Drop movie review: Meghann Fahy stressful thriller is a throwback to the 90s

If the Sydney media screening was anything to go by, there may be a generation gap when it comes to appreciating the zany thrills of Drop.

The under-30s? They weren’t so into the movie’s trashy fun and heightened antics. But if you’re old enough to remember the unhinged, suspend-your-disbelief thrillers of the 1990s, Drop is an entertaining throwback.

There is a version of this film that could’ve been released three decades ago, probably with Julia Roberts, Sandra Bullock or Ashley Judd in the lead. The delivery device might have been different but the story engine and the vibes would’ve been similar.

Directed by Christopher Landon and released by Blumhouse, Drop is, if nothing else, gripping. It really puts you through the paces with its central puzzle and amped up tension, and is well-timed at a brisk 90 minutes.

But there is something else, a bunch of something elses. Being stressful does not carry a movie, it has to give you something to be stressed out about. Here, it’s Meghann Fahy’s Violet Gates, a domestic abuse survivor who is about to go on her first date in years.

The emotional stakes are obvious. Violet is still traumatised from her past experiences and she’s also been out of “the game” for so long. Her confidence is shot, her anxiety is spiked. It might just be a date, but for Violet, it represents nothing less than the question of whether she is able to trust someone again.

The date is Henry (Brandon Sklenar), a photographer who works for the mayor’s office. He seems like a nice, normal guy, someone who was understanding about the fact it’s taken three months of exchanges on an app before Violet agreed to an in-person meet-up.

They meet for dinner at a super fancy fine dining restaurant on the highest floor of a Chicago high-rise. The mood is opulence – and it’s very extra for a first date.

Not long after Violet arrives, she’s sent threatening messages on her phone via Airdrop (but called digi-drops in the film because surely Apple would object, given it has a rule that villain character cannot be seen using an iPhone).

At first, she dismisses them but the danger escalates quickly when the mysterious sender tells her to check her surveillance cameras. There is a masked intruder inside her home, where her young son and her sister are right now.

The playbook is simple – tell anyone, including the police, and they’re dead, leave the restaurant and they’re dead, do what I say or they’re dead. It’s an oft-used plot device, recently in the Netflix action-thriller Carry-On, but it’s one that works.

The malicious sender has to be someone within the range of the restaurant (pro tip: don’t pay attention to the order of the actors’ names in the opening credits, it’s a bit of a giveaway) and the paranoia adds more tension to Violet’s night.

Most of Landon’s work has been in the horror space (Paranormal Activity 2, 3 and 4, Happy Death Day), so he knows a thing or two about timing, and when to dial it up and when to offer a moment of reprieve. It’s why Drop is able to sustain its intensity.

Fahy is the real gem here though. She is so effective at drawing on reserves of compassion for Violet and when the camera holds her in close-up and her eyes are welling with tears talking about her struggles, or when they pop out of fear, she’s bringing you along with her.

By framing Violet’s current predicament within the context of her ongoing trauma is an interesting choice. It sets up a parallel that gives her the opportunity to reclaim the control she felt she lost.

But some of the violence in an opening scene set in the past with her abusive husband, which is deliberately mirrored later on, comes on unnecessarily strong. In a film that’s moving at the pace Drop is, it misses some of the nuance around her experience.

Drop is certainly cheesy and outlandish at times, you’ll even roll your eyes once or twice. But like the most thrilling of those 90s flicks, you’ll never be bored.

Rating: 3/5

Drop is in cinemas on April 17

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