What do you do when you are a widowed mom getting back into the dating scene, and while you are on your first date, you receive random texts telling you to kill said date, or else whoever will kill your kid? This is what Christopher Landon (Happy Death Day 2017, Freaky 2020) presents in his latest offering, Drop, which arrived in theaters on April 11, 2025, through Universal Pictures and Blumhouse, before becoming available for streaming as of July 11, 2025, through Peacock.
Starring Meghann Fahy (The Bold Type series, The White Lotus series) as Violet Gates, Brandon Sklenar (The Offer mini-series, Westworld series) as Henry Campbell, Violett Beane (The Flash series, Death and Other Details series) as Jen Gates, Jacob Robinson (in his debut) as Toby Gates (Violet’s son), and Ed Weeks (Man Stroke Woman series, The Mindy Project series) as Phil (an in-house pianist). Drop also features production from the likes of Landon, Michael Bay (Armageddon 1998, Transformers 2007), Brad Fuller (The Purge 2013, A Quiet Place 2018), and Cameron Fuller (The Last Ship series, The Girl in the Woods series).
Written by Jillian Jacobs and Chris Roach (who both worked on 2018’s Truth of Dare 2018 and 2020’s Fantasy Island), the opening gets us right into the action as Violet has a gun pointed at her head with her husband standing over her. He gives her the weapon, telling her to off him, calling her bluff. We see her finger on the trigger, and a click as the screen goes black. Then, we jump to the present day.
Whereas Landon’s previous offerings have mixed Horror and Comedy, Drop is straight-up psychological, with very little Comedy. The film delves deep into the psychology of survival, control, and digital manipulation. Let’s break these down.
From the cold opening, we can infer that Violet’s a survivor of abuse and the fallout from having to end the abuse permanently for her and her infant son. By regaining her confidence, she is re-entering the dating scene. It shows how “fish out of water” she feels, but she is determined to see it through, if for no other reason than to say she did it.
However, as she settles into her date, she starts receiving unsettling memes from the “DigiDrop” app, which lets her know she is being watched. Here, Landon has already had Violet at least bump into the key players, so that anyone can be a suspect. Oh, and the scene is in a high-rise restaurant, so there is no escape.
It is no secret that this generation is tethered to their phones. Asking Copilot, in 2023, 3,275 people were killed in crashes involving distracted drivers. Cell phone use was involved in 12% of all car accidents in the U.S.. Drivers now spend an average of 1 minute and 38 seconds per hour on their phones while driving—a 30% increase since early 2020. Even a 5-second glance at your phone while going 55 mph means you have traveled the length of a football field without looking. All of this said, Landon utilized the digital age (which is not entirely negative) to discuss how digital tools can be used to isolate, manipulate, and control, in this case, in an otherwise intimate setting.
If the memes were not bad enough, she starts getting texts with threats against her kid if she does not off her date, harkening back to abused days where every choice had consequences and those consequences were her fault regardless. However, she is removed enough from them and has had time to find herself, so even though she is scared, she is resourceful, if not for herself, then for her son. This brings us to the power play the random texts have on her, who is sending them, and why.
With this said, the acting is straight, except for Jeffery Self’s Matt, who brings levity to the proceedings…and could be a red herring. Furthermore, Gabrielle Ryan plays Cara, the street-smart eyes of the restaurant bar server, brilliantly as she pops in periodically to check in with Violet.
Overall, Drop performed relatively well in theaters and received mostly positive feedback from both critics and the general public alike. Anyway you cut it, Drop is a fun that is quite a bit of fun, and that is why Cryptic Rock gives it 5 out of 5 stars.
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