With nonstop suspense, ‘Drop’ is a masterfully crafted thriller that would make Hitchcock proud

PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Worst first date ever.

Synopsis

Drop follows Violet (Meghann Fahy), a widowed single mother raising her son Toby (Jacob Robinson) after the death of her abusive husband. Ready to get back out there, Violet goes on a date with Henry (Brandon Sklenar), but the date quickly goes south when Violet gets mysterious and threatening text messages that command her to do one thing: kill Henry, or her son dies.

My thoughts

A tiny subgenre of movies that never seems to get that much attention is the “telephone thriller” movie. I guess that’s because there aren’t really that many of them, to begin with, but every now and then, a screenwriter will come around to center a thriller movie around a telephone. Either the characters can’t hang up the phone or keep getting harassed with calls, but whichever way you look at it, the phone is driving the plot.

The thing is, most of these phone-centric movies wind up getting pretty silly when the filmmakers are forced to contrive suspenseful situations to keep the whole phone gimmick into play. Not to mention the way cell phones, and tech in general, are presented in most movies often come off as tacky, which saps any suspense from a horror or thriller film.

Mind your screen time

When you think about it, it’s kind of funny that cell phones are so ubiquitous in modern culture, yet many filmmakers seem to still struggle with accurately portraying them onscreen. I’m not sure why it’s so difficult, as plenty of movies have done it well, so just copy those, right? However, some filmmakers are in touch with the times and know how to exploit tech to a movie’s advantage, making us realistically feel that something like this could happen to us.

Drop is a vintage telephone thriller for the modern age where it’s not just harassing text messages, but now the villain is sending drops in the form of threatening memes. The way smartphone tech like airdrops and home surveillance are accurately portrayed, even if they don’t have product placement branding to show for it. Everything about this simply works, down to Violet logically not knowing who in the restaurant to suspect, as everybody is glued to their phones nowadays.

Christopher Landon, of Happy Death Day and Freaky fame, served as director here, coming onto this project after exiting the nightmarish production that was Scream 7. While I was initially bummed that Landon wasn’t going to be leaving his mark on the Scream franchise, the fact that we ended up getting this out of him more than makes up for it. However, Landon was unable to write the screenplay for Drop because of this.

I think that Landon coming onto this project after the screenplay was already written is the biggest strength of this film because it allowed him to give the direction the undivided attention it deserved. This doesn’t just result in Landon’s strongest and most visually interesting directorial work yet, but a new suspenseful thriller for the ages. Drop is both modern and slick, but also delightfully old-fashioned in that it just gets in, does the job, and gets out.

Seriously, this feels like a modern Hitchcock movie with its pulpy premise, stunning shot compositions, and strong character-driven performances. Once the general idea of Violet receiving the drops and then needing to kill Henry is introduced, it’s full-on tension for the rest of the tight 100-minute runtime. In true Blumhouse fashion, this is a low-budget affair with few actors and sets, but unlike a majority of Blumhouse horrors and thrillers, this is never once boring.

Better left unread than dead

It’s impressive how much tension Landon and screenwriter Jillian Jacobs and Christopher Roach are able to squeeze out of such a limited idea and setting. Aside from the first and last few minutes, basically, the entire movie takes place in the restaurant as Violet tries to figure out who’s texting her and keeps Henry oblivious to the situation. Every time her phone dings, her heart sinks again, although I was giggling because this texting villain was just so dastardly.

If you’re giggling like I was, it definitely seems that was the intent of the filmmakers. This is no doubt tense and exciting, but also hilarious. Since we’re in the restaurant basically the entire time, the rising and falling suspense is masterfully paced with some perfect comic relief to break it up. Jeffrey Self as Matt the waiter stole the show with impeccable comic timing and delivery.

Even if the characters are mostly just sitting at a table and looking at phones, Landon and cinematographer Marc Spicer keep it all visually engaging. Long, Steadicam tracking shots, bird’s eye views, Dutch angles, heavy soft focus, and so much more. Even the way they present the text messages has some style with the text appearing in gigantic letters all over the environment, like the bad guy is some oppressive billboard Violet can’t escape.

The shot composition and use of lighting were particularly striking, carefully used to maximize both the thrills and the laughs. I was cracking up when Violet’s head was darting around the room analyzing for suspects, each person blasting with harsh, direct lighting on their face. In an appropriate contrast, though, when the camera slowly zooms out and leaves Violet as the one brightly lit thing surrounded by darkness, you can really feel the hopelessness of her predicament.

The actors are the ones here who have to sell it all onscreen, and Meghann Fahy and Brandon Sklenar are a charming pair of leads with great chemistry. There isn’t really a whole lot to their characterizations, but it’s enough to serve this kind of movie, with their engaging personalities going a long way in making them likable. That says a lot about Sklenar’s charisma, as he’s one of the prime suspects here!

Meghann Fahy had her work cut out for her, too, as her character needs to play it cool and not lead Henry on to what’s really happening, but still showing fear and concern for her son. There’s a constant state of panic she tries to keep hidden behind her eyes, which could easily be chalked up to first-date jitters to anybody else. We know she’s terrified, though, with Fahy conveying Violet’s past trauma of abuse rearing its ugly head as this first date gone wrong triggers horrific memories.

Final verdict

I’m honestly surprised as to how well-crafted the script for Drop is because when you look at the previous credits of Jacobs and Roach, it doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. Truth or Dare and Fantasy Island are both pretty awful, not to mention both writers come from a reality TV background. Drop definitely gets a tad too overwrought in the final ten minutes where it creeps into laughably stupid territory (I was getting Red Eye flashbacks), but Jacobs and Roach actually tell a pretty decent character-driven story with themes of domestic abuse logically weaved through.

Don’t get me wrong, Drop isn’t high art or anything, which is something Landon and everybody else involved seems keenly aware of. This is complete schlock, but it’s quality schlock with legitimate talent and artistic intent behind it. Landon, Jacobs, and Roach all made their best movie yet, embracing the cheese and milking this idea for all its worth to amazing effect. These 100 minutes flew by without an ounce of fluff to slow it down.

Or, to put it into simple text message terms that I would send to my friends: You have to go see the movie Drop. It is SO awesome.