By DEIRDRE CRIMMINS
Starring Meghann Fahy, Brandon Sklenar and Violett Beane
Directed by Christopher Landon
Written by Jillian Jacobs and Chris Roach
Universal/Blumhouse
Telephones can be creepy. Rather, phones allow the person on the other end of the line to bring terror by threatening from afar, which is a whole new layer of potential cinematic fear. When a Stranger Calls and Phone Booth both use landlines, which require a specific location to tether their victims to a specific place. Now the cell phone, and particularly the smartphone, have added in all new facets of torment and menace. DROP takes this tension and control into one of the already terrifying situations humans experience: the first date.
Violet (Meghann Fahy, who is great in the second season of White Lotus) is about to go out on a first date after meeting a cute, seemingly compatible, gentleman on the apps. Just about any rational person would be nervous in this situation, but Violet is even more so, thanks to her traumatic previous relationship. With help from her precocious and adorable son and supportive sister (Violett Beane), she heads into the city to meet this man IRL for the first time. But with Christopher Landon directing, nothing will be as simple as a meet-and-greet. The man who gave us Happy Death Day, Freaky and Scouts Guide to the Apocalypse, wrote Heart Eyes and more Paranormal Activity films than not, is proving to be one of horror’s most consistent and bankable filmmakers.
Violet meets handsome Henry (Brandon Sklenar) at an upscale, high-floor bar in what the film wants us to pretend is Chicago. But before he arrives, she gets some strange memes data dropped to her phone by an unknown person. The messages and image drops continue and begin to escalate in their intimidation. Soon Violet realizes the threats are real, and they are personal.
Though the phone in question is a smart phone, the threats keep Violet tethered to her seat in the restaurant. On top of that, she knows that her tormentor must be close. With data drops, the two phones must be within a small radius of one another, which means she is being watched very closely. This locked location keeps DROP feeling like an old-fashioned chamber piece, even though it utilizes much more developed technology.
As the drops turn to texts, Violet gets creative in hiding her predicament from her date and her server. In a stellar stylistic choice, Landon chooses to have the texts displayed in the frame as if they were billboards or marquees projected in the restaurant, rather than the standard pop-up blocks of obvious chats. Not only is it interesting to see, particularly when a character interacts with the letters without awareness, but it also gives greater weight to what Violet is going through. She cannot escape these oppressive communication bites, and neither can the audience.
Overall, the performances in DROP are solid and do much of the work within the film to maintain tension. There is so much dialogue, both spoken and texted, and with that the film relies heavily on watching how each character is processing their individual experiences in the restaurant that night. DROP is nearly completely dependent on Fayh’s performance, and she acts the hell out of it. Violet is balancing the date, unending threats that must be kept secret and sleuthing her way to solve the mystery all before the appetizers even come out, and she is phenomenal. Jeffery Self also deserves a mention as the improv-fanatic waiter whose reactions are hilarious with perfect timing. As he is watching evening unfold, he keeps it light and focuses on upselling, which is a needed levity against the reality Violet is facing.
While the tight action and focused location work in the film’s favor, it suffers a bit when it comes to exposition. Watching and reading the drama play out, moment by moment, works and keeps the audience invested, but after all of that, certain explanations within the plot do not seem to match one another. That is to say, in a world where nothing is a coincidence, DROP crafts some fairly significant coincidences and asks them to be accepted at face value. Having it both ways is a lot to expect, and the result is a plot that is not as watertight as it claims to be.
DROP is fun and fast, with smart characters and a great performance from Fahy. Though it certainly is not perfect, it moves so quickly that you might never notice the faults.
