Drop

Date Expectations

Drop
Directed by Christopher Landon
USA/Ireland 2025
Blumhouse
UK Cinema Release Print

I have to admit, I saw the abominable trailer for Drop and decided to give the movie a wide berth, even thought it’s directed by Christopher Landon, who made the brilliant Happy Death Day (reviewed here), Happy Death Day 2U (reviewed here) and Freaky (reviewed here). However, I then found out the score is by one of my favourite living composers, Bear McCreary (who I am seeing in concert a the O2 in London in four days from now) and, yeah, I don’t see or watch many of the projects to which he’s attached so it seemed worth it to go and check this out for the music.

I was not disappointed, either. And when I say that I mean... I was really surprised because, the trailer made it look like a thriller relying on a very old, clichéd plot which, to be fair... it absolutely is.

The story set up is about a domestic abuse survivor called Violet (played brilliantly here by Meghann Fahy) who, after a year or two, leaves her young son (played by Jacob Robinson) in the care of her sister (played by Violett Beane) at home while she goes on her first date in a very long time. So she meets her prospective ‘match’ at a very expensive, high up in a skyscraper restaurant but, soon she starts getting message drops on her phone showing her house broken into and the lives of her son and sister under threat... with increasingly intimidating instructions that she must kill her date (played by Brandon Sklenar) before the night is out. So, yeah, told you it was an old plot. The last time I remember this being done just recently was the 2018 movie The Commuter with Liam Neeson (reviewed here) and, yeah, I really wasn’t looking forward to this for the story, for sure.

But, as I said above, this one surprised me. I mean, it’s one thing to be revisiting the same tired old ground but it’s quite another when the execution of the concept and the way in which the film is directed, shot and edited is so immaculate and gripping, as this one is. For example, the phone drops are presented as texts which are superimposed with the correct perspective onto various elements of the photographic compositions as the restaurant bound protagonists go about their business. Which is nicely done, for sure (and I bet there were some hard choices made by the director about placement and duration made with these on screen messages).  

But the real brilliance of the film is the sweeping photography, taken from various unusual angles to push the story along. Now, I rarely use the term Hitchcockian for many modern movies made past the 1990s but, this one certainly would earn that title. This does look and feel like something Alfred Hitchcock would probably enjoy if he saw it and I don’t even mean that in a second-hand Brian De Palma way, which would be stylish enough. This one just felt like something Hitch would possibly do or, as I said, certainly approve of.

And the acting on this one really holds up too, which certainly helps push the cinematography and shot design into ‘great’ rather than ‘good’ territory. Fahy and Sklenar really help sell this as two innocents who are fighting for their lives (one of them not even aware of what is going on) and the chemistry between them is so good that it really sells the idea that these two people are just wanting to go on a fun date. And their co-stars are very good in this too, with special shout outs to Gabrielle Ryan and Reed Diamond in this.

And then there’s that Bear McCreary score. I hope this one, someday, gets a proper, physical CD release so I can hear it as a stand alone piece (and not the stupid digital only version which I won’t be downloading) because it’s really incredible and supports the visuals in the best way. He’s not pulling a Bernard Herrmann here, which is a direction he certainly might have gone in and it would have been valid... but it does have the kind of sweeping tones which, while being completely contemporary sounding, a 1950s suspense movie might have had and it really complimented, supported and enhanced things very nicely.

So yeah, that’s me done and extremely surprised by Christopher Landon’s Drop. My expectations were low but I really had a good time with this one and will certainly be picking up a Blu Ray when it becomes available so I can show my folks. Catch this one at the cinema if you can because it looks great on a big screen.