Don Reviews "Drop"

I will admit it: I can be slow in accepting new forms of technology at times.  For instance, I cannot truly tell you how long it took me to finally get a DVD player and give up on VHS and I still have trouble sending Tweets.  Now when I was shown a new technology of sending a “drop” message, I am still trying to figure that one out, so in seeing the new film Drop, I was curious to see if I could keep up.

Directed by Christopher Landon (Happy Death Day), this film stars Meghann Fahy, Brandon Sklenar, Violett Beane, Jacob Robinson, Reed Diamond, Jeffrey Self, and Gabrielle Ryan.  Single mother Violet (Fahy) goes on a first date with Henry (Sklenar), and as the evening unfolds Violet starts getting “drop” messages on her phone from some unknown person.  The more messages she receives, the more twisted things become as a masked person is shown in her house stating her child and her sister who is babysitting will be killed if she does not follow their instructions without letting anyone know what is happening.  This cat-and-mouse game even includes secretly killing her date, so she sets out on a question to stop all of these things from happening.

Drop is set in Chicago but actually filmed in Ireland, and while the majority of the film takes place in the restaurant, the overall look here works out very well.  In a way, the restaurant itself becomes its own character, just like the train in Snowpiercer.  When it comes to the performances, the Fahy and Sklenar have good chemistry and really sold the first-date dynamic.  I do have to give a shout out to some of the supporting cast like Ryan, Beane, and Self, whose characters and performance added to my overall enjoyment.

Overall, I loved this film with its amount of twists and turns.  Drop really is a thinking-man’s film, and I did not expect that.  Yes, this film is a Blumhouse production, but it’s thrilling elements are more psychological than visual, which they are also known for, making it more of a rollercoaster than normal.    I really like how they have a premise of some past films but added today’s tech.  It runs about one hundred minutes and is paced well, keeping its suspension of disbelief in check.  The only issue I have is in the end where it kind of changes direction and could have been done better., so I will recommend it as a weekend showing in the theaters.