Drop (15)

Single mother Violet has slowly pieced her life together following the death of her abusive partner. After three months of exchanging messages with press photographer Henry, Violet agrees to go on a first date at a swanky high-rise restaurant while younger sister Jen babysits her son Toby. During the meal, Violet receives a series of strange messages including a video of a masked man with a gun at her home, who will murder Jen and Toby unless the single mother does exactly as instructed.

LondonNet Film Review

Drop (15) Film Review from LondonNet

Happy Death Day director Christopher Landon’s high-stakes thriller does just enough with its simple and ingenious premise and that’s more than enough to hold our attention in a vice-like grip for 95 delicious, nerve-jangling minutes. Set predominantly inside an impeccably designed fine dining restaurant called Palate with breathtaking views of the Chicago skyline at night, Drop orchestrates a deadly game of cat and mouse between an emotionally scarred single mother and an unseen aggressor during a trepidatious first romantic date…

Screenwriters Jillian Jacobs and Chris Roach are ruthlessly efficient with their dramatic set-up, serving just enough back story and heart-tugging cuteness to have us rooting for Meghann Fahy’s heroine as she plays a hi-tech battle of wits with a merciless adversary, who can access the restaurant’s security cameras and sees and hears her every movement and word. The whodunnit element of Landon’s picture is deeply satisfying. Suspicion shifts between supporting characters to cast everyone in a distrustful light.

Artful misdirection and bluffs build to a frenetic and bloodthirsty finale that doles out violence first to women and a cherubic child. Drop practises equality with bullets and fists. Fahy delivers a compelling and emotionally engaging lead performance and she generates palpable on-screen sparks with co-star Brandon Sklenar, last seen in It Ends With Us.

Single mother Violet (Fahy) has slowly pieced her life together after the death of her abusive partner (Michael Shea) from a fatal gunshot wound. After three months of exchanging messages with press photographer Henry (Sklenar), Violet agrees to go on a first date at a swanky high-rise restaurant while younger sister Jen (Violett Beane) babysits her son Toby (Jacob Robinson). During the meal, Violet receives a series of strange messages on the DigiDrop app, which requires the unknown sender to be no more than 50 feet away.

One communication reveals a masked man with a gun at her home, who will murder Jen and Toby unless the single mother does exactly as instructed. Unable to seek help from Henry or anyone in the restaurant, Violet races against the clock to deduce her tormentor from possible suspects including a bartender (Gabrielle Ryan), the restaurant’s hostess (Sarah McCormack), an effusive waiter (Jeffery Self), the sleazy pianist (Ed Weeks), a bumbling blind dater (Reed Diamond) and a lone diner (Travis Nelson), who claims to be waiting for his sister.

Drop delivers on its promise with confidence and style, nimbly dodging a couple of plot holes in the moment that only become glaring in hindsight. The script sticks largely to its sadistic logic and milks fat droplets of tension from Violet’s skin-crawling discomfort. Action-oriented flourishes in the closing act exert the greatest strain on credibility but by that point, we’re sufficiently invested to go with the crazy flow.

– Kim Hu