Happy Death DayandFreakydirector Christopher Landonpushes another familiar genre premise to satisfyingly absurd heights in his latest film,Drop. Co-stars Meghann Fahy and Brandon Sklenar are game forthe delightfully bonkers thriller, which turns the horrifying experience of dating as a woman into a literal fight for survival.
Following the death of her abusive husband, Violet (Fahy) has become a successful therapist who treats victims of domestic violence. Given her traumatic past and the demands of raising a cartoonishly adorable kid, Violet (understandably) hasn’t been on a date in years. After exchanging DMs with a nice photographer named Henry (Sklenar) for a few months, Violet agrees to a first date at a bougie restaurant atop a massive high-rise with killer views.
Within minutes of arriving, their date is already on thin ice: Henry is running late, Violet is worried about her kid, and their server (Jeffrey Self) is a hilarious composite of every bad-waiter cliché. And then Violet receives a series of AirDrops (or “DigiDrops,” as they’re called inDrop-world) with threatening memes from an unknown sender. As her stalker quickly reveals, not only can he see and hear everything Violet does, but he’s also sent a masked assailant with a gun to hold her son and her sister hostage until she kills her poor date, Henry. Making matters worse, Violet can’t clue Henry or anyone else into what’s going on, or her family will die.
A widowed mother’s first date in years takes a terrifying turn when she’s bombarded with anonymous threatening messages on her phone during their upscale dinner, leaving her questioning if her charming date is behind the harassment.
Dropsucceeds in large part because it takes its absurd premise so seriously and sees it all the way through to the end, reminiscent of some of the best ’90s thrillers in the“Strong Female Lead” sub-genre:Double Jeopardy,The Hand That Rocks the Cradle,Sliver, et al. Landon is mostly successful in recontextualizing the classic domestic thriller for the modern era, making every theme and plot turn simultaneously more exaggerated and more literal.
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Dropis the cinematic equivalent of theviolent stick figure meme. You know the one: a stick figure is committing various indeterminate acts of violence, with a caption in the middle that usually reads something like, “Girls with ADHD when the deadline hits.” In relation toDrop, the caption would be, “Girls when dating is literally fighting for your life.” That comparison feels apt given that memes play such a pivotal role in kicking off an over-the-top plot that sees Violet forced to navigate an increasingly treacherous date without tipping Henry off.
Too Many Women Can Relate to ‘Drop’
And whileDropis in many ways ridiculous, it’s grounded by Fahy’s deft portrayal of an experience that women unfortunately have far too often. Whether it’s being stuck in an Uber with a guy who won’t stop coming on to you, or realizing you’re on a date with a vile misogynist, the basic survival response is essentially the same. We’re forced to navigate potentially deadly situations with discretion – not for the sake of our would-be assailant, but to protect ourselves and possibly our loved ones from harm. We have to improvise, wisely choosing when and how to placate the aggressor, lest we make him angrier and more dangerous.
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Women have to manage the emotions of volatile men (to say nothing of the ways in which women have been socialized to manage the emotional needs of regular men), subtly steering them toward an opening for our escape. We have to know when to sit still, when to fight back, and when to run, and we have to be able to identify potential threats in the most mundane situations. Nine times out of 10, that guy jogging behind you on the trail is harmless, but it’s the 10th time that matters. By the end ofDrop, Violet’s experience speaks to not just what it’s like for a heterosexual woman to go on a date, but to interact with many men in general.
All the same, if we consider Henry’s perspective, Violet’s behavior is odd and erratic; she’s weirdly elusive, distracted by her phone, and seems to be hiding something. Her mood and desires appear to change without warning. We can tell Henry is a “good” guy because he doesn’t react the way a “bad” one might. He’s patient and understanding, almost to a fault, and he consistently respects Violet’s feelings. And that’s whereDropencounters some trouble.
‘Drop’ Is the Right Movie at the Wrong Time
It’s impossible to divorce a contemporary film likeDropfrom the current sociopolitical reality in which we live, especially when it’s exploring familiar social dynamics in a world nearly identical to our own. The very first thing we see inDropis Violet’s face: terrified, battered, bloody, sobbing, and begging her abusive husband for her life. This harrowing moment is revisited a couple of times over the course of the film, and screenwriters Jillian Jacobs and Christopher Roach (Fantasy Island,Truth or Dare) use it as both an exposition mechanism and to bring Violet’s story full circle for a moment of hard-won empowerment. It’s just that, given the increasingly patriarchal and oppressive climate in the United States for people who aren’t straight, white, and male, these scenes are a tough watch.
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So much of Violet’s identity and the film’s plot hinges on her being abused and subsequently re-traumatized for the sake of narrative entertainment. I couldn’t help but think of M. Night Shyamalan’sSplit, in which Anya Taylor-Joy fills a similar role as a young woman whose past experience of violent trauma is crucial to her survival, right down to her ability to navigate the volatile emotions of a man (or several men, as it were).
Despite the antagonist of that film being a man who kills women, it doesn’t feel as rooted in gender essentialism asDrop– which isn’t to say that Landon’s film is malicious, just maybe released at an uncomfortable moment in time. Our protagonist is a battered wife who has to overcome past trauma to compensate for her perceived failings as a mother, over the course of an evening centered around a handsome man who’s “one of the good ones.” Everything about this character and the choices she makes is dependent upon her gender.
Is that inherently wrong? No, but two things can be true at once:Dropis a surprisingly effective update to the sort of classic thrillers Hollywood rarely makes anymore, and the depiction of its heroine is occasionally troublesome. That said, beat for beat,Dropis one of the most consistently entertaining genre films of the year so far, and that’s no small feat.Drophits theaters on July 03, 2025, from Universal Pictures.
