Christopher Landon’s ‘Drop’ Is A Good Thriller, But Has One Fatal Flaw

The problem with most modern horror and thrillers? They don’t take technology seriously.

So many problems could be solved with our phones. But what if it’s the phone that’s the problem? That’s the question new thriller Drop asks. What if you’re out to dinner and get a drop to your phone from some random? And the drops get more and more sinister with every ping of your phone. You could turn it off, sure, but that becomes infinitely more impossible when the safety of your family is on the line. But does all this tech-themed intrigue make for a good movie? For the most part, yes, but with one key problem.

What is Drop about?

Violet is going on a date for the first time in years, and she’s done everything she can to feel as comfortable with the situation as possible. And Henry, her date, certainly seems awesome. (And handsome, let’s be real.) But, as she enters the gorgeous rooftop restaurant overlooking the city, she gets a meme dropped anonymously to her phone. At first it’s nothing alarming. They’re the memes you’d see on Facebook, including Brittany Broski’s kombucha meme.

But, as Violet begins her date, the drops become more targeted and sinister, and Henry tries to figure out where they’re coming from. Soon, she has to keep the messages to herself. Why? Because the culprit has access to her home security cameras, and an armed, masked man is only feet away from her son. How will she get out of this mess?

What works?

While the concept of Drop, and the name itself, may feel like a gimmick, it’s done well enough that you forget how silly it might be. Since the suspect pool is reduced to this single restaurant, it often feels more like a murder mystery than a high-stakes action thriller. Plus, with clever camerawork and a heroin who tries her damnedest to get out of this alive, it makes for a fun visit to the movie theater.

Some of the success can be attributed to director Christopher Landon, who has a large group of horror favorites under his belt already. He’s most known for his work writing gems like Freaky (2020) and the recent Heart Eyes (2025) and directing bops like Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse (2015) and Happy Death Day (2017). As you can see from his filmography, he excels at marrying fear and humor, which shows in Drop as well.

Also, shoutout to Meghann Fahy, who plays Violet. This role comes with a large burden as most of what plays on screen is all about her and her reactions to what she finds on her phone. She did a great job arresting my attention.

What’s Drop’s fatal flaw?

As the credits rolled, I couldn’t help but realize that, although I had a good time watching Drop, the story still felt hollow. I knew only surface level things about all the characters–and considering there were only a few, that’s a feat in itself. You might attribute the lack of character depth or growth to the fact that the story only takes place over one evening, but there are plenty of movies that happen in a day where you really get to know the characters. (Empire Records and The Breakfast Club, for example.)

Rather, I think Drop’s shallow depth could be attributed to a larger problem in filmmaking in general right now. As people are more and more glued to their phones, production companies are making their stories more easily digestible. An article at Fast Company speaks about how services like Netflix are purposefully dumbing down their plots so that viewers can still understand what’s going on in their shows and movies even as they scroll absent-mindedly through TikTok at the same time.

Is Drop’s easy-to-follow, shallow storyline a result of the public’s lack of attention? Maybe, but that doesn’t make it hate the idea any less. While I liked the movie overall, I can’t help but think it would be infinitely better if it’d had more depth.

Watch Drop in theaters now.