Drop is a good movie with a bad ending. The first hour and fifteen minutes deliver a crafty, tense and exciting tech-centric thriller that makes great use of its single location. While the final fifteen minutes don’t entirely derail the experience, they’re a jarring drop in quality and logic, which left a somewhat bitter taste in my mouth.
We’ve all been on a bad date before, but having your family held hostage while you’re being used as a puppet to carry out nefarious acts… that’s a whole different level of bad date. Meghann Fahy plays Violet - a single mother on a first date in a fancy high rise restaurant. She begins receiving sinister anonymous picture drops to her phone, threatening her loved ones if she doesn’t comply with demands. She can’t let her date (Brendan Sklenar), or anyone else in the restaurant know what’s going on, trying to maintain her composure under the crushing pressure.
This movie has been coined a Hitchcockian thriller for the modern tech generation, and for the most part, I’d agree with that. It’s a relatively simple premise that maintains a taught level of suspense. It keeps you hooked and wondering how Violet is going to navigate and escape this impossible situation she’s been put in. However, Hitchcock knew how to stick the landing, which is where the comparison to his work ends. For whatever reason, the film felt the need to abandon the nail-biting game of cat and mouse in favour of a very big, very dumb finale. Character actions become nonsensical, and the tension is almost entirely lost in the process.
Despite a weak final 10%, the 90% of the movie leading up to is more than solid. Christopher Landon’s playful and creative direction keeps the single location from growing stale. Having text messages appear on screen has obviously been done before, but little flourishes like words reflecting in a bathroom mirror, or Violet’s home security feed taking up space on the wall - they’re nice touches. Landon also plays with lighting to capture Violet’s sense of isolation, as well as highlighting key focal points within a scene. Fahy is also really good, conveying a true sense of fear and panic as Violet tries to keep her nerves in check.
Drop is a 3 and a half star thriller with a 2 star finale. Thankfully, Christopher Landon’s inspired direction, a fun premise and Meghann Fahy’s committed performance maintain enough tension to keep the film from plunging into bad movie territory.
3/5
Review by: Benjamin Garrett