the culprit is will not be that difficult for anyone who has watched at least one Hallmark mystery film. Drop feels more akin to cozy mystery than a taut one-location thriller. It is the type of story where the body count is low, and every injured individual has a high percentage for survival simply because the protagonist tells them “you’re going to be alright.”
While the meet-cute romantic elements offer a refreshing amount of comedic beats to the film, with actor Jeffery Self stealing scenes as a waiter with aspirations of being an actor, it comes at the cost of any sort of character development that would enhance the thrills.
Landon’s film never lets the audience learn anything about the central characters outside of their current predicament. Violet is defined by the trauma she endured, but even that is explained with the slow drip of a leaky facet. There is very little that explains how or why she might be capable of navigating the situation she finds herself in.
The same can be said for Henry, whose mysterious backstory proves central to the plot, who is essentially reduced to being the hot sensitive guy. The type of rugged individual who can show up to a fancy establishment looking causal at best and no one cares. Henry may mention feelings of regret for hanging with shady individuals, but the film has no interest in exploring what he means by this or who are the people he is referring to. Furthermore, unlike Jaume Collet-Serra’s Carry-On or Joel Schumacher’s Phone Booth, whose blueprint Drop wraps itself in like warm blanket, the central villain is not the menacing glue that one needs to bind everything together.
Part of the problem is that the villain remains voiceless for most of the film. While the director tries valiantly to come up with creative ways to visualize the messages they send, as well as playing with lighting to emphasize Violet’s increasingly isolated and terrified state, it is hard to get a sense of the person’s tone or personality in one-line texts. This not only creates a distance between the audience and Violet’s tormentor, but also inadvertently exposes the implausibility of the villain’s numerous actions. An example of the latter is found in the “duck salad” sequence which comes off as silly rather than bone chilling.
The lack of intriguing interplay with the villain, and the predictable nature of the plot, dilute the taut waters this high concept thriller desperately wants to swim in.
The one bright spot in Drop is the humour woven into the film. Landon has plenty of fun with Violet’s attempts to juggle various balls in the air with one hand tied behind her back. While Fahy is charming in the lead and does the best with what little she is given to work with, the material is simply not strong enough to aid in the heavy lifting she must do.
Christopher Landon has shown with films like Happy Death Day and Freaky that he knows how to effectively blend humour with solid chills. Unfortunately, this film fails to reach the level of fun and dread of those works. Drop may be intrigued by fear and vulnerability associated with first dates but it has no interest in moving past the surface of things.
